Latest Plant taxonomy Stories
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It was previously thought that land plants evolved from stonewort-like algae. However, new research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology shows that the closest relatives to land plants are actually conjugating green algae such as Spirogyra.Ancestors of green plants began to colonise the land about 500 million years ago and it is generally accepted that they evolved from streptophyte algae (a group of green, fresh water algae). But this group of algae is...
An international research team led by Brown University has amassed the largest evolutionary tree (phylogeny) for plants. It has learned that major groups of plants tinker with their design and performance before rapidly spinning off new species. The finding upends long-held thinking that plants' speciation rates are tied to the first development of a new physical trait or mechanism. Results are published in the American Journal of Botany.Just as a company creates new, better versions of a...
There are more than 70,000 new flowering plant species yet to be discovered, and more than half of them may have already been collected but not yet identified, according to a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)."Despite the importance of species discovery, the processes including collecting, recognizing, and describing new species are poorly understood," lead author Dr. Robert Scotland of Oxford University's Department of Plant...
Most flowering plants, equipped with both male and female sex organs, can fertilize themselves and procreate without the aid of a mate. But this may only present a short-term adaptive benefit, according to a team of researchers led by two University of Illinois at Chicago biologists, who report that long-term evolutionary survival of a species favors flowers that welcome pollen from another plant."We've shown that a strong, short-term advantage experienced by individuals that have sex...
A modest moss gives insight into global carbon cyclingThe diversity of life that can be seen in environments ranging from the rainforests of the Amazon to the spring blooms of the Mohave Desert is awe-inspiring. But this diversity would not be possible if the ancestors of modern plants had just stayed in the water with their green algal cousins. Moving onto dry land required major lifestyle changes to adapt to this new "hostile" environment, and in turn helped change global climate...
"My job was to locate the previously marked study trees. . .and record data on the activity of treated blister rust cankers," wrote Charles "Terry " Shaw. "The work took [me] in rickety four-wheel drive vehicles to remote locations scattered across the white pine forests of northern Idaho." Shaw, now editor of a recently published special issue of Forest Pathology, described how 44 years ago, he and other young forestry students collected data about a destructive...
Charles Darwin described the Venus Flytrap as 'one of the most wonderful plants in the world.' It's also one of the fastest as many an unfortunate insect taking a stroll across a leaf has discovered. But what powers this speed? Dr Andrej PavloviÄ of Comenius University, Slovakia, has been studying the plants with the help of some specialised equipment and a few unlucky insects. In the wild the Venus Flytrap grows in the bogs and savannahs of North and South Carolina. This is not a...
The world is a cooler, wetter place because of flowering plants, according to new climate simulation results published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The effect is especially pronounced in the Amazon basin, where replacing flowering plants with non"“flowering varieties would result in an 80 percent decrease in the area covered by ever"“wet rainforest.The simulations demonstrate the importance of flowering"“plant physiology to climate regulation in ever"“wet...
New research confirms that early angiosperms were weedy, fast-growingFossils and their surrounding matrix can provide insights into what our world looked like millions of years ago. Fossils of angiosperms, or flowering plants (which are the most common plants today), first appear in the fossil record about 140 million years ago. Based on the material in which these fossils are deposited, it is thought that early angiosperms must have been weedy, fast-growing shrubs and herbs found in highly...
Latest Plant taxonomy Reference Libraries
The Lily of the Nile or Calla Lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica) is a species of plant native to southern Africa in Lesotho, South Africa, and Swaziland. It has been introduced to Western Australia where it occurs in high periodical water tables and sandy soil. Several hybrids have been established and introduced to other areas around the world. Some hybrids are more suited to cooler climates. One hybrid, Crowborough, grows better in the British Isles and the northwestern United States than it...
The Baboon Flower, or Babiana stricta, the most familiar species of Babiana, grows in Cape Province, South Africa. This plant is typically used as an ornamental plant. It is classified in the Iridaceae family and the Crocoideae subfamily. The baboon flower grows from a corm into not so large, but very colorful blooms. It exists in many different hybrids and variations with multi colored flowers, but usually pink or blue with white embellishments. These flowers are gathered in an...
The Pink Fairy Lily (Zephyranthes robustus), also known as the Pink Rain Lily, Pink Zephyr Lily, and Pink Magic Lily. It is natively found in North America. This plant is possibly known as a hybrid of the White Rain Lily. This is a robust plant with a long blooming season. This is one of the most fertile summer plants of the flowering zephyranthes. It blooms in late summer to early fall. It grows from 6 to 10 inches tall. It is ideal for rock gardens. The leaves are a deep glossy green and...
The Fairy Lily (Zephyranthes candida) also known as the White Rain Lily, is a species of plant native to the Rio de la Plata region of South America including Argentina and Uruguay. It is also found in Paraguay and Chile. Other common names for this plant are August rain lily, White zephyr lily, Peruvian swamp-lily, Zephyr flower, and Autumn zephyr lily. The Fairy Lily is a white hybridized species of a flower that is usually found in pink flowering form. It grows from 6 to 10 inches tall....
The Black Tree Fern (Cyathea medullaris), is a species of evergreen tree fern endemic to New Zealand. New Zealand forest is evergreen due to the mild climate. Groups of lightly interspersed black tree ferns are common sights and very prominent on the rather steep but overgrown slopes of the North Island volcanic landscape. This fern is found to grow to heights of 65 feet, making it the largest tree fern. It may have been named because the stalk of each mature frond is black with a rather...
