New research from anthropologists at McMaster University and California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB), is shedding light on ancient dietary practices, the evolution of agricultural societies and ultimately, how plants have become an important element of the modern diet.

Sea lilies, despite their name, aren't plants. They're animals related to starfish and sea urchins, with long feathery arms resting atop a stalk that keeps them anchored to the ocean floor. Sea lilies have been around for at least 480 million years—they first evolved hundreds of millions of years before the dinosaurs. For nearly two centuries, scientists have thought about how modern sea lilies evolved from their ancient ancestors. In a new study in the Journal of Paleontology, […]

Scientists are homing in on what a healthy human microbiome looks like, mapping the normal bacteria that live in and on the healthy human body. But what about a healthy plant microbiome?

St. John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum) is an ancient medicinal plant. It is known for the mild antidepressant properties of its bioactive compound hypericin, which is produced in the dark glands of the plant. By investigating the flowers of St. John's Wort, researchers identified genes involved in dark gland development and the biosynthesis of hypericin. The findings were published in the Plant Biotechnology Journal.

Plants that can "bounce back" after disturbances like plowing, flooding or drought are the most likely to be "invasive" if they're moved to new parts of the world, scientists say.

In 2019, researchers at the California Academy of Sciences added 71 new plant and animal species to our family tree, enriching our understanding of Earth's complex web of life and strengthening our ability to make informed conservation decisions. The new species include 17 fish, 15 geckos, eight flowering plants, six sea slugs, five arachnids, four eels, three ants, three skinks, two skates, two wasps, two mosses, two corals, and two lizards. More than a dozen Academy scientists—along […]

Flowering plants are characterized by an astonishing diversity of flowers of different shapes and sizes. This diversity has arisen in adaptation to selection imposed by different pollinators including, among others, bees, flies, butterflies, hummingbirds, bats or rodents. Although several studies have documented that pollinators can impose strong selection pressures on flowers, our understanding of how flowers diversify remains fragmentary. For example, does the entire flower adapt to a […]

Pioneering experiments using heated field plots to test the responses of crops to temperature have revealed an unexpected plus side of climate change for farmers.

Are you planning a big garden clean-up this summer, or stocking up on fly spray to keep bugs at bay? Before you do, it's worth considering the damage you might cause to the insects we share the planet with.

Doctoral student Ayasha Akter (Kobe University's Graduate School of Agricultural Science) and technical staff member Satoshi Takahashi (from the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science) have revealed the important role played by the histone modification H3K27me3 in regulating gene expression in Chinese cabbage. In addition, they illuminated the role of H3K27me3 in vernalization—a vital process for enabling Brassica rapa vegetables, such as Chinese cabbage, to flower.