Plants

  1. Plants

    How female ferns make younger neighbors male

    Precocious female ferns release a partly formed sexual-identity hormone, and nearby laggards finish it and go masculine.

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  2. Environment

    Engineered plants demolish toxic waste

    With help from bacteria, plants could one day clean up polluted sites.

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  3. Plants

    Climbing high to save a threatened West Coast plant

    A group of scientists hopes to save a cliff-hugging plant threatened by invasive grasses, drought and fire in California’s Santa Monica Mountains.

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  4. Ecosystems

    ‘Where Do Camels Belong?’ explores invasive species

    Ecologist Ken Thompson takes a closer look at the impacts (or lack thereof) of invasive species.

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  5. Plants

    Borrowed genes raise hopes for fixing “slow and confused” plant enzyme

    Inserting some bacterial Rubisco chemistry into a plant might one day boost photosynthesis and help raise crop yields.

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  6. Plants

    Helping trees adapt to climate change possible but a huge task

    A new study finds that it would be possible to assist the migration of trees and help them adapt to climate change, but the scale of such a project would be massive.

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  7. Genetics

    Source of coffee’s kick found in its genetic code

    Coffee doubled up on caffeine-making genes. Those genes evolved independently from similar ones found in tea and chocolate plants.

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  8. Plants

    These trees don’t mind getting robbed

    Desert teak trees in India produce more fruit after they’ve been visited by nectar robbers.

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  9. Ecosystems

    Moose drool can undermine grass defenses

    Saliva from moose and reindeer sabotages plants’ chemical weaponry.

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  10. Plants

    Wine corks may owe quality to gene activity

    Discovery of genes that distinguish superior stoppers from inferior ones could help reverse recent global downturn in quality.

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  11. Ecosystems

    Invasive insect tied to shrinking river

    A river in North Carolina shrank after a hemlock woolly adelgid eradicated eastern hemlock trees in the region.

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  12. Animals

    Mosses hitch rides on the wings of birds

    Seeds may travel from far north to south hidden in the feathers of migratory birds.

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