Plants

  1. Plants

    Island life prompts evolution of larger plant seeds

    In 40 species of plants, the island versions of seeds were larger than mainland counterparts, perhaps to keep the seeds from being lost at sea.

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  2. Paleontology

    Loblolly sets record for biggest genome

    At 20 billion base pairs, the loblolly pine is the largest genome sequenced to date.

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  3. Plants

    South American vine is a masterful mimic

    The vine Boquila trifoliolata changes the shape of its leaves to match its host and avoid getting eaten.

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  4. Plants

    Milkweed ‘horns’ may equal wins in reproduction battle

    Plants may be ripping a page right from bucks’ playbooks, developing hornlike weapons to improve their chances of reproduction.

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  5. Plants

    Fossil fern showcases ancient chromosomes

    Fossil nuclei and chromosomes seen in a 180-million-year-old fern reveals that the plants have stayed mostly the same.

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  6. Plants

    Moss still grows after 1,500-year deep freeze

    After incubating slices of moss that have been frozen for 1,500 years, the plants began to grow again.

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  7. Microbes

    Osmotroph

    An organism that eats by osmosis, relying on nutrients diffusing into its body from a higher concentration in its environment.

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  8. Plants

    Australian flowers bloom red because of honeyeaters

    Many flowering plants converged on similar a color to attract the common birds.

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  9. Life

    Nonhuman city natives in decline but can be conserved

    Cities have been a downer on biodiversity but native populations still remain in urban areas, offering a starting point for possible conservation efforts.

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  10. Genetics

    When flowers died out in Arctic, so did mammoths

    Genetic analysis finds vegetation change in the Arctic around same time as megafauna extinction.

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  11. Ecosystems

    Amazon doesn’t actually go green in dry seasons

    An optical illusion in satellite data made forests appear to grow faster.

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  12. Plants

    Sexually deceived flies not hopelessly dumb

    Pollinators tricked into mating with a plant become harder to fool a second time.

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