Pinus is a diverse genus of trees widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere.
Understanding pine life history is critical to both conservation and fire management. Here I …

The savannahs of Asia remain locally unrecognized as distinctive ecosystems, and continue
to be viewed as degraded forests or seasonally dry tropical forests. These colonial-era …

How coniferous forests evolved in the Northern Hemisphere remains largely unknown.
Unlike most groups of organisms that generally follow a latitudinal diversity gradient, most …

Brown rot decay removes cellulose and hemicellulose from wood—residual lignin
contributing up to 30% of forest soil carbon—and is derived from an ancestral white rot …

Background Molecular evolutionary studies share the common goal of elucidating historical
relationships, and the common challenge of adequately sampling taxa and characters …

There is increasing evidence that geographic and climatic clines drive the patterns of plant
defence allocation and defensive strategies. We quantified early growth rate and both …

Living gymnosperms comprise only a little more than 1000 species, but represent four of the
five main lineages of seed plants, including cycads, ginkgos, gnetophytes and conifers. This …

“Sanghuang” is a popular fungus used as a Chinese traditional medicine. In fact, it
represents a group of fungi belonging to the genus Sanghuangporus, but little is known …

The Chir Pine, Pinus roxburghii, named after William Roxburgh, is a pine native to the
Himalaya. Pinus roxburghii Sarg.(Pinaceae) is traditionally used for several medicinal …

Studies over the past ten years have shown that the crown groups of most conifer genera
are only about 15–25 Ma old. The genus Picea (spruces, Pinaceae), with around 35 …