The young plant's pantry does more than just feed it

The endosperm, the tissue surrounding the plant embryo in the seed, has long been perceived as a nourishing tissue that is abandoned once the transition to the seedling is complete. A Swiss team, led by scientists from the ...

How plants ensure that their kids make it far in life

If you're going apple picking this fall, you may find yourself being drawn to the biggest, brightest, and most aromatic apples you can find. Apple trees and other fruit-bearing plants have evolved to produce such appetizing ...

Scientists can switch on plants' response to light

Scientists have figured out how plants respond to light and can flip this genetic switch to encourage food growth. The discovery could help increase food supply for an expanding population with shrinking opportunities for ...

Identification of plant-parasitic nematode attractant

A research collaboration based in Kumamoto University, Japan has become the first to successfully purify and identify an attractant for crop-infecting root-knot nematodes from flax seeds. Their experiments revealed that rhamnogalacturonan-I ...

Mixed cultures for a greater yield

Monocultures dominate arable land today, with vast areas given over to single elite varieties that promise a high yield. But planting arable land with just one type of crop has its disadvantages: these areas are easy game ...

Study finds aspirin takes the headache out of restoration

New Curtin research has shown how a readily available, cheap and safe-to-use product found in the medicine cabinet of most homes could be the key to better ecological restoration practices with major benefits for the environment ...

How do plants hedge their bets?

In some environments there is no way for a seed to know for sure when the best time to germinate is.

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