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Plants

Could spider plants alert you of carbon monoxide, or even the flu, lurking in your home?

Could Houseplants Keep Tabs on the Health of Your Home?

Researchers at the University of Tennessee look at the possibility of using plants as biosensors to detect dangers like mold or radon

MASTODON MAXIMUS. CUV. [Cuvier]; Orra White Hitchcock (1796–1863); Amherst, Massachusetts; 1828–1840; pen and ink and watercolor wash on cotton, with woven tape binding

Art Meets Science

Art, Science and Religion Blend in Exhibition Honoring Illustrator Orra White Hitchcock

Orra’s paintings and drawings depict the natural world in colorful detail

Trending Today

Europe Applies Strict Regulations to CRISPR Crops

A court has ruled that plants modified with CRISPR technology are subject to the restrictions of the 2001 GMO Directive

The new horticultural center will be built at the RHS flagship garden in Wisley, Surrey

One Million British Botanical Treasures Will Be Digitized

Artifacts in the sprawling collection include a Chilean potato plant collected by Charles Darwin and 18th-century lavender

Using an artist's tools and the skills of a scientist, Tangerini makes “art in the service of science.”

The Botanical Artist Who Translates Plant Science Into Beautiful Art

The Smithsonian’s first and only botanical illustrator brings her subjects to life in all their scientific glory

Trending Today

Australian Reptiles And a Toad Named After Gollum on Latest Endangered Species Update

The IUCN Red List shows Oz’s reptiles are in trouble as well as flying foxes, a Jamaican rodent and a New Guinea butterfly

A Towering, Toxic Plant That Causes Burns and Blindness Has Appeared in Virginia

The giant hogweed, an invasive species, is more typically seen in the Northeast

Grape breeding PhD student Laise Moreira collects flower tissue for analyzing sex trait in grapevine as part of the VitisGen2 project at the University of Minnesota Horticultural Research Center in Excelsior, MN.

The Quest to Grow the First Great American Wine Grape

Genetics might be the key to creating vineyards that both resist disease and don’t taste like skunk

This insect can survive being eaten by birds, researchers have found.

Do Mama Stick Insects Get Eaten to Transport Their Eggs?

This may explain why the insects, who can’t travel far on their own, spread across unconnected lands

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

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