Cover

Abstract

On the cover

Job’s tears growing in a field (background). Job’s tears flowers have protruding stamens and pistils (bottom of right). This indicates that they can easily cross-pollinate between cultivars (middle of right) and wild types (top of right). The wild type has several traits that make it undesirable for medicinal use, such as a hard seed coat and non-glutinous endosperm. Therefore, when growing Job’s tears, it is important to avoid crossing with wild species (This issue, p. 408–414).

(K. Matsui: NARO, Institute of Crop Science)