That hummingbird-pollinated plants predominantly have red flowers has been known for decades, but well-investigated research studies are still rare. Preference tests have shown that hummingbirds do not have an innate preference for red colours. In addition, hummingbirds do not depend solely upon red flowers, because white-flowered hummingbird-pollinated plants are also common and temporarily ab...

'The great appear great, because we are on our knees. Let us rise!,' wrote Larkin. Jean Faugier ( 1 ) described the 'tall poppy syndrome' and spoke of 'bold, nonconformist', brightly- coloured flowers being chopped down mercilessly by farmers just because they were different and stood above the rest in the wheatfields.

Suicide is a serious social and health problem in Korea [1]. According to a 2005 report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [2], Korea had the highest suicide rate with nearly 30 deaths per 100,000 population. Many studies have found that suicidal ideation and attempts among lesbians, gay men, and bisexual persons are higher than among heterosexual individuals (or gener...

This is an experimental review essay responding to Michael Marder’s Plant-Thinking: A Philosophy of Vegetal Life (New York: Columbia University Press, 2013). The essay departs from the ordinary structure of comparing three books on a similar theme. Instead three of Marder’s concepts, plant “nourishment,” “desire” and “language” are explored through readings of Gabrielle de Vietri’s installation...

Powdery mildew on flowers of Cassia fistula and folioles Tamarindus indica, caused by Erysiphe quercicola, is reported for the first time in Brazil. The identity pathogen was confirmed morphological characteristics molecular sequence analyses ITS 28S rDNA regions. This report E. quercicola causing powdery C. T. indica

Historians of science have often neglected the eighteenth century because it lacks famous figureheads like Isaac Newton or Charles Darwin, yet this was a crucial period when science started to become established and gain prestige, writes Patricia Fara in a new book*. With their Enlightenment contemporaries, Carl Linnaeus in Sweden and Joseph Banks in Britain illustrate how scientific research w...

In plants whose flowers develop in a sequence, different flowers may exhibit temporal variation in pollen donation and receipt such that the fitness contributions through male and female functions can vary among flowers. Dichogamy, or directional pollinator movements within inflorescences, can create situations where flowers in different stages in the sequence may differ in the numbers of flowe...

The respiration of cut flowers of rose (Rosa hybrida L. ‘First Red’) and gypsophila (Gypsophila paniculata L. ‘Bristol Fairy’) increased exponentially with increasing respiration, with a Q10 value between 0 and 10°C of 3 for both flowers. The vase life of the flowers was negatively affected by simulated transport at higher temperatures whereas dry storage for 5 days at 0°C resulted in a vase li...

Flower color is a useful morphological marker in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). Inheritance of this trait was studied using two white-flowered chickpea genotypes, P 9623 and RS 11, and one blue-flowered genotype, T 39-1. The genetic constitutions of the white flower colors of P 9623 and RS 11 were different, for in an earlier study their F1 produced pink flowers. The two F1s of the crosses P 96...