The cover image for our March issue shows twin seedlings of mistletoe (Viscum album) established on a branch of apple (Malus domestica), the parasite’s most frequent British host. This image relates to the Biological Flora of Britain and Ireland: Viscum album, by Peter Thomas et al. Here, co-author Jonathan Briggs tells us the story behind the image: The germination…
The editor’s choice for our March issue is “Sandy seeds: Armour or invisibility cloak? Mucilage-bound sand physically protects seeds from rodents and invertebrates“ by Eric LoPresti et al. Here, Associate Editor Michał Bogdziewicz discusses the importance of this research: Seeds are the fundamental units of plant reproduction, critical to the persistence and distribution of plant populations.…
The cover image for our February issue shows a digitized herbarium specimen of flowering yellow trout lily plants (Erythronium americanum). This image relates to the article, Warmer temperatures are linked to widespread phenological mismatch among native and non-native forest plants, by Tara Miller et al., which is part of a special feature on Leveraging natural history collections to understand…
Emma Ladouceur & Jonathan M. Chase discuss their recent article: The recovery of plant community composition following passive restoration across spatial scales. Find out more about what it takes for ecosystems to recover from disturbances and whether passive restoration is enough. Human disturbances can negatively impact species, biodiversity and ecosystems. Given enough time, will ecosystems…
Liam Trethowan discusses his recent article: Plant species biogeographic origin shapes their current and future distribution on the world’s highest island mountain. Find out more about how they used herbarium specimens to investigate species presence under current and future temperatures. Tropical mountains are host to some of the highest densities of plant species on earth,…
The cover image for our December issue shows germination day one of European Hazel, Corylus avellana. The yellow radicle breaks through the nut wall and elongates into the substrate over the following fortnight. This image relates to the article, Biological Flora of Britain and Ireland: Corylus avellana, by Damien Hicks. Here, Damien tells us the story behind the image: The…
It’s part of Christmas – hanging up the mistletoe and stealing kisses beneath it. But as we think more about green issues, can we still justify this? Mistletoe is not a common plant in most parts of Britain, so is the annual custom of picking it to kiss under sustainable? Is it threatening this unique…
Jackie Raw discusses her recent article: Dispersal and coastal geomorphology limit potential for mangrove range expansion under climate change. Find out more about the implications of this work for modelling mangrove responses to climate change. Mangroves, often described as tropical swamp lands, are classic features of warm coastlines where sea-surface temperatures are above 20°C. These…
F. Xavier Picó discusses the recent article: ‘Spatio-temporal dynamics of genetic variation at the quantitative and molecular levels within a natural Arabidopsis thaliana population‘. Find out more about the importance of long term monitoring for investigating genetic diversity. In science, the simplest questions are commonly hard to answer. In the field of plant population biology,…
The cover image for our October issue features a typical saltmarsh landscape along the Yellow sea coast, China. This image relates to the article: Inferring plant-plant interactions using remote sensing, by Chen et al. Here, authors Bin Chen, Quan-Xing Liu and Chi Xu tell the story behind the image. Just like us humans, plants also…
Journal of Ecology Blog 