From Stressed Plants as Good Neighbors to the Genome of a Parasitic Flowering Plant. And the top five most popular tweets of 2021 at HowPlantsWork are: #5 – How plants become good neighbours in times of stress “So how do plants prevent elongated growth under deep shade conditions? The secret lies in…
From Killer Citrus Disease to Driller Plant Roots. In this penultimate episode in counting down the top 25 tweets of HowPlantsWork, we go from #10 to #6. #10 – Researchers find peptide that treats, prevents killer citrus disease “Huanglongbing, HLB, or citrus greening has multiple names, but one ultimate result: bitter…
From “Talking” Trees To The Origin of Plant Hormones. The plant science news of March 2018 began with a recent (but a somewhat unfortunate, in my view) trend of mysticism somehow creeping into scientific studies of plant physiology. (Think plant consciousness. Or that plants possess some sort of “secret wisdom”.)…
No Plant Says “Christmas” Like…. If there’s a plant most associated with Christmas, then, of course, it’s the Christmas tree. What would be in second place? Did you think poinsettia? If so, I suspect most people would agree with you. If you’re looking for a comprehensive website regarding poinsettias (e.g.,…
Plant Growth = Plant Cell Enlargement. The tallest trees in the world are the California coast redwood trees (Sequoia sempervirens), which can grow to over 100 meters (328 feet) tall. That’s higher than a 30-story building. These huge trees can grow so big mainly because their growing cells can enlarge…
On Death and Dicamba. About a year ago the recent controversy over the increased spraying of the herbicide Dicamba on midwest U.S. farms took a turn for the worse. Unfortunately, it involved alleged murder. You can listen to an excellent account of the story here: …and/or read about the story…
A recent story about how some of our Washington state lawmakers hate the sight of dandelions reminded me that it’s time for an encore of this post. Hope you enjoy it….again? Dandelions – Much Maligned. Some people become upset when they see dandelions (please see here, for example). Few plants…
From Flowers That Smell Like Stressed Bees To Corn That Smells Like “Help Me!” October 2016 seemed to feature an unusual number of quirky plant news stories. For example, we previously saw an orchid that smelled like body odor, presumably to attract mosquitos. Now here’s another weird flower smell… “A…
Slurping Sugars The main reason for pruning plants is to stimulate the growth of axillary buds, a.k.a., lateral buds. (Please see previous post.) But why is the growth of axillary buds stimulated by cutting off the terminal (or apical) bud? The most common explanation of this is the long-known, and…
The disclaimer: This is not meant to be an exhaustive review of the recent literature regarding abscission in plants. Instead, think of this as a selection of “recent highlights” (my opinion) in the study of abscission. Let’s focus on three steps of abscission: (1) the development of the abscission zone…