Mistletoes play important roles in biogeochemical cycles. Although many studies have compared nutrient concentrations between mistletoes and their hosts, no general patterns have been found and the nutrient uptake mechanisms in mistletoes have not been fully resolved. To address the water and...

Fabaceae, the third-largest Angiosperm family, exhibits great morphological diversity with significantly high species diversification rate. Albizia, one of the largest genera of the legume family, possesses high ecological, economical and medicinal application prospects and displays a global...

Herbivorous insects from diverse feeding guild cause defoliation with different intensity and dissimilar tissue effects. We studied the effects on water relations and morpho-structural and hydraulic traits of Prunus avium leaves caused by two different patterns of artificial herbivory (the window...

Plants from arid environments display covarying traits to survive or resist drought. Plant drought resistance and ability to survive long periods of low soil water availability should involve leaf phenology coordination with leaf and stem functional traits related to water status. This study tested ...

As an interesting and important trait of some drought-tolerant species, heteromorphic leaves are distributed differentially along plant vertical heights. However, the underpinning mechanism for the formation of heteromorphic leaves remains unclear. We hypothesize that heteromorphic leaves are...

The Lauraceae is a family of the order Laurales, with 2500-3000 species comprising 50 genera, mainly distributed in tropical and subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests. Up to two decades ago, the systematic classification of the Lauraceae was based on floral morphology, but molecular...

The genus Pinus has wide geographical range and includes species that are the most economically valued among forest trees worldwide. Pine needle length varies greatly among species, but the effects of needle length on anatomy, function, and coordination and trade-offs among traits are poorly...

Root water uptake induces additional soil suction by soil water extraction. However, induced soil suction restricts root water uptake when beyond a threshold (s_t) and tends to stop water uptake at a limiting suction (s_l). This process is called root-soil hydraulic interactions, whose relationship...

World-wide, forests are experiencing drought-induced mortality. However, physiological adaptation to drought is highly variable, which may lead to differential mortality patterns and alter community structure. In this study, saplings of four common tree species (Ormosia pinnata, Dalbergia odorifera...

Background and Aims: Allometric scaling between stomata and xylem for terrestrial woody plants is a widely observed pattern that may be constrained by water transport. Floating-leaved plants, a particular life form of aquatic plants, have leaves in direct contact with both air and water and a...