The leaves of Alstonia scholaris (L.) R. Br. (Apocynaceae) have been historically used in “dai” ethnopharmacy to treat chronic respiratory diseases in the Yunnan Province PR China and first recorded on the Prattra-leaf lection.
Glucose is the primary source of energy and substrate for cells, and its uptake through the cell plasma membrane is largely dependent on the glucose transport (GLUT) family.
Due to complicated pattern of compositional affinities within floral biotas, traditional methods may be challenging for defining floristic units, especially focusing on the smaller floristic sub regions.
Species identification is the keystone of biodiversity conservation. For the endangered and economically important IUCN- and CITES- listed taxa, a rapid and accurate species identification system is a critical component of bio-surveillance, conservation management, and potentially policing illegal trades, which in turn will mitigate the extinction risk of biodiversity.
Flowers are one of the key evolutionary innovations that characterize angiosperm diversification, with selection of floral traits by pollinators considered to be an important driver of this diversity.
Herbal teas, defined as water based infusions/decoctions prepared with herbal ingredients other than Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze (Theaceae) have long been consumed by Chinese people for preventive and/or therapeutic healthcare.
Early-diverging land plants have relatively simple morphologies and structures, but they have a strong ability to adapt to terrestrial environments. Previous studies have shown that lineage-specific genes played an important role in the adaptation of early-diverging land plants, but how these genes originated and evolved remains elusive.
Woody debris (WD) is a critical but often overlooked component of forest ecosystems. WD represents a globally significant carbon stock, and its decomposition returns nutrients to the soil while providing habitat to microbes, plants and animals. Understanding what drives WD decomposition is therefore vitally important when building models of climate change and nutrient cycles.
It has long been known that when a plant is attacked by herbivores, defense responses are generated, which travels from the wounded organ to other parts of the plant that thwarts further attack by the herbivores. Many parasites, especially the holoparasitic ones, usually have highly altered morphologies, special ecology, and evolutionary histories. How parasites respond to insect herbivory and ...
