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Most Downloaded Plant Diversity Articles
1. The role of botanical gardens in scientific research, conservation, and citizen science
August 2018
Gao Chen | Weibang Sun
Plant diversity is currently being lost at an unprecedented rate, resulting in an associated decrease in ecosystem services. About a third of the world's vascular plant species face the threat of extinction...
2. Plant diversity in a changing world: Status, trends, and conservation needs
February 2016
Richard T. Corlett
The conservation of plants has not generated the sense of urgency—or the funding—that drives the conservation of animals, although plants are far more important for us. There are an estimated 500,000...
3. Physiological diversity of orchids
August 2018
Shibao Zhang | Yingjie Yang | Jiawei Li | Jiao Qin | Wei Zhang | Wei Huang | Hong Hu
The Orchidaceae is a diverse and wide spread family of flowering plants that are of great value in ornamental, medical, conservation, and evolutionary research. The broad diversity in morphology, growth...
4. Diversity and conservation of Chinese wild begonias
June 2018
Daike Tian | Yan Xiao | Yi Tong | Naifeng Fu | Qingqing Liu | Chun Li
Begonia, one of the most diverse plant taxa and the fifth or sixth largest angiosperm genus, consists of over 1800 accepted species. The number of species recognized within this genus has greatly increased...
5. ROS and oxidative burst: Roots in plant development
February 2020
Anuj Choudhary | Antul Kumar | Nirmaljit Kaur
Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are widely generated in various redox reactions in plants. In earlier studies, ROS were considered toxic byproducts of aerobic metabolism. In recent years, it has become...
6. Safeguarding our future by protecting biodiversity
Available online 20 May 2020
Richard T. Corlett
The Anthropocene is marked by twin crises: climate change and biodiversity loss. Climate change has tended to dominate the headlines, reflecting, in part, the greater complexity of the biodiversity...
7. Revision of Senegalia in China, and notes on introduced species of Acacia, Acaciella, Senegalia and Vachellia (Leguminosae: Mimosoideae)
December 2019
Bruce R. Maslin | Boon Chuan Ho | Hang Sun | Lin Bai
The present work represents the first comprehensive taxonomic revision of Acacia sens. lat. (Leguminosae: Mimosoideae) in China, focusing on the indigenous species. Critical reassessments of specimens...
8. Effect of salinity on seed germination, growth and ion content in dimorphic seeds of Salicornia europaea L. (Chenopodiaceae)
August 2016
Nikolai Orlovsky | Ulbasyn Japakova | Huifan Zhang | Sergei Volis
The halophyte Salicornia europaea L. is a widely distributed salt-tolerant plant species that produces numerous dimorphic seeds. We studied germination and recovery in dimorphic seeds of Central Asian...
9. Tibet, the Himalaya, Asian monsoons and biodiversity – In what ways are they related?
October 2017
Robert A. Spicer
Prevailing dogma asserts that the uplift of Tibet, the onset of the Asian monsoon system and high biodiversity in southern Asia are linked, and that all occurred after 23 million years ago in the Neogene....
10. Ethiopian vegetation types, climate and topography
Available online 25 May 2020
Mengesha Asefa | Min Cao | Yunyun He | Ewuketu Mekonnen | Xiaoyang Song | Yang Jie
Ethiopia is land of geographical contrasts with elevations that range from 125 m below sea level in the Danakil Depression to 4533 m above sea level in the Semien Mountains, a world heritage site. The...
11. The contribution of botanic gardens to ex situ conservation through seed banking
December 2017
Katherine O'Donnell | Suzanne Sharrock
Target 8 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation calls for ‘at least 75 per cent of threatened plant species in ex situ collections, preferably in the country of origin, and at least 20 per cent...
12. Plant conservation in the Anthropocene – Challenges and future prospects
December 2017
Vernon H. Heywood
Despite the massive efforts that have been made to conserve plant diversity across the world during the past few decades, it is becoming increasingly evident that our current strategies are not sufficiently...
13. A new subtribal classification of Arundinarieae (Poaceae, Bambusoideae) with the description of a new genus
June 2020
Yu-Xiao Zhang | Cen Guo | De-Zhu Li
A new subtribal classification of the woody bamboo tribe Arundinarieae is proposed based on recent phylogenomic studies. Five subtribes, corresponding to the five major lineages of the ddRAD-seq based...
14. The tropical-subtropical evergreen forest transition in East Asia: An exploration
Available online 25 May 2020
Peter Ashton | Hua Zhu
The transition from tropical to subtropical (warm temperate) evergreen forests is more clearly apparent in East Asia, from Nepal to the western Pacific coast, than elsewhere in the tropics. We review...
15. Botanic gardens should lead the way to create a “Garden Earth” in the Anthropocene
December 2017
Charles H. Cannon | Chai-Shian Kua
The strength and expertise that botanic gardens bring to conservation are based on their detailed knowledge and understanding of the care, management, and biology of a diversity of plant species. This...
16. Conserving plants within and beyond protected areas – still problematic and future uncertain
April 2019
Vernon H. Heywood
Against a background of continuing loss of biodiversity, it is argued that for the successful conservation of threatened plant species we need to ensure the more effective integration of the various...
17. Recovery of threatened plant species and their habitats in the biodiversity hotspot of the Southwest Australian Floristic Region
April 2019
Leonie Monks | Sarah Barrett | Brett Beecham | Margaret Byrne | Alanna Chant | David Coates | J. Anne Cochrane | Andrew Crawford | Rebecca Dillon | Colin Yates
The Southwest Australian Floristic Region (SWAFR) is a global biodiversity hotspot with high plant diversity and endemism and a broad range of threatening processes. An outcome of this is a high proportion...
18. Current understanding of maize and rice defense against insect herbivores
August 2018
Jinfeng Qi | Saif ul Malook | Guojing Shen | Lei Gao | Cuiping Zhang | Jing Li | Jingxiong Zhang | Lei Wang | Jianqiang Wu
Plants have sophisticated defense systems to fend off insect herbivores. How plants defend against herbivores in dicotyledonous plants, such as Arabidopsis and tobacco, have been relatively well studied,...
19. A comparison of different methods for preserving plant molecular materials and the effect of degraded DNA on ddRAD sequencing
June 2018
Ying Guo | GuoQian Yang | Yunmei Chen | Dezhu Li | Zhenhua Guo
Obtaining high-quality plant materials for experiments is challenging for many research projects. Therefore, it is of special importance to determine the best method for preserving biological macromolecules...
20. Conservation-oriented restoration – a two for one method to restore both threatened species and their habitats
April 2019
Sergei Volis
There is an urgent need for a new conservation approach as mere designation of protected areas, the primary approach to conserving biodiversity, revealed its low conservation efficiency and inability...
21. Pollination ecology in China from 1977 to 2017
August 2018
Zongxin Ren | Yanhui Zhao | Huan Liang | Zhibin Tao | Hui Tang | Haiping Zhang | Hong Wang
China is one of most biodiverse countries in the world, containing at least 10% of all angiosperm species. Therefore, we should anticipate a diverse, pollinator fauna. China also has a long history...
22. How to conserve threatened Chinese plant species with extremely small populations?
February 2016
Sergei Volis
The Chinese flora occupies a unique position in global plant diversity, but is severely threatened. Although biodiversity conservation in China has made significant progress over the past decades, many...
23. Maintaining biodiversity will define our long-term success
Available online 13 June 2020
Peter Raven | Mathis Wackernagel
Human beings are not only a part of our planet's ecosystems, but also, they are massively overusing them. This makes ecosystem protection, including biodiversity preservation, vital for humanity's future....
24. History and conservation of wild and cultivated plant diversity in Uganda: Forest species and banana varieties as case studies
February 2016
Alan C. Hamilton | Deborah Karamura | Esezah Kakudidi
The history of wild and cultivated plant diversity in Uganda is reviewed, taking forest species and bananas as examples. Palynological research into past human influences on forests is reassessed. The...
25. Center for Plant Conservation's Best Practice Guidelines for the reintroduction of rare plants
December 2017
Joyce Maschinski | Matthew A. Albrecht
Recent estimates indicate that one-fifth of botanical species worldwide are considered at risk of becoming extinct in the wild. One available strategy for conserving many rare plant species is reintroduction,...
