Plants
- Ecosystems
Burrowing birds create pockets of rich plant life in a desert landscape
Mounds of sand dug out by birds are hot spots for plants in Peru’s Atacama Desert, possibly providing a sheltered and moist area for seed germination.
- Climate
Abigail Swann’s alternate Earths show how plants shape climate
Abigail Swann's studies reveal that water vapor from forests can affect drought patterns a hemisphere away.
- Life
Michelle O’Malley seeks greener chemistry through elusive fungi
Michelle O’Malley studies anaerobic gut fungi, microbes that could help make chemicals and fuels from sustainable sources.
- Life
Connecting our dwindling natural habitats could help preserve plant diversity
As pristine habitats shrink worldwide, a massive, 18-year experiment suggests that linking up what's left with natural corridors could help ecosystems retain plant diversity.
- Plants
Why tumbleweeds may be more science fiction than Old West
A tumbleweed is just a maternal plant corpse giving her living seeds a chance at a good life somewhere new.
- Science & Society
‘The Nature of Life and Death’ spotlights pollen’s role in solving crimes
In ‘The Nature of Life and Death,’ botanist Patricia Wiltshire recounts some of her most memorable cases.
- Neuroscience
Plants don’t have feelings and aren’t conscious, a biologist argues
The rise of the field of “plant neurobiology” has this scientist and his colleagues pushing back.
- Ecosystems
Planting trees could buy more time to fight climate change than thought
Earth has nearly a billion hectares suitable for new forests to start trapping carbon, a study finds.
- Plants
‘Slime’ shows how algae have shaped our climate, evolution and daily lives
The new book ‘Slime’ makes the case that algae deserve to be celebrated.
- Life
‘Sneezing’ plants may spread pathogens to their neighbors
A “surface tension catapult” can fling dewdrops carrying fungal spores from water-repellent leaves.
- Archaeology
People may have smoked marijuana in rituals 2,500 years ago in western China
Cannabis may have been altering minds at an ancient high-altitude cemetery, researchers say
- Life
Some fungi trade phosphorus with plants like savvy stockbrokers
New views show how fungi shift their stores of phosphorus toward more favorable markets where the nutrient is scarce.
