Much has been written about trait correlations in vascular plants. In this issue of New Phytologist, Waite & Sack (pp. 156–172) have turned their attention to bryophytes, with some fascinating conclusions. During our schooldays we learn about ‘plants’ – the obvious plants around us, that is, vascular plants. Those of us who pursue the plant sciences further learn about the structure and physiol...

Hydrogen isotopic ratios of terrestrial plant leaf waxes (δD) have been widely used for paleoclimate reconstructions. However, underlying controls for the observed large variations in leaf wax δD values in different terrestrial vascular plants are still poorly understood, hampering quantitative paleoclimate interpretation. Here we report plant leaf wax and source water δD values from 102 plant ...

Leaf Veins The leaf vein is the “vascular system” in plants. In article 2201220 by Kelvin W. K. Yeung, Xin Zhao, and co-workers, a leaf-vein micropattern engraved on PGLADMA polymer membrane, serving as “running tracks” for vascular endothelial cells to facilitate hierarchical functional reconstruction. membrane can induce cell differentiation, vasculature reconstruction, vessel maturation.

Contrary to what might be expected from the observation of extant plants alone, the fossil record indicates that most aspects of vascular plant form evolved multiple times during their Paleozoic radiation. Opportunity is increasing to unite information from fossil and living plants to understand the evolution of developmental mechanisms and each field can provide tests for hypotheses derived fr...

The evolution of xylem was critical to the success of embryophytic land plants. According to the fossil record, the earliest terrestrial autotrophs were algae followed by bryophytes, simple organisms that lacked the ability to effi ciently transport water (Raven 1984 ; Sperry 2003 ; Taylor et al. 2009 ; Pittermann 2010 ). Like their ancestors, today’s non-vascular plants have essentially two op...

Interactions between vascular plants and bryophytes determine plant community composition in many ecosystems. Yet, little is known about the importance of interspecific differences between bryophytes with respect to their effects on vascular plants. We compared the extent to which species-specific bryophyte effects on vascular plant generative recruitment depend on the following underlying mech...

biodiversity plays a crucial role in stability and productivity of natural ecosystem. the main goal of this research was to classify ecological groups in steppe rangeland and investigate their relationships with plant diversity indices. therefore, fifty different land unit tracts (lut) were identified in khod-neuk basin, yazd province, iran, in 2010. vegetation and soil samples were taken in th...

The global latitudinal gradient in biodiversity weakens in the high polar biome and so an alternative explanation for distribution of Arctic and Antarctic photoautotrophs is required. Here we identify how temporal, microclimate and evolutionary drivers of biogeography are important, rather than the macroclimate features that drive plant diversity patterns elsewhere. High polar ecosystems are bi...

Biodiversity plays a crucial role in stability and productivity of natural ecosystem. The main goal of this research was to classify ecological groups in steppe rangeland and investigate their relationships with plant diversity indices. Therefore, fifty different Land Unit Tracts (LUT) were identified in Khod-Neuk basin, Yazd province, Iran, in 2010. Vegetation and soil samples were taken in th...