Botany

This article focuses on the question of "Can plants' flowers be eaten?" and introduces that plants' flowers can be eaten in addition to being used for ornamental purposes. It lists the nutritional value, medicinal effects, precautions for consumption, flower head structure, and related gene research of various edible flowers such as daylilies, cauliflowers, chrysanthemums, etc. It also mentions various edible flowers including plum blossoms, white magnolias, locust blossoms, wisteria, and hibiscus.

This article focuses on the question of "why flowering heads come in such a variety of forms", and introduces the specific manifestations of the morphological changes of flowering heads, the characteristics and classification of limited and unlimited flowering heads according to the order of flowering, and also mentions the situation of mixed flowering heads of the two types and relevant views on the evolution of flowering heads.

This article focuses on the phenomenon that some flowers on a single branch only bloom one flower, while others bloom multiple flowers. It introduces the definitions of solitary flowers and inflorescences, the formation mechanism of the number of flowers on a branch, the classification of inflorescences, and the role of related regulatory genes.

This article focuses on the question of how flowers of various shapes are formed, and introduces the ABC model of floral organ development proposed based on the study of abnormal mutants of flower development in model plants such as Arabidopsis and Antirrhinum, as well as the subsequent molecular mechanism of flower development that was modified to the ABCDE quartet model after the discovery of the E functional gene.

This article focuses on the phenomenon of the Centenary Palm's leaves "living for a hundred years", introducing the morphological characteristics of the Centenary Palm and its leaves, which grow and die together with the plant, do not replace after growing, and can usually survive for more than 100 years. It also explains the reasons why its leaves do not fall off, including living in the tropics without needing to withstand the cold, the sea fog in the near-shore desert providing water for its growth, and not losing leaves to save a large amount of material resources.

This article answers the question of why the leaves of coconut trees are all clustered at the top of the trunk, pointing out that coconut trees cannot grow side branches because they lack a cambium layer and only have growth points at the top of the stem. As the old leaves fall off and new leaves continue to sprout at the top of the trunk with growth, the leaves are all clustered at the top of the trunk. It also mentions that the annular leaf scars on the trunks of mature coconut trees are traces of old leaves falling off, which can be used as stepping stones for picking coconuts.

This article focuses on the phenomenon that most leaves are in the form of thin plates, and explains its biological significance of expanding the leaf surface area to absorb more sunlight and carbon dioxide, thus conducting photosynthesis more efficiently. It also introduces that some plants evolve into small needle-like leaves or even completely degenerated leaves to adapt to specific living environments such as drought.

This article conducts a popular science explanation on the question of where the leaves of the bamboo plant are located, pointing out that the parts people commonly see as bamboo leaves are actually its stems and branches. The real leaves of the bamboo plant have degenerated into small white scales without chlorophyll, relying on the green stems for photosynthesis.

This article focuses on why the leaves of the king lily can support a child. It introduces the giant leaf morphological characteristics of the king lily, an aquatic plant native to the tropical regions of South America, and explains it from two aspects: the large contact area between the leaves and the water surface, the rolled edges increasing the drainage volume, the small concave air pockets in the leaves providing sufficient buoyancy, and the large veins on the back of the leaves forming a support structure that conforms to mechanical principles. At the same time, it mentions that scientists' tests show that a king lily leaf with a diameter of 1.2 meters can bear a weight of 20-30 kilograms, which exceeds the weight of a child.

This article focuses on the question of "why do water droplets on lotus leaves turn into 'pearls'?" It introduces the basic form of lotus leaves, explains the principle that the combination of the wax-like surface, micron-scale protrusions, and nanometer-scale hair-like structures on lotus leaves produces extremely strong hydrophobicity (i.e., the lotus leaf's self-cleaning effect), and also illustrates the prevalence and function of this self-cleaning effect in other plants and some animals.

This article explains why strawberries are "fruits that can climb". It introduces that strawberries are creeping herbaceous plants harvested in spring, which rely on creeping stems that can crawl on the ground, produce adventitious roots on the nodes, and sprout new plants for creeping reproduction. A small number of planted strawberries can cover a large area of ground in the second and third years. At the same time, it explains that the creeping stems of strawberries belong to modified stems, and plants such as sweet potatoes, snakeberries, and orchids also have creeping stems.

This article takes "Why can ivy climb up high walls" as the core question, introduces the characteristics of ivy climbing by using suction cups on its branches, explains the microscopic structure and mechanism of action of the strong adhesive force of ivy suction cups, and elaborates on the application value of related research in fields such as artificial adhesives, biomedicine, bionics, and nanotechnology