ReviewAmerican journal of botany2022
Diverse ecological functions and the convergent evolution of grass awns.
Review in American journal of botany, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- Awns Enhance the Thousand Seed Weight ofBiology · 2026Article
- Awn reduction in rice: Rethinking a classical signature of domestication.Plant communications · 2026Article
- To awn or not to awn: Revisiting the evolution of awnedness during rice domestication and improvement.Plant communications · 2026Review
- Effect of Awns on Photosynthesis and Yield of Triticale Under Water Deficit Compared to Flag Leaves.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Hygroscopic awns and inflorescence architecture in a wind-pollinated Australian monocot: functional convergence with grasses.Annals of botany · 2026Article
- A pendant awn phenotype linked to the EMBRYONIC FLOWER 1 LIKE (EMF1L) gene in barley.TAG. Theoretical and applied genetics. Theoretische und angewandte Genetik · 2025Article
- Putative 'Dispersal Adaptations' Do Not Explain the Colonisation of a Volcanic Island by Vascular Plants, but Birds Can.Ecology letters · 2025Article
- Developmental constraint underlies the replicated evolution of grass awns.The New phytologist · 2025Article
- Diaspore Dimorphism, Awn Hygroscopicity and Adaptive Significance in a Winter AnnualPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Crop Diversity in Agroecosystems for Pest Management and Food Production.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Melica as an emerging model system for comparative studies in temperate Pooideae grasses.Annals of botany · 2023Article
- Bristling with potential: evaluating the effects of awns on yield under heat stress.Journal of experimental botany · 2023Article
- EuDiS - A comprehensive database of the seed dispersal syndromes of the European flora.Biodiversity data journal · 2023Article
- Diverse ecological functions and the convergent evolution of grass awns.American journal of botany · 2022Review
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2 authors.
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Abstract
The awn of grasses is a long, conspicuous outgrowth of the floral bracts in a grass spikelet. It is known to impact agricultural yield, but we know little about its broader ecological function, nor the selective forces that lead to its evolution. Grass awns are phenotypically diverse across the extant ~12,000 species of Poaceae. Awns have been lost and gained repeatedly over evolutionary time, between and within lineages, suggesting that they could be under selection and might provide adaptive benefit in some environments. Despite the phylogenetic context, we know of no studies that have tested whether the origin of awns correlates with putative selective forces on their form and function. Presence or absence of awns is not plastic; rather, heritability is high. The awns of grasses often are suggested as adaptations for dispersal, and most experimental work has been aimed at testing this hypothesis. Proposed dispersal functions include soil burial, epizoochory, and aerial orientation. Awns may also protect the seed from drought, herbivores, or fire by helping it become buried in soil. We do not fully understand the fitness or nutrient costs of awn production, but in some species awns function in photosynthesis, providing carbon to the seed. Here we show that awns likely provide an adaptive advantage, but argue that studies on awn function have lacked critical phylogenetic information to demonstrate adaptive convergent evolution, are taxonomically biased, and often lack clear alternative hypotheses.
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