ON THE COVER

Date palm employs remote germination to protect its meristems from surrounding hostile desert environment. Xiao et al. (pp 1751–1766) show that, after a developmental pause, the embryo develops and generates a seedling that remains protected within the cotyledonary petiole. After germination, the root produce a complex vascular system and fiber cells within the cortical layers. These unique developmental strategies allow date palm seedlings to survive arid environment. The cover image shows protective organogenesis in date palm seedlings fictionally invading the complex vascular system of a root cross sections. Root section is a 3D confocal image stained with renaissance. (Artwork by Vinicius Lube)