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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Phylogeny, character evolution, and classification of Selaginellaceae (lycophytes)
Available online 20 July 2023
Selaginella is the largest and most taxonomically complex genus in lycophytes. The fact that over 750 species are currently treated in a single genus makes Selaginellales/Selaginellaceae unique in pteridophytes....
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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...
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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,...
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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...
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Two new species from Sulawesi and Borneo facilitate phylogeny and taxonomic revision of Engelhardia (Juglandaceae)
November 2022
Engelhardia, a genus of Juglandaceae (the walnut family), is endemic to tropical and subtropical Asia. The rich Cenozoic fossil records and distinctive morphological characters of the living plants...
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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...
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Transcriptome and carotenoid profiling of different varieties of Coffea arabica provides insights into fruit color formation
May 2022
The processability and ultimate quality of coffee (Coffea arabica) are determined by the composition of the matured fruits. The basis of genetic variation in coffee fruit quality could be explained...
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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...
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Integrating genomic and morphological data into bamboo taxonomic and evolutionary studies
March 2023
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U.PhyloMaker: An R package that can generate large phylogenetic trees for plants and animals
May 2023
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...
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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...
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Species richness patterns and the determinants of larch forests in China
September 2022
Larch forests are important for species diversity, as well as soil and water conservation in mountain regions. In this study, we determined large-scale patterns of species richness in larch forests...
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Germplasm resources of three wood plant species enriched with nervonic acid
May 2022
Nervonic acid (NA) is a very-long-chain monounsaturated fatty acid with pharmaceutical and nutraceutical functions that plays an important role in treating several neurological disorders. One major...
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Distribution patterns and industry planning of commonly used traditional Chinese medicinal plants in China
May 2022
Medicinal plants are the primary material basis for disease prevention and treatment in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). The conservation and sustainable utilization of these medicinal plants is...
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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....
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Molecular phylogeny and inflorescence evolution of Prunus (Rosaceae) based on RAD-seq and genome skimming analyses
July 2023
Prunus is an economically important genus widely distributed in the temperate Northern Hemisphere. Previous studies on the genus using a variety of loci yielded conflicting phylogenetic hypotheses....
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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...
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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...
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Lycophyte transcriptomes reveal two whole-genome duplications in Lycopodiaceae: Insights into the polyploidization of Phlegmariurus
May 2022
Lycophytes are an ancient clade of the non-flowering vascular plants with chromosome numbers that vary from tens to hundreds. They are an excellent study system for examining whole-genome duplications...
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Phylogenetic endemism of the orchids of Megamexico reveals complementary areas for conservation
July 2022
Orchid diversity provides a unique opportunity to further our understanding of biotic and abiotic factors linked to patterns of richness, endemism, and phylogenetic endemism in many regions. However,...
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