Researchers show that gene loss — not the evolution of new genes — helped drive the fly amanita mushroom into its symbiotic relationship with plants.
News
An ocean apart, carnivorous pitcher plants create similar communities
Asian pitchers transplanted to Massachusetts bogs can mimic the living communities of natives so well that the pitcher plant mosquito — a specialized insect that evolved to complete its life cycle exclusively in North American pitchers — lays eggs in the impostors, new research shows.
Blazes of light reveal how plants signal danger long distances
The plants produce a protein that only fluoresces around calcium, letting the researchers track its presence and concentration. Then came caterpillar bites, scissor cuts and crushing wounds.
Greenhouses contend with the climate to keep plants growing
The university’s greenhouses, which include plants from all over the world, provide study material for botany and horticulture courses and the precisely controlled climates required for research experiments.
Muir Woods research works to understand how plants have sex
Botany grad student Melody Sain is studying how — and why — different plants have sex. Her project involves early meadow-rue plants in Muir Woods.
Q&A with Ingrid Jordon-Thaden, Director of the Botany Garden and Greenhouse
Ingrid Jordon-Thaden joined the Botany Department in November 2017, taking over the position of Garden and Greenhouse Director from Mo Fayyaz, who entered retirement. She took a few moments to answer some questions about herself …
UW researcher to send cotton into space to improve its growth on Earth
Botanist Simon Gilroy will study cotton seedlings grown on the International Space Station in a project that could help researchers understand how to develop plants that use water more efficiently.
Tribal forests in Wisconsin are more diverse, sustainable
Researchers found that many of the differences between tribal and nontribal forests can be traced back to the lower density of deer on the tribal lands.
Invasive worms spreading in Arboretum forests, limited effects so far
Despite Asian jumping worms’ known appetite for leaf litter and tendency to change soil nutrients, researchers found limited evidence of changes to vegetation in areas where the worms have invaded the UW-Madison Arboretum.
Valuable potato specimens transferred to Wisconsin State Herbarium
A large collection of potato specimens have been transferred from the U.S. Potato Genebank in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, to the Wisconsin State Herbarium at UW–Madison, which has 1.3 million specimens.