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Plants

Harold Stein, [Georgia O’Keeffe on Leho‘ula Beach, near ‘Aleamai, Hāna, Maui], 1939, Gelatin silver print

See Georgia O’Keeffe’s Little-Known Hawaii Paintings Blossom Next to Real Plants

The show at the New York Botanical Gardens features 300 Hawaiian plant types

In the water, rockweed provides habitat for crustaceans, fish, and mollusks; out of the water, it’s food for people and animals, fertilizer, and a soil conditioner.

How Seaweed Connects Us All

An unlikely debate about rockweed brings together Rachel Carson, marine biology and Maine’s supreme court

New Research

Humans Make Up Just 1/10,000 of Earth’s Biomass

Plants make up 80 percent, but human activity chopped that number in half over the last 10,000 years

The Desert Pavilion at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden.

This Friday, You Can Visit More Than 150 of the Best Gardens in the U.S. for Free

Celebrate National Public Gardens Day May 11

A view of the interior of the Temperate House during a press preview of its reopening at Kew Gardens.

Europe

World’s Largest Victorian Glasshouse Opens Doors After Five-Year Restoration Project

London’s Kew Gardens’ Temperate House is home to some of the world’s rarest plants

The striking Banggai cardinalfish is a popular collector's fish. It's also an endangered species in the wild.

Why You Can Walk Into a Store and Buy a Nearly Extinct Animal

By commercializing species, humans wield a far bigger influence than they think over the fate of wild plants and animals

Male flowers of the striped maple tree.

The Mystery of the Sex-Changing Striped Maple Trees

Yes, trees can be male or female. And sometimes they switch it up

Driftwood is a valuable resource for humans and all kinds of ecosystems near and far.

How Driftwood Reshapes Ecosystems

In one of nature’s remarkable second acts, dead trees embark on transformative journeys

New Research

What Sedated Plants Can Teach Scientists About Anesthetizing People

The same drugs that knock us out or numb our wounds can also be used on our leafy friends

The fruit that bursts with contradictions.

The Toxic Rise of the California Strawberry

Growing this popular fruit year-round has long relied on harmful chemicals. Is there another way?

The stunning image that opens the Siphonophorae chapter in The Art and Science of Ernst Haeckel. Each gelatinous siphonophore is actually a group of colonial organisms all living and working together. To grow, they clone themselves—each new minion specialized for a specific function.

Art Meets Science

This 19th-Century Illustrator Found Beauty in the Slimiest of Sea Creatures

A new book chronicles Ernst Haeckel’s life and his gorgeous renderings of wild things—scales, spikes, tentacles and all

The Enduring Romance of Mistletoe, a Parasite Named After Bird Poop

Nine things you should know about our favorite Christmas plant

Kono Yasui at Tokyo University.

Women Who Shaped History

How a Pioneering Botanist Broke Down Japan’s Gender Barriers

Kono Yasui was the first Japanese woman to publish in an academic journal, forging a new path for women in her country

The reproductive organs of Schlumbergera, known as the Holiday Cactus. This was heady stuff in Erasmus Darwin's time.

Charles Darwin’s Grandfather Was Famous for His Poems About Plant Sex

Erasmus Darwin’s poetics influenced his grandson’s vision of nature

Aerial view of the Amazon Rainforest near Manaus, the capital of the Brazilian state of Amazonas.

Cool Finds

Brazil Begins Effort to Plant 73 Million Trees in the Amazon

The experiment in reforestation involves spreading native seeds instead of planting saplings

Even the venus fly trap, which takes an active role in catching its prey, is almost nothing like us.

Getting to the Roots of “Plant Horror”

From the serious—pod people—to the farcical—”feed me, feed me!”—this genre has produced some strange stuff

A cross-section of the fossilised cladoxylopsid found in Xinjiang, China.

New Research

Ancient Trees “Ripped Their Skeletons Apart” To Grow

Cross-sections of 374-million-year-old tree trunks revealed a complex web of woody strands that split and repaired themselves

The molds responsible for aflatoxins grow on a number of staple crops, including corn, peanuts, millet, wheat, cottonseed and tree nuts.

Could Video Gamers Make Our Food Supply Safer?

An effort to combat poisonous molds that contaminate crops is looking to tap the puzzle-solving skills of amateur gamers

How Flowers Manipulate Light to Send Secret Signals to Bees

Come-hither blue haloes are just one of the effects employed by nature’s first nanotechnologists

Jutras came close to the record a few years ago, but his squash split, disqualifying it from competition. This year, he wasn't taking any risks.

Trending Today

Massive Green Squash Smashes Record for World’s Largest

Joe Jutras’ 2118-pound squash makes him the first person to earn the record for largest pumpkin, longest gourd and heaviest squash

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