Annals of Botany

🔥ADVANCE ACCESS🔥: Revealing programmed cell death events during flower (petal) senescence
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

🔥ADVANCE ACCESS🔥: Homoploid hybrid speciation and recurrent hybridization along the northwestern Iberian mountain chains
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

🔥ADVANCE ACCESS🔥: Climatic oscillations, dispersibility and adaptability behind worldwide mountain radiations of the Helichrysum– Anaphalis—Pseudognaphalium (HAP) clade (Compositae)
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

Primula vulgaris. Photo: Van Rossum.

How Golf Courses Are Helping to Save the Primrose

⛳ Now in @botanyone @botany.one 🌼
botany.fyi/tzkggi

Full paper: doi.org/pq7t

Slide: Our earnings are invested into society/non-profit journal missions. AJB/APPS earnings financially support Botanical Society of America's mission including Botany meetings, the Plant Science Bulletin, student and society awards, educational programmes. Annals of Botany/AoBP Plants is a non-profit organisation that promotes increased understanding of plant biology. Earnings are invested in symposia/plenaries, educational activities, Botany One blog and newsletter.

Slide: Article Publication Charges (APCs) Where does the money go? Why am I paying a journal just to format a PDF? A non-exhaustive list: *Professional copy editing, styling and layout. *Care and feeding of editorial staff *Coordinating the review process, special issues, and relevant manuscripts. *Indexing impact factor and H index *Stable maintained server for publication and appendix material.

Editors in Chief Rowan Sage @annbot.bsky.social, Briana Gross and Sean Graham @botsocamerica.bsky.social gave honest answers about botanical publishing in a lunchtime discussion at #Botany2025.

Takeaway: Support society journals because they're here to support us, not to make money off of us.

🔥ADVANCE ACCESS🔥: The significance of seed characters for the taxonomyand evolutionary of Impatiens (Balsaminaceae) in ChinaGet accessArrow
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

Surviving Allchar: arsenic and thallium tolerance and distribution in Viola metallophytes AbstractBackground and aims. Viola tricolor subsp. macedonica and Viola arsenica are metallophytes from the abandoned Allchar Mine in the Republic of North

🌸 This work sheds light on how plant species adapt to extreme metal-rich environments, and could inform future studies on phytoremediation or metal tolerance in plants. (7/7)

👉 doi.org/pzjd

#PlantScience #Metallophytes #Phytoremediation #Viola #AoBpapers

🧬 In short:
V. arsenica = internal storage strategy
V. tricolor macedonica = contain & release strategy
Both are metallophytes but they evolved different ways to cope with extreme toxicity. (6/7)

Figure with two panels showing how arsenic and thallium are distributed in the leaves of Viola tricolor subsp. macedonica. The images were taken at very high resolution (25 micrometers). Each image includes a scale bar and a color key indicating the concentration of each element.

🍃 V. tricolor subsp. macedonica keeps most Tl in the roots, but some accumulates around the stomata in the leaves, suggesting it may release excess Tl via transpiration. 💧(5/7)

Figure with two panels showing how arsenic and thallium are distributed in cross-sections of the stem of Viola arsenica. The images were captured at very high resolution (6 micrometers per step) with detailed scanning. Each image includes a scale bar and a color key showing the concentration levels of each element.

🔎They found both violets take up As and Tl, mainly storing them in the roots. But their strategies differ: V. arsenica transports Tl to the shoots, especially into mature leaves. This species seems to tolerate Tl by safely storing it in its foliage. (4/7)

Viola species in their natural habitat and hydroponics. (A) V. arsenica at Allchar site; (B) V. tricolor subsp. macedonica at Allchar site; (C) hydroponic set-up; (D) V. arsenica (top), V. tricolor subsp. macedonica (bottom) in hydroponics.

🌱 Researchers grew both species under different levels of Tl and As exposure, and used synchrotron micro-X-ray fluorescence (µXRF) to visualize where metals accumulate inside the plants. 🔬(3/7)

🌍 The Allchar Mine in North Macedonia is rich in arsenic (As) and thallium (Tl), with soil concentrations of 12,800 mg/kg and 5,750 mg/kg, respectively. Two native violets (Viola tricolor subsp. macedonica and V. arsenica) thrive here. How? (2/7)

Surviving Allchar: arsenic and thallium tolerance and distribution in Viola metallophytes

🌿Check the newly published article ‘Surviving Allchar: arsenic and thallium tolerance and distribution in Viola metallophytes’ in @annbot.bsky.social by Ksenija Jakovljević and co-authors 🧵(1/7)

👉 doi.org/pzjd

@antonyent.bsky.social

#PlantScience #Metallophytes #Phytoremediation #AoBpapers

🔥ADVANCE ACCESS🔥: TA gap and synergy analysis of the European Research Infrastructure (RI) ecosystem: advancing the novel GRACE-RI dedicated to Plant Genetic Resources itle
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

🔥ADVANCE ACCESS🔥: Climate Change May Alter Seed and Seedling Traits and Shift Germination and Mortality Patterns in Alpine Environments
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

🔥ADVANCE ACCESS🔥: Giant mitogenomes in Rhynchospora are a result of nuclear gene and retrotransposon insertions in intergenic spaces
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

📣Now Free Access: Harvesting pollen with vibrations: towards an integrative understanding of the proximate and ultimate reasons for buzz pollination
Get the Paper: doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

🔥ADVANCE ACCESS🔥: Resolving relationships in the radiation of Australia’s largest pea clade (Fabaceae tribe Mirbelieae) with target-capture sequencing
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

Rowan Sage, Rachel Shekar, and Xavier Picó standing behind the Annals of Botany booth at Botany 2025 conference. The booth displays journals, promotional materials, and signs for Annals of Botany, AoBP, and in silico Plants, all set against a purple curtain backdrop.

🌿 A big thank you to everyone who stopped by the Annals of Botany booth at #Botany2025!

We loved talking with researchers from all over the world and sharing why @annbot.bsky.social @aobp.bsky.social and @insilicoplants.bsky.social are a great home for your research. 💚

#PlantScience #Botany

Call for Papers for Upcoming Special Issues Submissions to open calls are made via our regular submissions site. When submitting, please choose the appropriate special issue title in the 'Special Section'

📢 For more info about the special issue, please visit:
👉 botany.fyi/q3hsrs (4/4)

Sunflower seeds. Canva.

📝This special issue welcomes articles that offer novel insights into seed biology, exploring the molecular, structural, and physiological mechanisms governing reserve accumulation, seed development, dormancy, germination, and the interactions of seeds with their environment. (3/4)

Rice seeds. Canva.

📍This call for papers is associated with a concurrent session at the International Conference on Arabidopsis Research 2025 and the 4th Argentinian Meeting in Seed Biology. (2/4)

Flyer announcing the Annals of Botany Special Issue titled 'Exploring Seed Development, Structure and Physiology,' with editors Gabriela Auge, Chunhui Zhang, Maria Crepy, Mariel Gerrard Wheeler, and Hannetz Roschzttardt. Submission deadline: June 30, 2026. The right side features a multicolored maize cob against a black background.

🌱Annals of Botany invites submissions to the new Special Issue "Exploring seed development, structure and physiology", edited by AoB editors Gabriela Auge and Chunhui Zhang. (1/4)

#seeds #plantscience #specialissue
‪@gabyplantbio.bsky.social‬

🔥ADVANCE ACCESS🔥: Apple fruitlet physiological characteristics and their influence on diffuse Vis/NIR reflectance spectroscopy
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

🔥ADVANCE ACCESS🔥: Transcriptional signatures associated with waterlogging stress responses and aerenchyma formation in barley root tissue
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

🌱 Don’t miss the “Evolutionary history of the Gnetales” symposium at #Botany2025 on July 29 at 8 am, and meet Stefanie, one of the chairs! (7/7)

#PlantScience #Botany #Gnetales

What do people usually get wrong about plants? Botanical definitions for fruits and vegetables often differ from common definitions. For example, a tomato is botanically a fruit rather than a vegetable, because it contains seeds. Similarly, botanical names of fruits can be different from common usage. For instance, bananas and tomatoes are both considered to be berries, while raspberries and blackberries are considered to be aggregate fruits. Peanuts, despite their name, are actually legumes rather than nuts, and belong in the same plant family as peas and beans. The classification of fruit type depends on a number of factors, including whether the flower it developed from a simple carpel (essentially the plant ovary), a fused carpel, or multiple carpels. Other factors that can influence fruit type include whether a fruit is dry or fleshy, and how it breaks apart.

What do people usually get wrong about plants? “Botanical definitions for fruits & vegetables often differ from common definitions. For example, a tomato is botanically a fruit rather than a vegetable, because it contains seeds...” (6/7)

So off we went, this time to Vietnam with a short stop-over in Taiwan and a look at some other exotic Asian conifers. Our travels than took us further to South Vietnam where I ultimately recaptured some of Monsieur Krempf’s fascination when I stood in front of the majestic, 50 m tall Krempf pine. This pine is still one of the most poorly know species, but it also highly unusual. Its broad, flat needles can measure up to 12 mm wide and over 10 cm in length. Recently, botanist concluded that this most unusual of pines behaves more like a tropical gymnosperm Podocarpus in photosynthetic, hydraulic and anatomical characteristics. After my adventures in pines and the completion of my master’s degree, I found myself at a crossroads and did not really want to dive into the evolutionary genomics of pines, I rather was fascinated by form and function, and what better genus to study in the deserts of Arizona than Mormon-tea, Ephedra. The last 30+ years of my career have been dedicated to the study of this genus, with a new species description in the works, a lingering monograph of the 30+ species in the New World and the ever-intriguing morphological oddities found in the genus, and its relatives in the order Gnetales.

What’s one place in the world that’s been inspiring for your fieldwork and why? “So off we went, this time to Vietnam and a look at some other exotic Asian conifers. Our travels took us to South Vietnam... where I stood in front of the majestic, 50 m tall Krempf pine...” (5/7)

What are you most proud of accomplishing? Our study documenting the prevalence of polyploidy in the gymnosperm Ephedra was one of the highlights of my career. Extensive field work over the last 30 years, growing many of the 50+ species sampled in our yard and sampling them for this study, and a network of colleagues and collaborators who were willing to mail in fresh stems for genome estimation we showed that polyploidy to be extremely common in Ephedra with 41 species (83%) being polyploid (up to 8×) or having polyploid cytotypes – the highest frequency and level reported for any gymnosperm.

What are you most proud of accomplishing? “Our study documenting the prevalence of polyploidy in the gymnosperm Ephedra was one of the highlights of my career…we showed that polyploidy to be extremely common in Ephedra” (4/7)

Who have been the strongest influences on your career so far? One of my Ph.D. advisors Dr. Donald Pinkava was an amazing educator. His teaching was rigorous, detailed and challenging. Taking his “Flora of Arizona”, “Angiosperm, Taxonomy” and “Cytogenetics” courses at ASU was foundational for my current understanding of systematic botany. Don Pinkava invested himself in his students and humbly but firmly expected excellence in return. I learned much from what he taught, and how he taught. Dr. Pinkava was my role model as a teacher and his enthusiasm and passion for botany was infectious. Another giant influence on my development as a teacher is my longtime mentor and friend, Dr. Kathleen Pigg. She introduced me to the wonderful world of microscopy during her courses in plant anatomy and paleobotany. Her teaching style is engaging, thoughtful, aware of communicating at a level that respects the audience and at a level that can be understood. Above all she has a wonderful gift of making connections to the real world in her lectures that allows anybody to follow along and connect with the lecture material in their own personal way that contributes to learning.

Who have been the strongest influences on your career? “Dr. Donald Pinkava was an amazing educator...he was my role model as a teacher and his enthusiasm and passion for botany was infectious...Another giant influence on my development as a teacher is Dr. Kathleen Pigg...”(3/7)