Plants

Life

Africa’s fynbos plants hold their ground with the world’s thinnest roots

Long, thin roots help this South African shrubland commandeer soil nutrients and keep the neighboring forest from encroaching on its territory.

Plants

Earth may have 9,200 more tree species than previously thought

Estimating how many tree species are on Earth is an important step for forest conservation and protecting biodiversity.

Plants

Invasive grasses are taking over the American West’s sea of sagebrush

Cheatgrass and other invasive plants are expanding rapidly in the western United States, putting more places at risk for wildfires.

Chemistry

Here’s the chemistry behind marijuana’s skunky scent

Newly ID’d sulfur compounds in cannabis flowers give the plant its telltale odor. One, prenylthiol, is what also gives “skunked beer” its funky flavor.

Climate

Rice feeds half the world. Climate change’s droughts and floods put it at risk

Rice provides sustenance for billions who have no alternative, and climate change threatens to slash production. Growers will need to innovate to provide an important crop as climate whiplash brings drought and floods to fields worldwide.

Plants

A well-known wildflower turns out to be a secret carnivore

A species of false asphodel wildflower snags prey with gluey, enzyme-secreting hairs, leaving a trail of insect corpses on its flowering stem.

Climate

The first step in using trees to slow climate change: Protect the trees we have

In all the fuss over planting trillions of trees, we need to protect the forests that already exist.

Plants

How Romanesco cauliflower forms its spiraling fractals

By tweaking just three genes in a common lab plant, scientists have discovered the mechanism responsible for one of nature’s most impressive fractals.

Plants

A widely studied lab plant has revealed a previously unknown organ

A cantilever-like plant part long evaded researchers’ notice in widely studied Arabidopsis thaliana, grown in hundreds of labs worldwide.

Plants

These ferns may be the first plants known to share work like ants

Staghorn ferns grow in massive colonies where individual plants contribute different jobs. This may make them “eusocial,” like ants or termites.

Climate

‘Tree farts’ contribute about a fifth of greenhouse gases from ghost forests

Greenhouse gases from dead trees play an important role in the overall environmental impact of ghost forests, a new study suggests.

Ecosystems

Simple hand-built structures can help streams survive wildfires and drought

Building simple structures with sticks and stones — and inviting in dam-building beavers — can keep water where it’s needed to fight drought and wildfires.