Kazakhstan Has an Unexpected Diversity of Medicinal Plants of the Genus (Acoraceae) and Could Be a Cradle of the Triploid Species .

The group, or sweet flag, includes important medicinal plants and is classified into three species: (diploid), (tetraploid), and (sterile triploid of hybrid origin). Members of the group are famous as components of traditional Indian medicine, and early researchers suggested the origin of the sweet flag in tropical Asia. Subsequent research led to an idea of the origin of the triploid in the Amur River basin in temperate Asia, because this was the only region where both diploids and tetraploids were known to co-occur and be capable of sexual reproduction.

Molecular Aspects of Gall Formation Induced by Mites and Insects.

Recent publications on gall formation induced on the leaves of dicotyledonous flowering plants by eriophyoid mites (Eriophyoidea) and representatives of four insect orders (Diptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera) are analyzed. Cellular and molecular level data on the stimuli that induce and sustain the development of both mite and insect galls, the expression of host plant genes during gallogenesis, and the effects of these galling arthropods on photosynthesis are considered. A hypothesis is proposed for the relationship between the size of galls and the volume of secretions injected by a parasite.

"Flora of Russia" on iNaturalist: a dataset.

Background: The "Flora of Russia" project on iNaturalist brought together professional scientists and amateur naturalists from all over the country. Over 10,000 people were involved in the data collection.

New Information: Within 20 months, the participants accumulated 750,143 photo observations of 6,857 species of the Russian flora.