Introduction:  Plants are a rich source of phenolic compounds that as natural antioxidants prevent oxidative stress and are very good for health. Ziziphora clinopodioides belongs to Lamiaceae family and its aerial parts are used in pharmaceutical and food industries. It is effective in the treatment of heart disorders, cold, depression, diarrhea, coughing, migraine and...

We present a model for the gradual evolution towards dioecy in cosexual plants with geitonogamous selfing. We show how geitonogamous selfing (i.e., transfer of pollen between flowers on the same plant) can facilitate the evolution of dioecy (i.e., separate male and female individuals) in cosexual plants (i.e., both sexual functions on the same plant). We study the effect of parameters such as i...

Recent phylogenetic reconstructions suggest that axially condensed flower-like structures evolved iteratively in seed plants from either simple or compound strobili. The simple-strobilus model of flower evolution, widely applied to the angiosperm flower, interprets the inflorescence as a compound strobilus. The conifer cone and the gnetalean 'flower' are commonly interpreted as having evolved f...

Changes in gene expression during flower formation were studied in the long-day plant Sinapis alba. The day length dependence was exploited to synchronize flower formation in a large population of mustard plants. After an inductive light treatment, apices were harvested after different lengths of time, and changes in gene expression were analyzed. Two major groups of genes were identified whose...

Plants are unique in their ability to continuously produce new meristems and organ primordia. In Arabidopsis, the transcription factor LEAFY (LFY) functions as a master regulator of a gene network that is important for floral meristem and organ specification. UNUSUAL FLORAL ORGANS (UFO) is a co-activator of LEAFY and is required for proper activation of APETALA3 in the floral meristem during th...

The present study was carried out to investigate biochemical responses of marigold (Calendula officinalis L.) to Bio-organic fertilizers. Effects of co-inoculation of two plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) (Azotobacter sp.145PI and Azospirillum sp.AC49I), humic acid (HA) (10 kg ha−1), vermicompost (VC) (7 T ha−1) and combinations of these treatments were evaluated in two marigold culti...

A new model to analyse reciprocal transfer experiments to assess stages of photoperiod sensitivity in Antirrhinum has been validated in the present study. Flowering time and leaf numbers data of Antirrhinum cultivars Chimes White, Liberty White, Ariane, Winter Euro Rose, Sonnet and Rocket Orchid were used for the validation of the model. Six plants of each cultivar were transferred from LD to S...

Body size is one of the most important factors regarding herbaceous perennial plants life-histories, and several fitness components of these organisms are related to size. Clonal plants show distinct kinds of reproduction and can develop offspring by sexual or asexual ways. We aimed to understand how body size affects Comanthera nivea (Eriocaulaceae) sexual reproduction and to verify how clonal...

BACKGROUND Radix notoginseng is used in Chinese medicine to improve blood circulation and clotting; however, the pharmacological activities of other parts of Panax notoginseng have yet to be explored. The present study reports the anti-oxidative effects of various parts of Panax notoginseng. METHODS Various parts of Panax notoginseng, including the biennial flower, stem-leaf, root-rhizome, fi...

violet is one of the ornamental plants with a good value in landscaping and herbal medicine. salicylic acid is a signaling agent involving in secondary metabolite production. the aim of this study was to evaluate the physiological responses of violet flowers to exogenous salicylic acid. this experiment was conducted in the greenhouse, as a completely randomized design. salicylic acid was spraye...