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Flowers

Two Alpine ibexes butt heads, slamming their horns together in a powerful battle that can be heard from far away. They wandered up the slope together afterward.

See 15 Stunning Images That Won the German Society for Nature Photography’s Annual Contest

From a lunging frog to the majestic movements of penguins, the honored photographs capture the wonder of wildlife and beauty of natural landscapes

About 50 organisms have been named for David Attenborough or elements of his legacy, from an orchid to a marine worm to one of the earliest known predators.

David Attenborough Has Inspired Countless Scientists. To Mark His 100th Birthday, Here Are Ten Living Things They’ve Named After Him

Researchers around the planet grew up watching documentaries hosted by the English broadcaster and naturalist, which sparked their love of the natural world. Now, their discoveries become tributes to his legacy

The Mercer Botanic Gardens in Houston, Texas, has its own Shakespeare garden.

Shakespeare Gardens Around the World Honor the Playwright—and Hold Their Own Storied History

The curated plots of flowers, herbs and trees serve as windows into Shakespeare’s work and life

Snowdrops can push through snow and icy ground to bloom in winter, bringing their blossoms to the largely dormant landscape.

How a Small Winter Flower Has Attracted Droves of Admirers—and Offers a Symbol of Resilience

The snowdrop, or Galanthus, blooms when the world is still frozen. Gardeners enamored with the plant gather each year in Pennsylvania to celebrate its subtleties and endurance

When photographer Elliot McGucken heard about a possible superbloom in Death Valley this spring, he drove around 1,000 miles from Montana to California.

Vibrant Wildflowers Are Blanketing Death Valley National Park, Resulting in the Most Breathtaking Bloom in a Decade

Parts of the park are awash in wildflowers, from the cheery yellow blooms of desert gold to the bright purple clusters of sand verbena, along with many other species

Desert sunflowers blooming in Death Valley National Park in 2016

Will a Dazzling Display of Wildflowers Spread Across California This Spring?

Superblooms are rare events that occur when conditions perfectly align. Officials hope that visitors will be able to see brightly colored landscapes in the weeks ahead

Many people in Britain and Ireland started the year off with an annual flower-hunting event.

Hundreds of Flowering Species Bloomed Across Britain and Ireland Last Winter. That’s Not a Good Thing

Citizen scientists in the British Isles documented more than 300 native plant species blooming in early 2025, a phenomenon likely caused by climate change

A bee buzzes by a hybrid magenta-and-yellow snapdragon.

Colorful Snapdragons in the Valleys of the Pyrenees Offer a Rare Window Into How Evolution Happens

Studying the ways that magenta and yellow flowers intermingle paints a vibrant picture of how the plants exchange genetic information—and what keeps each color variety unique

Dandelions are strategic about when to disperse their seeds, new research suggests.

Scientists Are Uncovering the Secrets of How Fluffy, White Dandelions Spread Their Seeds

Their seed dispersal strategies have helped these ubiquitous plants flourish all over the world, new research suggests

The first-place winner of the 2025 Nikon Small World in Motion Video Competition captures a self-pollinating flower.

Stunning Microscope Videos Highlight Self-Pollination, Algae and Tumor Cells in the Nikon Small World in Motion Contest

The annual video competition focuses on the tiny wonders of the natural world

Ecological scent detection dog Circe searches for Canelo Hills ladies’ tresses in the tall vegetation

This Rare, Endangered Orchid Only Exists in Two Locations. Can Dogs, Cows and Fungi Help It Thrive?

A Smithsonian ecologist is trying to restore the plant, Spiranthes delitescens, which grows on Arizona’s sky islands

The pads, also known as platters, of giant waterlillies can be up to ten feet in diameter.

How Much Can a Giant Waterlily Hold? See One Carry 183 Pounds Before Sinking, Winning a Social Media Contest

Now in its third year, the Waterlily Weigh-Off invites public gardens and zoos to show off the strength of their aquatic plants

The garden features a reconstructed shaded alcove for dining.

The 2,000-Year-Old ‘Perfume Garden’ in the Ancient City of Pompeii Has Been Restored to Its Former Glory

The small garden now features thousands of roses, violets, cherry trees and vines. Experts think a perfumer may have once used the plants to experiment with new scents

Irises on Yellow Columns, Graphic Rewilding

See Soaring Sunflowers and Radiant Roses That Bring Vincent van Gogh’s Paintings to Life

Featuring 18,000 plants and works by three contemporary artists, a new exhibition at the New York Botanical Garden celebrates the Dutch painter’s love of nature

A bouquet inspired by Vincent van Gogh's Undergrowth with Two Figures

Artists Across America Are Creating Stunning Floral Arrangements Inspired by Paintings, Sculptures and Artifacts

At “Art in Bloom” exhibitions, museums commission custom floral arrangements to go on display alongside items in their collections

Flowers and Fruit in a Forest, Rachel Ruysch, 1714

Art Meets Science

See the Flower Paintings of Rachel Ruysch, Whose Stunning Still Lifes Are Finally Getting the Attention They Deserve

The Dutch “old mistress” was renowned in her own lifetime. But since her death 275 years ago, her legacy has been largely forgotten

Visitors flock to botanic gardens when their corpse flowers are in bloom. But these charismatic plants are threatened by inbreeding and low genetic diversity, in part due to spotty recordkeeping at institutions around the globe.

Stinky Corpse Flowers Face a Recordkeeping Problem at Botanic Gardens, and It’s Leading to Inbreeding, Study Finds

Inconsistent data may be hurting conservation efforts for these endangered plants, known for attracting visitors to their scent of rotting flesh

The "wooly devil" has fuzzy foliage and maroon flowers made up of conspicuous ray petals.

Meet the ‘Wooly Devil,’ the First New Plant Genus Discovered in a National Park Since 1976

A volunteer spotted the tiny, fuzzy plant with maroon florets while exploring the remote northern corner of Big Bend National Park in Texas

An Amorphophallus gigas plant bloomed at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in New York on January 24, with hundreds of flowers producing a putrid stench.

Rare and Stinky ‘Corpse Flower’ Blooms Draw Thousands of Visitors to Gardens in New York and Sydney

People lined up to see—and smell—the blossoms of two pungent plant species, which only bloom for a short time every few years

An Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis) licks nectar from the Ethiopian red hot poker flower (Kniphofia foliosa).

New Research

These Endangered Wolves Have a Sweet Tooth—and It Might Make Them Rare Carnivorous Pollinators

Ethiopian wolves like to lick up the flower nectar of red hot poker plants, and researchers have caught the behavior on camera

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