Incidentally, I don't have much problem with evolution of plants, either scripturally or scientifically. That may just be because I have not studied it as much as I have animal or cellular evolution. I do know that they are prone to polyploidy and other things that could in theory make macro-evolutionary changes easier.
I found this research totally fascinating also. It is very important in many ways. It shows the existence of double-stranded RNA, something not seen before. It also shows a new, very specific, gene suppressing agent. This is good for the organism, which can fix problems in an efficient manner. However, it also gives a tremendous help in genetic research. It enables us to 'disable' a gene and see what happens. It is much more efficient than other methods which is why it has been adopted so quickly by research firms. We can expect to see many new discoveries as a result of this technique in the near future.