Annals of Botany

🔥ADVANCE ACCESS🔥: Making a clean break: contrasting leaf abscission dynamics across temperate leaf habits
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

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Changes in pollen production, pollen heteromorphism and ovule production with increased selfing in Viola arvensis AbstractBackground and Aims. Pollen:ovule ratios are often lower in species and populations with higher selfing rates. This may be due either to higher pol

🎉🆕📰🎉: Changes in pollen production, pollen heteromorphism and ovule production with increased selfing in Viola arvensis
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

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Thriving in a salty future: morpho-anatomical, physiological and molecular adaptations to salt stress in alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) and other crops AbstractBackground. With soil salinity levels rising at an alarming rate, accelerated by climate change and human interventions, there is a growing need fo

✅📄Now Free Access: Thriving in a salty future: morpho-anatomical, physiological and molecular adaptations to salt stress in alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) and other crops
Get the Paper: doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

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🔥ADVANCE ACCESS🔥: Height effects on hydraulic and photosynthesis explain Hippophae rhamnoides decline on the Qinghai–Tibetan plateau
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

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🔥ADVANCE ACCESS🔥: Cretaceous diversity of Schizaeales in Antarctica, Escuderia livingstonensis gen. et sp. nov., a permineralized fertile organ from Livingston Island, and its ecological implications combined with associated biota
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

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🔥ADVANCE ACCESS🔥: Transcriptional reprogramming during developmental and stress-induced leaf senescence in barley
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

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Filling in the gaps: evidence of leaf endodermis and vein sheath in gymnosperms AbstractBackground and Aims. Botanical literature is filled with studies which tried to demonstrate that leaves of many gymnosperms have an endodermis with

🎉🆕📰🎉: Filling in the gaps: evidence of leaf endodermis and vein sheath in gymnosperms
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

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🎉🆕📰🎉: Plants within plants: a journey through endoparasitism: a commentary on ‘Plant life without leaves, roots, or stems: anatomy, development, and 3D structure of the endoparasite Pilostyles blanchetii (Apodanthaceae) in Mimosa hosts’
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

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🔥ADVANCE ACCESS🔥: Phylogenetic, ecological and sensory characterization of Coffea dactylifera, a wild coffee from the Democratic Republic of Congo
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

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🔥ADVANCE ACCESS🔥: Single fire events impose lasting reproductive costs in savanna trees
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

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Gláucia Silva: "Show Plants with Kindness, Respect and Interest" Botany One interviews Gláucia Silva, a Brazilian PhD Student passionate for passion fruits and sparking the botanical interest of...

🌿 Meeting Plant Scientists | @botany.one

🎙️ Gláucia Silva
📝 “Show Plants with Kindness, Respect and Interest”

A new interview from Botany One.
🔗

Floral syndromes in Aquilegia (Ranunculaceae) are associated with nectar- but not pollen-collecting pollinators AbstractBackground and Aims. Plant–pollinator interactions span a continuum from strict specialization to generalization and most flowers are visited by mo

🌸Takeaway: In Aquilegia, nectar-collecting pollinators appear to be the main evolutionary drivers of floral form, perhaps because they’re more efficient pollinators. (9/9)

👉 doi.org/qq7v

#FloralSyndromes #PollinationBiology #PlantEvolution #PlantScience #AoBpapers

🐝 And pollen collectors? Despite being common visitors, the study found little evidence that they drive floral syndromes, though subtle effects can’t be ruled out. (8/9)

🤔 What about flowers visited by multiple nectar-collecting pollinators? Surprisingly, they don’t look “intermediate”, their traits usually match just one pollinator group. (7/9)

Figure showing how nectar-collecting pollinators shape floral traits in Aquilegia. This figure shows the results of a statistical analysis (random forest) used to identify which floral traits are most strongly associated with different nectar-collecting pollinators. In the left panel, the floral traits included in the analysis are listed. The central panel shows how many Aquilegia species from each pollination group display each trait. For measurable traits (such as length), the range of values is shown (minimum, median, and maximum). Colors indicate pollinator groups: blue for large bees, red for hummingbirds, and yellow for hawkmoths. The right panel shows how important each trait is for predicting the pollinator group. Traits that strongly improve prediction accuracy are considered more influential. The traits highlighted with black circles were visually identified as especially important.

🌺 Each nectar-collector leaves a distinct floral signature:
• Large bees → pendent flowers, short spurs
• Hummingbirds → red flowers, constricted spurs, short petals
• Hawkmoths → erect flowers, long and slender spurs (6/9)

Figure showing how 28 species of Aquilegia (plus three floral morphotypes) are distributed in a multidimensional trait space built from 15 floral characteristics. Species that appear closer together in the plot have more similar flowers, while those farther apart differ more strongly in their floral traits. Panel (A) highlights pollen-collecting pollinators associated with each species, and panel (B) highlights nectar-collecting pollinators. The statistical values (nMDS stress = 0.21; R² = 0.96) indicate that the two-dimensional plot provides a good representation of the overall variation in floral traits.

✨ The key finding: floral syndromes in Aquilegia are shaped mainly by nectar-collecting pollinators, not pollen collectors. (5/9)

🍯 Pollinators were grouped by what they collect:
• Pollen collectors: small bees, large bees, syrphid flies
• Nectar collectors: large bees, hummingbirds, hawkmoths (4/9)

Figure showing flowers of the 28 Aquilegia species included in this study. Species are grouped according to their nectar-collecting pollinators. Coloured circles in the bottom left corner of each image indicate pollen-collecting pollinators. Copyright details are shown in the top right corner of each image.

🔍 This study examined 28 species of Aquilegia to ask a key question: Which pollinators shape floral syndromes, and how? 📊 Using multivariate statistics, morphospace analyses, and even machine learning (random forests), the authors linked floral traits to known pollinators. (3/9)

Hummingbird feeding on vibrant Columbine flower (Aquilegia).

🌼 Most flowers aren’t visited by just one pollinator. They interact with multiple functional groups (bees, flies, birds, moths) but which ones actually drive the evolution of floral traits? (2/9)

Floral syndromes in Aquilegia (Ranunculaceae) are associated with nectar- but not pollen-collecting pollinators

🌸Just published in @annbot.bsky.social : “Floral syndromes in Aquilegia (Ranunculaceae) are associated with nectar- but not pollen-collecting pollinators” by Anna-Sophie Hawranek and co-authors. 🧵(1/9)

👉 doi.org/qq7v

#FloralSyndromes #PollinationBiology #PlantScience #AoBpapers

🔥ADVANCE ACCESS🔥: Why some flowers have different forms of anthers & handedness: a commentary on ‘Functions of heteranthery and enantiostyly for wing pollination by pollen-collecting bees in Dilatris ixioides (Haemodoraceae)’
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

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🔥ADVANCE ACCESS🔥: Developmental timing in the female reproductive cycle of Araucaria araucana: seasonality and evolutionary perspectives
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

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🔥ADVANCE ACCESS🔥: Uncoupling of morphological disparity and species diversity in Zosterophyllum, with its new species from the Pridoli (Silurian) of West Junggar, Xinjiang, China
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

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Thermal behaviour of lipids in short-lived seeds of Australian rainforest species AbstractBackground and Aims. Recent studies on desiccation-tolerant Australian rainforest seeds demonstrated that some were short-lived in storage. We soug

🎉🆕📰🎉: Thermal behaviour of lipids in short-lived seeds of Australian rainforest species
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

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✅📄 Now Free Access: Organellar phylogenomics at the epidendroid orchid base, with a focus on the mycoheterotrophic Wullschlaegelia
Get the Paper: doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

🔥ADVANCE ACCESS🔥: Tri-trophic consequences of plant-to-plant volatile signalling and its contingency on plant relatedness in wild cotton
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

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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, please visit:
👉 botany.fyi/w59vvp
📅Submissions deadline: 31 May, 2026 (4/4)

#Gnetales #SeedPlantEvolution #EcoEvoDevo #PlantEvolution #Botany

Welwitschia mirabilis. Credits: Stefanie Ickert-Bond

🧬Confirmed contributions to the issue span the historical foundations of Gnetales research; development and gene expression of reproductive structures in Gnetum and Ephedra; pollen evolution (extant and fossil), neotropical diversity, and conservation under climate change. (3/4)

Ephedra distachya subsp. helvetica

🌱 This Annals of Botany Focus Issue invites original research and critical reviews using Gnetales as a focal group to address fundamental questions in seed plant evolution and stimulate novel, interdisciplinary research on this enigmatic lineage. (2/4)

Promotional banner for an Annals of Botany Focus Issue titled “Gnetales: Controversies of Seed Plant Evolution,” featuring green-toned text alongside a close-up photograph of Welwitschia mirabilis reproductive structures. Guest editors are listed, with the Annals of Botany logo at the bottom. Image credit: Stefan Little

📢🌿Annals of Botany invites submissions to the new focus issue "Gnetales - Controversies of Seed Plant Evolution", edited by guest editors Stefanie M. Ickert-Bond, Cecilia Zumajo-Cardona & Dimitry Sokoloff. (1/4)

#Gnetales #SeedPlantEvolution #EcoEvoDevo #PlantEvolution #Botany