A cross-disciplinary Open Access journal focusing on the connections between plant science and society, is launched by the Lancaster University-based New Phytologist Trust.

Plants, People, Planet aims to celebrate everything new, innovative and exciting in plant sciences that is relevant to society and peoples’ daily lives across six themes:

• Plants and society
• Plant conservation
• Plant genomics applications
• Plant diversity
• Plants and global change
• Plant natural assets

Societal Impact Statements will highlight how each contributed article is relevant to society.

Issue 1 includes articles covering:

• Insights into the unbreakable bond between people and plants by Sandra Knapp from the Natural History Museum, London;
• Seven ways for plant scientists to protect the planet’s plant diversity by Peter Raven of Missouri Botanical Garden;
• The challenge for botanical gardens by Paul Smith from Botanic Gardens Conservation International;
• An introduction to Hydnora, possibly the world’s strangest plant, by Chris Thorogood of Oxford Botanical Garden.

A series of videos are also being published to complement the articles.

Bennett Young, Managing Editor of Plants, People, Planet, said: “Our complex relationship with plants shapes societies, cultures, and the Earth’s ecosystems, resulting in the world as we know it today. As the human race grows the work of plant scientists has never been more important, as it seeks to meet the global challenges of the 21st Century.”

Professor Simon Hiscock from the University of Oxford is Editor-in-Chief and Dr Paul Wilkin from the Royal Botanic Gardens is Deputy Editor-in-Chief.

The New Phytologist Trust, which owns and produces the new peer-reviewed journal is the not-for-profit organisation behind the peer-reviewed plant science journal, New Phytologist, which was founded by Sir Arthur Tansley over 100 years ago.

See videos about the articles in Issue 1:

The image for this article is taken from the Plants, People, Planet volume 1 issue 1 cover image: during springtime in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, Nemophila flowers form a blue carpet that attracts crowds of people who queue up to admire this beautiful event. Image courtesy of Tetsuo Wada/Aflo, edited by Simon Chew