Another round up of the week's botanical news.

Experts validate the surprising accuracy of plant identifications on iNaturalist, enhancing conservation data in Western Australia.

The genetics behind the alternating sexes of walnut trees have been revealed by biologists at the University of California, Davis. The research, published in Science, reveals a mechanism that has been stable in walnuts and their ancestors going back 40 million years—and which has some parallels to s...

If you have a sense of adventure and know your squills from your spurges, Cambridge University Botanic Garden may have the job for you

Experience the marvel that is night-blooming tobacco

In a new study, physicists from the United States and Israel may have gotten to the bottom of a quirky behavior of growing plants—and a mystery that intrigued Charles Darwin himself during the later decades of his life.

Thorns – technically termed prickles – are a common feature on many drastically different plants. They represent an evolutionary puzzle.

The plants are fixed to the soil by their roots. They must therefore necessarily be able to adapt to their environment. How do they do it?

In an article published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the University of São Paulo's Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture (ESALQ-USP) in Brazil describe for the first time how strigolactones, plant hormones discovered several decades ago, control flo...

In a pivotal advancement for fruit agriculture, scientists have pinpointed a gene mutation in peach trees that governs the timing of flowering, a trait critical for evading spring frosts. This genetic insight could transform breeding practices, enabling the development of late-flowering fruit variet...