The attraction of monkeyflowers | Science

summary

Yaowu Yuan's passion for monkey flowers began with a slide show of mutants. The variety of their flowers convinced him that he could study these weeds to understand the development of flowers in general. He is one of the growing number of biologists who have fallen under the spell of these plants, which can thrive in environments that are too difficult for most plants. As the traditional laboratory animal workhorse of plant scientists, mustard Arabidopsis thaliana, monkeyflowers grow rapidly, produce many seeds and have a simple genome, attractive traits for laboratory studies. But they also have a lot more variety. Some researchers are exploring the unusual adaptations of monkeyflowers. But others make it a window into widespread biological processes, such as the genetic basis of color patterns or how plants evolve faster than animals. The field may even have its first serious controversy: some researchers reject a recent revision of the monkeyflower family tree.