News

Congratulations to Botany PhD candidates Jared Beck and Rachel Jordan who were recently announced recipients of the Arboretum Research Fellowships! They will receive one year of support and access to Arboretum land and resources.

Thanks to the efforts of several University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers (including Marisa Otegui) and funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), UW–Madison scientists will soon have a cutting-edge new TEM.

Now in its 44th year, the Smith Lake States Mycological Foray gathers mushroom experts to collect samples, share mycological gossip and debate the evolution of these enigmatic organisms.

Researchers show that gene loss — not the evolution of new genes — helped drive the fly amanita mushroom into its symbiotic relationship with plants.

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.

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.

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.

Botany grad student Melody Sain is studying how — and why — different plants have sex. Her project involves early meadow-rue plants in Muir Woods.