Local adaptation is central for creating and maintaining spatial variation in plant-herbivore interactions. Short-lived insect herbivores feeding on long-lived plants are likely to adapt to their local host plants, because of their short generation time, poor dispersal, and geographically varying selection due to variation in plant defences. In a reciprocal feeding trial, we investigated the im...

The new combination Vincetoxicum arabicum is made for a species in Saudi Arabia and northeastern eastern Africa that has previously mostly been called Blyttia fruticulosa or fruticulosum. basionym, arabica, regarded as superfluous name, resurrected. A synonymy of V. provided, the illustrated by photographs. Rhinolobium, with R. tenue type, published simultaneously B. an older name Aspidoglossum.

Qualitative and quantitative features are reported for five Hawaiian and one New Guinean species of Tetramolopium. Tetramolopium humile differs from the other Hawaiian species in its numerous narrow vessels, numerous vasicentric tracheids, and wide rays. Although these features are adaptive in the dry alpine localities of T. humile, they would be adaptive also in the remaining species, which ar...

The knowledge regarding of the diaspore and post-seminal development of Paspalum L. is important for grassland biodiversity conservation, based on their representativeness and genetic improvement of forage. The morphology of the diaspore and the post-seminal development of Paspalum dilatatum Poir. (rhizomatous), P. mandiocanum Trin. var. subaequiglume Barreto (stoloniferous), P. pumilum Nees. (...

Maximum entropy (Maxent) modeling was used to predict the potential climatic niches of three medicinally important Asclepiad species: Pentatropis spiralis, Tylophora hirsuta, and Vincetoxicum arnottianum. All three species are members of the Asclepiad plant family, yet they differ in ecological requirements, biogeographic importance, and conservation value. Occurrence data were collected from h...

Lily (Lilium) is used as an important edible and medical plant species with a vague taxonomic classification and a long history in China. Bulbs of six Lilium species (L. regale, L. concolor, L. pumilum, L. leucanthum, L. davidii var. unicolor and L. lancifolium) native to China were investigated with a view to their exploitation as a potential source of natural antioxidants due to their phenoli...

Inbreeding can profoundly affect the interactions of plants with herbivores as well as with the natural enemies of the herbivores. We studied how plant inbreeding affects herbivore oviposition preference, and whether inbreeding of both plants and herbivores alters the probability of predation or parasitism of herbivore eggs. In a laboratory preference test with the specialist herbivore moth Abr...