Botany One

Botany One

@botany.one

BlueSky account for https://botany.one the weblog of the Annals of Botany Company. Non-Profit All Science since 1887. Posts by @alunsalt.bsky.social or @caordonezparra.bsky.social and scheduled well in advance through Buffer.

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Botany One
@botany.one

Research Leader (Mycorrhizal Ecology) // Kew careers.kew.org/vacancy/rese... Your strategic vision will play a part in developing the team’s research on how mycorrhizal fungi underpin ecosystem function, services and resilience to environmental change. #BotanyJobs

careers.kew.orgResearch Leader (Mycorrhizal Ecology) - Careers | Kew GardensJoin the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, as a Research Leader in Mycorrhizal Ecology (ME) and help shape the future of biodiversity science. Through a role that generates novel research on mycorrhizal…
Botany One
@botany.one

PhD Studentship: Where Does RNA go in the Cold? Visualising Coolair RNA Inside Plant Cells // Norwich www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DTJ683/p... This PhD will use cutting-edge plant RNA imaging and advanced fluorescence microscopy to visualise COOLAIR within Arabidopsis cells. #BotanyJobs

jobs.ac.ukPhD Studentship: Where Does RNA go in the Cold? Visualising Coolair RNA Inside Plant Cells at University of East Angliajobs.ac.uk are now advertising a PhD Studentship: Where Does RNA go in the Cold? Visualising Coolair RNA Inside Plant Cells. Discover exciting PhD opportunities on jobs.ac.uk.
Botany One
@botany.one

Protein Use Efficiency in Wheat for Reduced Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emissions // Norwich www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DTJ716/p... UEA are seeking an enthusiastic and ambitious PhD student to investigate protein use efficiency (PUE) in bread-making wheat. #BotanyJobs

jobs.ac.ukProtein Use Efficiency in Wheat for Reduced Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emmissions at University of East AngliaDiscover a PhD Studentship: Protein Use Efficiency in Wheat for Reduced Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emmissions Explore more PhD opportunities and apply today!
Botany One
@botany.one

From Hunter to Healer: How the "Deadly Embrace" of a Carnivorous Plant Inspires Skin-Healing Patches www.botany.one/from-hunter-... Inspired by the ecology of the Cape sundew, a team of scientists developed a microneedle patch capable of "gripping" the skin, accelerating wound healing.

Botany One
@botany.one

From Sacred Crop to Mr Potato Head: What Art Reveals About Our Relationship with Food www.botany.one/from-sacred-... Researchers show how our relationship with one of the world’s most important crops has shifted from reverence and reliance to convenience and comedy.

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Botany One
@botany.one

because now it has a chance to be listed as “critically endangered”. That is vital for a species that’s under threat from goats, fire or plain bad luck.

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Botany One
@botany.one

They found fewer than 250 mature plants. That's the species. Other butterworts blush. This one isn't unique in that. But it was Brenda Muñoz-Vazquez who stopped at that wall, looked closer, and found something nobody had described. It carries her name now: Pinguicula brendae. The name is unusual.

Botany One
@botany.one

It's comparatively rare for a plant to be named after a woman, and if it is, it's often because they're mythological, or just because they're a relative. Getting the epithet from the female discoverer makes it a rare name. That name could be a lifeline,

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Botany One
@botany.one

Some butterworts on a cliff face were the wrong colour. The closest species they knew, Pinguicula crassifolia, overwinters green. These were purple, until they got wet, when they turned green. Let them dry, and the purple comes back. This cliff is the only place anyone has found it.

Botany One
@botany.one

Just one wall, north-facing on the mountainside. The botanists asked people living nearby, is it found anywhere else? No, was the reply. So they did the only thing you can do with a plant in such a small location. They walked the cliff wall and counted, by hand, every one they could see.

Botany One
@botany.one

A butterwort is a killer. It's a carnivorous plant that traps insects on its leaves like flypaper and digests them. They can be small killers, no bigger than your thumbnail. A team of botanists were surveying them closely in the cloud forest of Hidalgo in Mexico, when they noticed something odd.

Botany One
@botany.one

Research Leader - Landscape Ecology and Ecosystem Science // Kew careers.kew.org/vacancy/rese... We are seeking an outstanding ecologist or environmental scientist with expertise in spatial ecology, ecosystem science or ecological modelling to lead applied ecosystem research at Kew. #BotanyJobs

careers.kew.orgResearch Leader - Landscape Ecology and Ecosystem Science - Careers | Kew GardensWe are seeking an outstanding ecologist or environmental scientist with expertise in spatial ecology, ecosystem science or ecological modelling to lead an ambitious programme of applied ecosystem…
Botany One
@botany.one

When Does a Partnership Stop Working? Hornworts Reveal the Hidden Complexity of Symbiosis With Cyanobacteria www.botany.one/when-does-a-... Hornworts and cyanobacteria show that even ancient partnerships can depend on where, when and how their partners meet.

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Botany One
@botany.one

This indicated that leaf ageing can be stopped, or even reversed. The authors suggest that, through targeted breeding in the future, this research could help rescue crops and trees under stress.

Botany One
@botany.one

Hussain, S., Boussardon, C., and Keech, O. (2026) The progression of leaf senescence is gated by the cytosolic arginine pool. Nature Plants, 12(7), pp. 1325-1333. Available at: doi.org/10.1038/s414....

doi.orgThe progression of leaf senescence is gated by the cytosolic arginine pool - Nature PlantsThis work provides compelling evidence that the progression of leaf senescence is gated by the cytosolic arginine pool and that senescing cells are genetically wired to dissipate this pool. It is…
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Botany One
@botany.one

Shah Hussain and colleagues fed leaf discs one amino acid at a time, then left them in the dark for six days. Darkness makes leaves age fast. The acid arginine more than doubled the green the leaf kept. Almost every other amino acid did little. Then they looked at mutant plants.

Botany One
@botany.one

Normal leaves switch on genes that clear arginine away. Stay-green mutants don’t. Restore those genes in the mutants and leaves age again. So the team thinks that arginine is a gauge. As long as it’s high, the leaf doesn’t die. Once the levels drop, the leaf is emptied.

Botany One
@botany.one

A leaf is valuable. There’s a lot of nutrients, particularly nitrogen in a leave. So, before a leaf dies, a plant wants to get out as much as it can. It breaks down the leaf's proteins and ships the nitrogen out to storage. Die too early, and that’s a lot of investment wasted.

Botany One
@botany.one

So something in the leaf must work out when the leaf is empty. A team in Sweden thinks they have a clue what that is, using Arabidopsis thaliana, thale cress, the botanist’s lab rat. The clue is in amino acids, the building blocks of proteins.

Botany One
@botany.one

Not Just New Cats: The New Botanical Species Discovered in Ecuador’s Centinela Ridge www.botany.one/not-just-new... Two new members of the African violet family have been identified, and another plant in the same family thought to be extinct has been found.

Botany One
@botany.one

Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Crop Quantitative Genetics // Brisbane uq.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-GB/uqcare... Conduct univariate and multivariate statistical analyses of large, multidimensional crop datasets to investigate Genotype-by-Environment-by-Management interactions. #BotanyJobs

uq.wd3.myworkdayjobs.comPostdoctoral Research Fellow in Crop Quantitative GeneticsQueensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation. Full-time (100%), fixed-term position for up to 2 years. Base salary will be in the range $85,373 to $113,660 + 17% super (Academic Level A).…
Botany One
@botany.one

Teaching Fellow in Plant Ecology // Swansea www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DTD836/t... In this post, you will be contributing to our BSc and MSc teaching in Terrestrial Ecology, including ecological survey techniques and design, plant identification/ID skills, domestic and overseas field courses. #BotanyJobs

jobs.ac.ukTeaching Fellow in Plant Ecology (Fixed Term - 11 Months) at Swansea UniversityExplore an exciting academic career as a Teaching Fellow in Plant Ecology (Fixed Term - 11 Months). Don't miss out on other academic jobs. Click to apply and explore more opportunities.
Botany One
@botany.one

Heloiza L. Zirondi: Seeking The Burning Question www.botany.one/heloiza-l-zi... Botany One interviews Dr Heloiza Zirondi, a plant and fire ecologist looking to understand plant regeneration in the Brazilian Cerrado, the most diverse savannah in the world.

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Botany One
@botany.one

and also deceive their pollinators, and discuss whether you can call the plant a double parasite.

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Botany One
@botany.one

cheating two partners at the same time, because it means relying on getting things right for two very different partners at the same time, else you fail. What Freudenstein and Barrett have is evidence this kind of freeloading isn’t impossible.

Botany One
@botany.one

The two approaches are both rare, but combine them and the maths says it should be possible, but very improbable around 2000 to 1. And when you look at observations it seems to be in the same ball park, around 4000 to 1. They only know of four other species of plant that are fully parasitic for food

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Botany One
@botany.one

so a male wasp looking for love finds an orchid and lands on it. While that’s happening the orchid slaps it with pollen. The male leaves disappointed and looks elsewhere for a female. It might find her, but the orchid is betting that it’ll find a few other orchids first,

Botany One
@botany.one

and deposit the pollen on another flower. Both these approaches rely on the partner not being able to resist the orchid. If they could, they would. That makes any exploitative strategy a bit of a risk. Also a biologist, Bidartondo writing back in 2005 said you shouldn’t expect a plant to be

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Botany One
@botany.one

Orchid seeds are tiny, with no stored energy so they connect to the fungal network to start them off, until they photosynthesise their own food. Usually. Striped Coralroot never stops taking, even as an adult. It taps into Tomentella fungi. These fungi swap nutrients for sugars with trees.

Botany One
@botany.one

This orchid gets into the network and takes without giving anything back. It also needs pollinators. Male *Pimpla pedalis* wasps are looking for a female, or rather smelling for one. Striped Coralroot pumps out its own scent to get attention,

Botany One
@botany.one

Corallorhiza striata, striped coralroot, is an orchid found in North America, and it hates paying for anything. A paper by Freudenstein and Barrett examines how it steals food from fungi and pollination from wasps. All orchids need a little help from fungi to begin with.