New University of Queensland research may not be able to make money grow on trees but it's definitely controlling the number of branches, with huge implications for the forestry, plant science and agriculture industries.

The joint research initiative between UQ's School of Integrative Biology and ARC Centre for Integrative Legume Research, as well as researchers in France (INRA-Versailles and the University of Toulouse/CNRS-Toulouse), have discovered a new plant hormone that controls shoot branching.

The hormone strigolactone, a molecule with a specific four-ring structure, has been shown to inhibit shoot branching in plants.

By adding the compound directly to the buds or by supplying it in a solution into the stem of the plant, the number of branches is altered.

UQ associate professor Christine Beveridge said the research could have massive financial gains for the forestry and other plant industries.

Dr Beveridge said too many branches on a tree could take away the energy from the trunk and cause poor growth.

She said the manual removal of branches was labour intensive and it was hoped this finding would lead to a natural chemical approach to prevent branches from forming in the first place.

"The new hormone could also be used to increase yield in horticultural industries and again manual pruning may be circumvented through the use of the natural strigolactones or related products," she said.

"Because strigolacones are natural compounds which directly control shoot branching, they can be applied without the use of gene transfer technologies and have minimal side effects on the plant."

Dr Beveridge said strigolactones were also responsible for the germination of parasitic weeds that cause huge losses in yields of staple food crops in Africa and Asia.

"Our discovery provides the first biosynthetic mutants to study these important interactions with plants and to develop ways of plant improvement and weed management," she said.

"We are very excited about this discovery because hormones in plants and animals are an amazingly powerful and natural way to modify and investigate growth and development."