I’ve been known to remind my students that just because testing demonstrates presence of e.g. ‘phosphate’ in a soil sample that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s in a form that can be accessed/utilised by plants. And phosphorus (P) is a good example to use because it is one of the essential nutrients that plants need for […]

A close eye on microscopy.

  Arguably, one of humankind’s greatest achievements is agriculture [“the art and science of growing plants and other crops and the raising of animals for food, other human needs, or economic gain”], which in turn is considered to be a major contributing factor to the development of what we optimistically term civilisation *. However, with only […]

Waste coffee grounds can be treated to create a material with a high capacity for methane storage, potentially providing a renewable energy source.

Do faba beans altruistically help maize plants?

Trichomes that are not aligned in a regular pattern on the leaves might help protect them from herbivores.

Plant scientists are essential to help provide solutions to three of the most important current and future threats to mankind’s existence on the planet – food security, water supply and climate change. But as universities close plant biology courses we have to ask: Where are those plant scientists to come from?

Flowering plants have had an intim­ate rela­tion­ship with insects for mil­lions of years. Indeed, this is often cited as an example of co-evolution , par­tic­u­larly with regards to the flowers and their pol­lin­a­tion by the insects. However, this has also given parasites millions of years to adapt too.

Taken at face value that is a pretty daft question. After all, it is well known that chloroplasts are for photosynthesis. True, but what about the chloroplasts in the guard cells (GCCs) of stomata? Chloroplasts in those highly specialised epidermal cells are quite far removed from those of mesophyll cells and presumably not involved in […]

A study of half a million Chinese participants found that those who ate chilli peppers at least twice a week had a 10% reduced mortality rate, while those who consumed them 6-7 days a week had a 14% reduction.

If you can’t wait until next month to get your fix of all that’s best in plant news (yes, in the Annals’ Plant Cuttings column – the one you’re read­ing now!), don’t worry there’s a new source to sat­isfy your crav­ing.

How well will plants – and plant-like organ­isms – func­tion with rising concentrations of levels of atmo­spheric CO₂? And how will the increases in temperatures – asso­ci­ated with cli­mate change/global warm­ing – affect them? Given the import­ance of mar­ine phyto­plank­ton organ­isms to global pro­ductiv­ity, under­stand­ing how those phyto­plank­ters might be impacted by increased CO2 con­cen­tra­tions is of para­mount import­ance.