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New Phytologist

Less chewing the cud, more greening the fuel

Making grasses more digestible promises improved feed for ruminants and better biomass for biofuel production, with economic and environmental benefits for both. Plant biomass contains considerable calorific value but most of it makes up robust cell walls, an unappetising evolutionary advantage that helped grasses to survive foragers and prosper for more than 60 million years. […]

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Plants smell different when they are eaten by different herbivores

  When they are attacked by herbivores, many plants call in reinforcements. To this end, they emit odours. These odours attract wasps, for example, that are parasites and in search for host animals. The wasps lay their eggs into the caterpillars, thereby killing them: this means fewer butterflies and voracious caterpillars in the next generation. […]

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