Botany, Taxonomy, Nomenclature

Botanical News

This will be a place to park interesting news about the science of plants that don't fit into any of the other topic pages on the website.

Hard Graft Now Possible

Grafting is a well established horicultural practice with many potential benefits. However, successful connection relies on aligning the cambium tissue, the sub-surface layer in which cell division occurs. Among flowering plants, this requirement has has limited grafting to the group known as the dicotyledons. The monocotyledons, on the other hand, have a quite different internal stem structure and it was believed they could never be grafted. However, a new technique has been invented that makes it possible using embryonic tissue. The researchers have had success with a quite diverse range of monocots including pineapple, banana, onion, tequila agave and date palm. Down the track, it may become practical to utilise grafting to introduce disease resistance or dwarfing into such important economic crops, and maybe even some ornamentals. Besides palms, a huge number of our garden plants are monocots - orchids, flowering bulbs, grasses, gingers, cordylines and philodendrons, to name a few. Source: New grafting technique could combat the disease threatening Cavendish bananas (December 2021)

Roots and Shade

When plants aren't getting enough light, growth is reduced and elongated stems "stretch" towards the light source. We don't usually think about what's happening below ground, but new research has shown that excessive shade has an effect there, too. Roots of both tomato and Arabidopsis were found to be shorter and less developed when light was reduced. This appears to be a specific response associated with the activation of stress genes and possibly involving ethylene (the fruit-ripening gas). It enables the plants to direct more of their limited resources to growth of the light-harvesting parts. In the garden, shaded areas (under eaves, around trees) are often much drier than elsewhere. The inhibition of root growth due to shade could be making it even more difficult for plants to cope than simple observation of the soil would suggest. Home gardeners might also consider how spacing their vegetables too closely might stunt the roots due to mutual shading, even if soil conditions are very good. In this study, the researchers were primarily interested in how crop plants respond to overcrowding, with a view to engineering varieties that can be efficiently produced at higher densities. Source: Why roots don’t grow in the shade (October 2021)

The biggest plant catalog of them all

Four of the world's great botanical gardens are to collaborate on a World Flora, involving a compilation of information on some 400,000 species into an online catalog. It will be built on The Plant List, a database of accepted names and synonyms of all known plant species. The World Flora will include descriptions, images and distribution information and has a projected completion date of 2020. Source: Four prominent botanical institutions announce plans to create first online World Flora (April 2012)

Plant responses to touch investigated

Researchers at Rice University, Texas, have demonstrated that touching plants can stimulate the plant hormone jasmonate, which stimulates chemical defences against insects and fungi. The tendency for plants to grow shorter and slower when touched has also been linked to this plant hormone. In nature, wind or insects and other animals could induce these responses. Source: A bit touchy: Plants' insect defenses activated by touch (April 2012)

Plants never sleep

Did you know that the stems of most plants tend to grow most at night? While it is still unclear why plants do this, scientists have come closer to understanding the mechanism. Three genes produce proteins that interact to form an "evening complex" which suppress certain growth genes during the day and early evening. Eventually, it's possible that these genes could be manipulated to optimise biomass accumulation for biofuel production. Source: Biologists discover an 'evening' protein complex that regulates plant growth (July 2011)

Pollination management by plants investigated

Stigma receptivity is one of the mechanisms plants use to control to control which other individuals they "mate" with. A Swedish study of Collinsia heterophylla indicates that delaying receptivity is likely to result in the resultant seeds having a greater diversity of pollen parents (avoiding the situation in which most of the offspring result from fertilisation by the first pollen to arrive). An additional benefit was enhanced total seed production. Source: Female mate choice enhances offspring fitness in an annual herb (June 2011)

Plant hormone discovery has horticultural potential

Strigolactone, discovered at the University of Queensland, could be used to manipulate the size and shape of plants by controlling branching. The chemical suppresses branch development, which could be advantageous in forestry. On the other hand, repression of the chemical could encourage branching, which is often desirable in orchard production and other horticultural applications. Interestingly, the chemical is quite similar to one called karrikins from smoke, which stimulates germination of some seeds (but does not affect branching). Source: Plant branching hormone discovered (July 2011)

New plant hormone discovered

A plant hormone that affects shoot branching has been recently discovered in a collaborative effort between Australian and French research institutions. Uses for the compound, such as preventing excessive branching on trees grown for timber, could be found in the plant industries. More at the University of Queensland website here: Plant research branches out at UQ (August, 2008)

About      Advertising      Privacy & Terms     Contact   ABN 38 518 961 623