New component of a plant steroid-activated pathway discovered

Plant biologists have been working for years to nail down the series of chemical signals that one class of plant hormones, called brassinosteroids, send from a protein on the surface of a plant cell to the cell's nucleus. ...

War on willows

Willows are major environmental weeds of riverbank habitats across much of south-eastern Australia. They obstruct water flow, increase water temperature, change water chemistry and can displace native riverine plant species.

Specialized seeds can really float your boat

A new artificial surface inspired by floating seeds, which could provide an alternative to the toxic paints currently used to prevent fouling on ship hulls, has been developed by German scientists.

Chinese primrose rediscovered

A botanist at one of Kew's Millennium Seed Bank partners, the Kunming Institute of Botany, has rediscovered two populations of a primrose which was thought to be extinct in the wild.

Overfished Amazon fish disperse seeds long distances

(PhysOrg.com) -- The gamitana fish, a close relative of the flesh-eating piranha, mostly eats fruit and can carry seeds down the Amazon River as far as 3 miles (5 kilometers), reports a new Cornell study, making it one of ...

New Cornell organic corn available for sale

It took Cornell breeder Margaret Smith years to perfect her new variety of organic corn but only six weeks to get its seeds licensed and available for sale.

How spring-loaded filaree seeds self launch

When filaree seeds ripen and burst, they are launched with an inbuilt spring. Scientists based at the University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard University have discovered that the inbuilt spring stores energy as the ...

How some plants spread their seeds: Ready, set, catapult

Catapults are often associated with a medieval means of destruction, but for some plants, they are an effective way to launch new life. Dispersing seeds greater distances by catapulting can provide selective advantages, including ...

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