Tag: Plant POV

In a remarkable feat of mimicry, some flowers have evolved similarities to female insects; they thus attract male insects who, after a disappointing visit, still manage to serve as pollinators. How do we understand how floral traits affect pollinators? The answer may not be simple. In a 2018 article,…

Written and Illustrated by Laura Mejia. Click on images to enlarge.   This week’s article by Maggini et al. (2017) is focused on the interactions between a plant and its endophytes. Specifically, it explores the contributions of the bacterial endophytes of Echinacea purpura, widely used in traditional…

Written and Illustrated by Laura Mejia. Click on images to enlarge. Mexico is one of the most important dryland regions of the world. Almost half of the cacti species found there are endemic, found nowhere else. This beautiful review by Ramírez-Rodríguez et al., published in 2020 in Food Chemistry,…

This series is the exploration of plants that are notable for various reasons: e.g., by producing specialized metabolites, by illuminating evolution, by serving as genetic models, or by their contributions towards practical applications. Orchids The orchid family (Orchidaceae) is the second largest…

This series is the exploration of plants that are notable for various reasons: e.g., by producing specialized metabolites, by illuminating evolution, by serving as genetic models, or by their contributions towards practical applications. Aristolochia gigantea Aristolochia gigantea, also known as…