Despite the probable extinction of closely related sister species and genera, and the evolution of morphological structures as adaptations to changing environmental conditions, they still share basic reproductive traits with other podocarps.

Botanists used virus-induced gene silencing and gene expression experiments to understand the function of brassinosteroid-related transcription factors in Aquilegia coerulea petal spurs.

Botanists find a way to recycle genomic data and contribute to a better characterization of plant biodiversity.

The spatial pattern of stomata is mainly caused by small-scale epidermal competition.

Candidate genes and favourable haplotypes may facilitate marker-based breeding efforts aimed at improving P use efficiency in B. napus.

Terrestrial laser scanners (TLSs) have successfully captured various properties of individual trees and have potential to further increase the quality and efficiency of forest surveys. However, TLSs are limited to line of sight observations, and forests are complex structural environments that can occlude TLS beams and thereby cause incomplete TLS samples. Boucher et al. evaluate […]

Quantifying the Earth’s forest above-ground biomass (AGB) is indispensable for effective climate action and developing forest policy. Yet, current allometric scaling models (ASMs) to estimate AGB suffer several drawbacks related to model selection and uncertainties about calibration data traceability. Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) offers a promising non-destructive alternative. Tree volume is reconstructed from TLS point […]

Botanists find notable genuine genome size variation of up to 1.3-fold between individuals of the same species.

Arthur de Lima Silva and colleagues present a hypothesis of floral evolution for the family, illustrating a shift from bisexuality to unisexuality and the evolution of nectaries in a complex monocot family, which can contribute to future studies on reproductive biology and floral evolution in other groups.

Seeds of the grass species rice (Oryza sativa) serve as the most widely consumed staple food especially in Asia. One of its major threats is Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo), the causal agent of rice bacterial blight, which could severely reduce the production. Ding et al. identify a rice mutant of OsPELO, whose counterparts in […]

Shade-intolerant plants need to be able to grow shoots rapidly. New research shows that the shoots are successful because of preparations below ground.

Annals of Botany will have a Special Issue on Vulnerability to, and management of, plant communities in the face of increased flood risk. The increased likelihood of extreme weather events globally poses a major flood risk. As a result, many coastal and riparian habitats, and the plant communities they contain are now valued for their […]