Ancient cycads found to be pre-adapted to grow in groves

The ancient cycad lineage has been around since before the age of the dinosaurs. More recently, cycads also co-existed with large herbivorous mammals, such as the ice age megafauna that only went extinct a few tens of thousands ...

Airborne gut action primes wild chili pepper seeds

Scientists have long known that seeds gobbled by birds and dispersed across the landscape tend to fare better than those that fall near parent plants where seed-hungry predators and pathogens are more concentrated.

Plants 'talk' to plants to help them grow

Having a neighborly chat improves seed germination, finds research in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Ecology. Even when other known means of communication, such as contact, chemical and light-mediated signals, are ...

Bugs need symbiotic bacteria to exploit plant seeds

Aggregations of the red and black colored firebugs are ubiquitous under linden trees in Central Europe, where the bugs can reach astounding population densities. While these insects have no impact on humans, their African, ...

Herbivore defence in ferns

(Phys.org)—Unlike flowering plants, bracken ferns do not release any odour signals to attract the enemies of their attackers for their own benefit.

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