The long, long history of plant-pollinator interactions has led to a stunning variety of flower forms, including variations in petal color and iridescence. Color is caused by the accumulation of various pigments that selectively absorb certain wavelengths of light, whereas iridescence arises from surface…

Plants that respond to touch, like Mimosa pudica (aka the sensitive plant) are great ways to introduce children to the fascination of plants. If you haven’t had the chance to explore this plant, a touch to a leaflet causes the leaflets to fold into themselves, and recurring touches cause the leaf to…

Many animals, including humans, tangibly benefit from living socially. Does this benefit extend to plants? A recent study by Höckerstedt et al. says it does. The authors studied a wild host-pathogen population, Plantago lanceolata, and its obligate powdery mildew pathogen Podosphaera plantaginis in…

Review: The power and perils of de novo domestication using gene editing I’m excited by the ways that knowledge about plant developmental and metabolic programs is being used to make new varieties of plants. This excellent review describes some of these applications such as changes in fruit size…