News

The deceptive daisy which has remixed its genes to make fake female fliesResearchers, led by CUBG Director, Professor Beverley Glover, have discovered how a South African daisy makes fake female flies on its petals to trick male flies into pollinating it.A male fly approaches a flower, lands on top of what he thinks is a female fly, and jiggles aro…

Moonflower flowering 2023 – timelapseWe were thrilled when our Moonflower cactus plant Strophocactus wittii looked set to flower again in March 2023. And, as with its predecessor in 2021, this flower also opened during the day!Thousands watched the flowering in real time on the Garden’s livestream, but we also took photos using a timelapse camera.W…

If crop science continues to advance at the pace it has over the last two decades, we hope secure, sustainable and affordable food could be only a further decade away. This is according to a research review by scientists at the Crop Science Centre, which has summarised the last ten years of dramatic advances on the topic of how legumes use benefici…

Tip of the Apex: 100 important questions for future Plant ScientistsUpdated list shows striking prominence of climate change and its effects.The Department’s Dr Cerian Webb has contributed to a study to identify 100 important questions facing plant science research, published today in New Phyologist (here and here)The project collected over 600 que…

Embracing Equity - celebrating International Womens Day 2023Head of Department Professor Julian Hibberd shares his thoughts on Embracing Equality #EmbraceequityFor International Women’s Day 2023, I want to take the opportunity to celebrate and amplify the achievements of some of the remarkable women associated with the department, and reconfirm our…

Virus infection helps make tomato plants more successful fathersGene flow boost may aid development of virus-susceptible plant populationsDr Alexandra Murphy and her colleagues in the Virology and Molecular Plant Pathology group have discovered that bumblebees can preferentially boost the transfer of male genes in virus-infected tomato plants, whic…

Predicting threats to food securityHow mathematical modelling can prevent crop devastation and preserve livelihoods.Impact at a glance:Forecasting wheat rust disease to enable up to 500,000 smallholder farmers in Ethiopia to take timely preventative action.Predicting the spread of, and control options for, cassava brown streak disease in ten countr…

C4 plants slower than C3 plants to engage photosynthesis as light levels increasePhotosynthesis is the fundamental basis of life on land – plants use the process to convert light and carbon dioxide into energy for their growth, and produce oxygen as a byproduct. Some plants, mostly in tropical and subtropical regions, have evolved a more efficient …

Pulses are packed with goodness: Five cool things you should know about themWritten by Dr Nadia RadzmanEach year on February 10, the United Nations commemorates what probably sounds to many like a strange occasion: World Pulses Day.But, as a researcher focused on forgotten and underutilised legumes, I think the initiative is an important step towar…

New imaging protocol to help identify drought-tolerant plantsStandardised, low-cost, widely-applicable protocol eliminates common methodological error and improves data quality and reproducibility.A new protocol for monitoring water stress in pot-grown plants has been develop by Daniel Ginzburg, PhD student and scientist in the department and at th…

Cambridge-led consortium receives $35m to boost crop production sustainably in sub-Saharan AfricaA Cambridge-led consortium has received US$35m (£28m) over five years to develop sustainable solutions to increasing the yields of small-scale farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, without the need for costly and polluting inorganic fertilisers. The grant, fro…

Low-cost sensor enables continuous monitoring of pH in tomato xylem sapPrecision agriculture enables farmers to closely monitor the status of their crops (such as nutrients, pests and diseases, and water stress) in real time, and use that information to apply just the right amount of management input in the right place to ensure the plant grows opt…

New model increases vegetation prediction accuracy in Himalayan glacier melt zonesNew model increases vegetation prediction accuracy in Himalayan glacier melt zonesGreening dominated by grasslands as vegetation line shifts upwards by 7 – 28 m each year.Climate warming has long been known to cause glaciers to melt and ‘retreat’ up the mountain to hi…

CUBG records its busiest ever yearLast year was the CUBG’s busiest ever, with a record 345, 251 visitors enjoying the Garden’s 40 acres and living plant collection.CUBG Director Beverley Glover says: “It’s been a joy to welcome so many visitors to the Garden, especially after the challenging last few years. During and since the outbreak of COVID-1…

Beneficial fungi induce lateral root development via a generic mechanismResearch by Crop Science Centre scientists’ sheds light on the relationship between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and lateral root development in angiosperms.Professor Uta Paszkowski, an author of this research, said “This is a significant clarification of the molecular mechanis…