Mistletoes are very fascinating parasitic plants.  Unlike most common plants, mistletoes grow on the branches of other plants and rely on these “host” plants for water and nutrients. Scientists have been trying to understand why parasitic plants differ in the number of host species parasitised. Like many parasitic plants, mistletoes can parasitise from one to several plant species. A […]

Finding that Amborella trichopoda is sister to the rest of the angiosperms has raised the question of whether it shares certain key functional trait characteristics and plastic responses apparently widespread within the angiosperms at large. With this in mind, Trueba et al. tested the hypothesis that local canopy openness induces plastic responses in Amborella in […]

Female reproductive success in females versus hermaphrodites has been well documented. However, documenting a potential advantage in fertility of male versus hermaphrodite individuals in subdioecious species is also essential for understanding the evolutionary pathway from hermaphroditism toward dioecy via gynodioecy. In a recent study published by Wang et al. in AoB PLANTS, siring success in […]

Climate change is expected to bring warmer temperatures and more variable precipitation patterns worldwide, patterns that will depend on the ability of the world’s flora to take up carbon under these new conditions. In a recent study published in AoB PLANTS, Smith et al. subjected deciduous tree seedlings growing in an old-field ecosystem in Massachusetts, […]

In a recent article published in AoB PLANTS, Schinkel et al. present a study on geographical parthenogenesis, an enigmatic and much disputed phenomenon that involves closely related sexual and apomictic (asexually reproducing) taxa displaying largely divergent distribution patterns. Based on a large sampling of natural populations of Ranunculus kuepferi, their study is the first quantitative, […]

The banana and ginger group, order Zingiberales, is an exceptionally diverse group of primarily tropical plants. Within Zingiberales, the ginger family (Zingiberaceae) is unique in being not only the most species-rich but also the most disparate in terms of their morphology and anatomy, and the only group with a substantial number of species in temperate […]

Climate change has limited the availability of water for irrigating crops throughout many regions of the world. Indeed, current models of climate change predict that arid and semi-arid zones will be places where precipitation will drastically decrease. In this context plant root-associated fungi from ecosystems currently subjected to severe drought conditions could improve the ecophysiological […]

Although aluminium (Al) is toxic for the vast majority of angiosperm plants, high concentrations of Al (i.e., > 1,000 mg·kg-1 dry mass) are found in some plants. In a recent study published in AoB PLANTS, Schmitt et al. investigated the Al accumulation behaviour in the temperate, deciduous species Symplocos paniculata, which belongs to a mainly […]

Root morphological/physiological modifications are important for phosphorus (P) acquisition of plants under P deficiency, but strategies differ among plant species, and detailed studies on the response of maize roots to P deficiency are limited. In a recent study published in AoB PLANTS, Liu et al. compared the mechanisms of root adaptation of maize, white lupin […]

Sexual conflict and its evolutionary consequences are understudied in plants, but the theory of sexual conflict may help explain how selection generates and maintains variability in both plants and animals. In a recent study published in AoB PLANTS, Lankinen and Strandh show that pollen and pistil traits involved in a sexual conflict over timing of […]

Alpine treelines globally may move upslope due to climatic warming. Such movement would initially need seed germination and seedling establishment above current treelines. In a recent study published in AoB PLANTS, Loranger et al. studied these processes experimentally in five common European treeline tree species. Surprisingly, each species responded very differently to moisture and temperature […]

Conservation strategies are urgently needed for widely used tree species. Increasing numbers of species are threatened by overexploitation and their recovery might be poor due to low reproductive success and poor regeneration rates. One of the first steps for any conservation policy should be an assessment of the reproductive biology of the species in question. […]