Plant diversity in a changing world: Status, trends, and conservation needs
February 2016
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...
Share article
Ethiopian vegetation types, climate and topography
August 2020
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...
Share article
Pollinator diversity benefits natural and agricultural ecosystems, environmental health, and human welfare
September 2022
Biodiversity loss during the Anthropocene is a serious ecological challenge. Pollinators are important vectors that provide multiple essential ecosystem services but are declining rapidly in this changing...
Share article
The role of botanical gardens in scientific research, conservation, and citizen science
August 2018
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...
Share article
U.PhyloMaker: An R package that can generate large phylogenetic trees for plants and animals
Available online 24 December 2022
The previously released packages of the PhyloMaker series (i.e. S.PhyloMaker, V.PhyloMaker, and V.PhyloMaker2) have been broadly used to generate phylogenetic trees for ecological and biogeographical...
Share article
Recent advances on phylogenomics of gymnosperms and a new classification
July 2022
Living gymnosperms comprise four major groups: cycads, Ginkgo, conifers, and gnetophytes. Relationships among/within these lineages have not been fully resolved. Next generation sequencing has made...
Share article
Physiological diversity of orchids
August 2018
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...
Share article
V.PhyloMaker2: An updated and enlarged R package that can generate very large phylogenies for vascular plants
July 2022
An earlier version of V.PhyloMaker has been broadly used to generate phylogenetic trees of vascular plants for botanical, biogeographical and ecological studies. Here, we update and enlarge this package,...
Share article
Global patterns of taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity of flowering plants: Biodiversity hotspots and coldspots
Available online 4 February 2023
Species diversity of angiosperms (flowering plants) varies greatly among regions. Geographic patterns of variation in species diversity are shaped by the interplay of ecological and evolutionary processes....
Share article
U.Taxonstand: An R package for standardizing scientific names of plants and animals
January 2023
The scientific names of organisms are key identifiers of plants and animals. Correctly treating scientific names is a prerequisite for biodiversity research and documentation. Here, we present an R...
Share article
Patterns of floristic inventory and plant collections in Myanmar
Available online 4 February 2023
Myanmar is one of the most biodiverse countries in the Asia–Pacific region due to a wide range of climatic and environmental heterogeneity. Floristic diversity in Myanmar is largely unknown, resulting...
Share article
The identity of Dinochloa species and enumeration of Melocalamus (Poaceae: Bambusoideae) in China
March 2023
Three woody bamboo species collected in Hainan, China in 1940 have been described as Dinochloa based on vegetative specimens. However, the identity of these species has long been in doubt, largely because...
Share article
Integrating genomic and morphological data into bamboo taxonomic and evolutionary studies
March 2023
Share article
The tropical-subtropical evergreen forest transition in East Asia: An exploration
August 2020
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...
Share article
Why is the beautyberry so colourful? Evolution, biogeography, and diversification of fruit colours in Callicarpa (Lamiaceae)
January 2023
Fruit colour is essential to seed dispersal, speciation, and biological diversity in global ecosystems. The relationship between fruit-colour variation and species diversification has long been of interest...
Share article
Testing complete plastomes and nuclear ribosomal DNA sequences for species identification in a taxonomically difficult bamboo genus Fargesia
March 2023
Fargesia, the largest genus within the temperate bamboo tribe Arundinarieae, has more than 90 species mainly distributed in the mountains of Southwest China. The Fargesia bamboos are important components...
Share article
New insights into intergeneric relationships of Hickeliinae (Poaceae: Bambusoideae) revealed by complete plastid genomes
March 2023
The Hickeliinae (Poaceae: Bambusoideae) is an ecologically and economically significant subtribe of tropical bamboos restricted to Madagascar, Comoros, Reunion Island, and a small part of continental...
Share article
ROS and oxidative burst: Roots in plant development
February 2020
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...
Share article
Are phylogenies resolved at the genus level appropriate for studies on phylogenetic structure of species assemblages?
August 2021
Phylogenies are essential to studies investigating the effect of evolutionary history on assembly of species in ecological communities and geographical and ecological patterns of phylogenetic structure...
Share article
Maintaining biodiversity will define our long-term success
August 2020
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....
Share article
An ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants in Güce district, north-eastern Turkey
November 2022
This study aims to identify medicinal plants traditionally used to treat diseases by local people living in Güce district, north-eastern Turkey. The study was carried out between 2018 and 2021 using...
Share article
Ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants traded in herbal markets of Kahramanmaraş
December 2020
Most people in the world still use medicinal plants to treat and prevent disease. In Anatolia, studies have shown that people have used plants for centuries to treat many diseases. Herbal markets play...
Share article
Potential distributional shifts in North America of allelopathic invasive plant species under climate change models
January 2022
Predictive studies play a crucial role in the study of biological invasions of terrestrial plants under possible climate change scenarios. Invasive species are recognized for their ability to modify...
Share article
Spatial phylogenetics of two topographic extremes of the Hengduan Mountains in southwestern China and its implications for biodiversity conservation
June 2021
Previous attempts to elucidate the drivers of speciation mechanisms and spatial distribution patterns of biodiversity in mountain regions have treated different floras within a single geological region...
Share article
Plant diversity in Yunnan: Current status and future directions
August 2020
Yunnan, located in southwestern China, harbors more than 19,000 higher plants, which represents the highest plant diversity in the country. However, plant diversity in Yunnan faces enormous threats...
Share article
