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Sunflowers, in visible spectrum on left half (yellow colors) and UV spectrum on right half (purple and white colors).
Sunflowers’ Bee-Attracting Ultraviolet Also Helps Retain Moisture
The dual purposes of the plants’ hidden colors may conflict as the climate warms, authors of a new study suggest.
Sunflowers’ Bee-Attracting Ultraviolet Also Helps Retain Moisture
Sunflowers’ Bee-Attracting Ultraviolet Also Helps Retain Moisture

The dual purposes of the plants’ hidden colors may conflict as the climate warms, authors of a new study suggest.

The dual purposes of the plants’ hidden colors may conflict as the climate warms, authors of a new study suggest.

plant biology, genetics & genomics, evolution

Genomics Reveals How Humans Can Inadvertently Drive Plant Mimicry
Shawna Williams | Mar 1, 2020 | 4 min read
Hand weeding of fields spurred an interloper to evolve a rice-like appearance, researchers conclude.
photo of green, tube-like Spirogloea muscicola
Genes from Bacteria Likely Aided Plants’ Move to Land
Shawna Williams | Nov 15, 2019 | 2 min read
An analysis suggests that DNA cribbed from soil microbes enabled plants’ ancestors to colonize a terrestrial environment.
Insects Are Increasingly Evolving Resistance to Genetically Modified Crops
Ashley P. Taylor | Oct 13, 2017 | 2 min read
Plantings of non-GM refuges counter the development of resistance.
Pesticide Resistance in a Plant Organelle Drives Down Whole-Genome Diversity
Catherine Offord | Aug 1, 2016 | 2 min read
A chloroplast mutation has dramatically affected the genomes of railside populations of Arabidopsis thaliana.
Week in Review: March 3–7
Tracy Vence | Mar 7, 2014 | 3 min read
The gene behind a butterfly’s mimicry; the evolution of adipose fins; bacteria and bowel cancer; plants lacking plastid genomes
On The Origin of Flowers
Ed Yong | Dec 19, 2013 | 4 min read
The genome of Amborella trichopoda—the sister species of all flowering plants—provides clues about this group’s rise to power.
In Evolution's Garden
Megan Scudellari | Jun 1, 2013 | 9 min read
Raising one evolutionary question after another, Brandon Gaut has harvested a crop of novel findings about how plant genomes evolve.
Plant DNA Largely Unchanged
Jef Akst | Apr 15, 2013 | 2 min read
Today’s tulip trees carry similar mitochondrial DNA as those that grew in the time of the dinosaurs.
Climate-Shaped Arabidopsis Genome
Kerry Grens | Oct 6, 2011 | 3 min read
Two genome-wide studies, backed up by field experiments, identify SNPs that correlate with Arabidopsis fitness in various climates.
Evolution, Tout de Suite
Richard P. Grant | Oct 1, 2011 | 4 min read
Epigenetic perturbations could jump-start heritable variation.
Marauding Moths
Jessica P. Johnson | Oct 1, 2011 | 4 min read
Dried plant specimens reveal the origin of an insect pest that has spread throughout Europe.
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