Plant nurseries are exacerbating the climate-driven spread of 80% of invasive species Researchers have provided detailed maps of how 144 common invasive plant species will react to 2° Celsius of climate change in the eastern U.S., as well as the role that garden centers currently play in seeding future invasions. Colonizing Plants: How Bougainvillea Conquered the World Shahnaz Habib on the Relationship Between Colonialism, Natural Science and Travel. Tiny Forest at Lyndhurst Community of Faith Church may have big benefits When I visited the beautiful native pollinator garden at the Lyndhurst C ..read more

Lebanon’s Christians feel the heat of climate change in its sacred forest and valley For Lebanon’s Christians, the cedars are sacred, these tough evergreen trees that survive the mountain’s harsh snowy winters. ‘Pocket Prairie’ project restores native Nebraska plants to unused spaces Making use of bland, empty spaces. That’s what an Omaha organization is doing around the metro, with hopes to expand across other parts of the Great Plains. “Pocket Prairies” is what they’re called, and the idea was born and bred by Grasslands Unlimited, an organization whose goal is restoring and protecting gras ..read more

Plant Survey Reveals Alarming Presence of Nonnative Invasive Species in Southwest Ohio A recent plant survey conducted by researchers from University of Cincinnati and the Cincinnati Museum Center has revealed that dozens of nonnative invasive plant species are thriving in southwest Ohio, posing a serious threat to the native biodiversity and economy of the region. Christmas Trees Specially Bred by Geneticists May Eliminate Seasonal Chore Geneticists are working to engineer Christmas trees that result in a lot less vacuuming for you at home. Hard data: looking deep into Indigenous forests Loui ..read more

Listen to this page as an audio file (English only) Wheat is a staple food that provides 20% of all calories and protein worldwide. While the primary objective of wheat selection has been to enhance yield levels to meet the needs of a growing population, ensuring stability in yield production is also of utmost importance. Variability in yield production from year to year have a direct impact on farmers’ income and, particularly for staple crops, contribute to food insecurity at both national and household levels, according to the FAO. Climate change increases yield variability by making the e ..read more

It looks festive, but this invasive tree is infesting NW forests “We were looking for English holly, a cherished Christmas symbol that is threatening biodiversity in the Pacific Northwest. We were there to poison it.” The best forest managers? Indigenous peoples, study says. Scientists suggest that long-term, local governance is the best way to save forests. Do Not Taunt the Native Plants South Bay Parkland Conservancy is taking the protection of native plants VERY seriously. Via @kelson@hyperborea.org on Mastodon. Plant Predators Carnivorous plants have long been important to a balanced ecosy ..read more

If you follow us on Mastodon, LinkedIn, Threads or Twitter, you might have seen us sharing links from botany.fyi. What’s going on? The answer is that we’re preparing for a post-Twitter future for the Week in Botany. The Week in Botany has, for the past few years, been a compilation of links to items on Botany One and to the most popular items being shared on Twitter. It goes out every Monday. Originally, there were ways of automatically tracking what was getting shared on Twitter, and compiling the newsletter was relatively easy. Then Twitter bought the best tool and shut it down, making life ..read more

Listen to this page as an audio file. English only. An efficient root system has an architecture that effectively takes up water and nutrients from the soil and transports them to the shoot. Root architecture is controlled by external aspects like soil water gradients and internal aspects like the quantity of carbohydrates supplied to each individual root tip. Several key factors influence the amount of carbohydrates that reach the roots. These include the amount of carbohydrates being created and used, and how easily the carbohydrates can move through the plant. The ease of carbohydrate movem ..read more

Marine ecosystems around the world are experiencing an influx of non-native species as global trade and traffic increases. Scientists have long studied how factors like shipping contribute to the spread of invasive organisms, but new research by Louise Firth and colleagues, published in Annals of Botany reveals an overlooked player: the humble limpet.  The research team found that the Atlantic brown alga Sargassum muticum, an invasive seaweed widespread in the UK and Europe, has been hitching rides on the backs of common intertidal limpets. By surveying rocky shores and seagrass beds at t ..read more

After colonising the dry land some 470 million years ago, plants have spread throughout the world, and now they can be found on all continents: from the Antarctic pearlwort in the Antarctic Peninsula to the Rhododendrons of the Himalayan ecosystems. Despite this undisputed success, one can imagine that not all places are easy to live in, and, for instance, there are some environments where conditions are so adverse that scientists have decided to call them “extreme environments“. A great example of this kind of environments are inselbergs, which are enormous granite outcrops that protrude in v ..read more

George Stack and colleagues from Cornell University and Colorado State University have demonstrated that cannabinoids like CBD and CBG help defend cannabis plants against herbivores. The new study provides evidence that producing these compounds is evolutionarily beneficial for the plants. The article, published in Horticulture Research, showed that higher cannabinoid concentrations in hemp leaves led to proportionately less damage from insect larvae. This could lead to opportunities to develop better pesticides. Why do plants create cannabinoids? The compounds produced by canna ..read more