News Story

New research: exploring the reproductive complexity of plants

Wednesday 14 Jan 2026

New research published in the high-profile journal Science has explored the reproductive complexity of plants.

The researchers found that the reproductive complexity of plants increased in two separate pulses during the course of plant evolution.

The first occurred in the late Devonian around 375 million years ago as plants conquered the land, and the second occurred in the Cretaceous around 125 million years ago as flowering plants diversified.

The researchers included Luke Mander from EEES, Andrew Leslie from Stanford University (USA) and Carl Simpson from University of Colorado Museum of Natural History (USA).