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Plants

Mayapple plant

Innovative Spirit Health Care

Scientists Manipulate Common Plants to Produce Cancer Drugs

Stanford researchers have figured out how to transfer a rare plant’s chemical “assembly line” into a cheap, common lab plant

New Research

How Climate Change is Messing with Bees

New and ongoing research points to issues with bee ranges and the early emergence of flowers

The True Story of Kudzu, the Vine That Never Truly Ate the South

A naturalist cuts through the myths surrounding the invasive plant

Coming Soon: Helmets Made From Carrots

A Scottish company has created a biodegradable material from carrot pulp that could be used in protective sports gear

A hawthorn tree in the moonlight

New Research

Plants Might Move with the Moon Just as the Oceans Do with Tides

One researcher calls it the “leaftide”

Five of the World’s Most Fascinating Topiary Gardens

Whimsical gardens in surprising shapes decorate homes, churches and cemeteries around the world. We’ve rounded up five of the most extraordinary

Sweetgrass, a possible anti-mosquito agent.

New Research

This Sweet-Smelling Herb Can Ward Away Mosquitoes

Traditionally used by some Native American peoples, sweetgrass contains chemicals known to repel pesky bugs

Giovanni Stanchi (Rome c. 1645-1672). Oil on canvas, 38 5/8 x 52½ in.

Cool Finds

This Renaissance Painting of Fruit Holds a Modern-Day Science Lesson

Hint: it’s in the watermelon

A blue Egyptian water lily, a potential inspiration for flower petals painted on a casket found in Tut's tomb.

How Flowers Changed the World, From Ecosystems to Art Galleries

A new book by entomologist Stephen Buchmann explores the beautiful and sometimes bizarre history of flowering plants

Serpentine columbine may use dead bugs to lure in spiders to do its dirty work, researchers report.

New Research

This Plant Murders Bugs and Decorates Itself With Their Dead Bodies

Talk about a roundabout defense strategy

The first known photograph of Drosera magnifica.

New Research

No One Knew This Plant Existed Until It Was Posted to Facebook

What’s the emoji for “scientific discovery”?

A tiny chair 3D printed from cellulose

You Can Now 3D Print With Liquefied Wood

A chemist at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden is making sustainable 3d printing a reality

Tissue samples in test tubes, like the one D.C. high school student Asia Hill is holding above, are wrapped tin foil and dropped into the team's portable liquid nitrogen tank.

These Scientists Hope to Have Half the World’s Plant Families on Ice By the End of Summer

Teaming up with botanical gardens, researchers at the Natural History Museum are digging deep into garden plant genomics

Is air in the country healthier than air in the city? One scientist has a theory as to why that's the case, and it's got nothing to do with pollution.

Cool Finds

Is Country Air Really Better Than City Air?

One scientist thinks it’s because of toxic plant chemicals

A small cabbage butterfly (Pieris rapae) hovers on a hedge mustard plant (Sisybrium officinale). While the butterfly might look harmless enough, its caterpillars engage in a chemical war with this mustard plant's cultivated relatives.

New Research

Mustard Is A Product Of Evolutionary Warfare Between Plants And Caterpillars

Plants produce mustard oils to fight off pests in a chemical conflict that’s been waged for millions of years

Renderings

2 World Trade Center and the Promise of Green Skyscrapers

New renderings of the tower show impressive sky gardens—a trendy feature that’s difficult to pull off

The Grevy's zebra (left) and the plains zebra may be tough to tell apart—until you examine their dietary preferences via their poop.

New Research

Big African Animals Are Pickier Eaters Than We Imagined

To the surprise of ecologists, plant-eaters manage to coexist on the savanna by each choosing different favorite foods

EcoLogicStudio's 430-square-foot gazebo, called the Urban Algae Folly, is on display at the Expo 2015 world's fair in Milan.

Will Buildings of the Future Be Cloaked In Algae?

Built by a London architecture firm, a new gazebo has a living “skin” that produces oxygen and absorbs considerable amounts of carbon dioxide

Two Nudes in a Forest, from 1939, one of the paintings on display in the Bronx. Kahlo painted it for Dolores del Río, an actor who played the role of the "other" in Hollywood films and who often played Indian women in Mexican films despite that she was not herself of indigenous descent, as Joanna L. Groarke writes in the book that accompanies the exhibition.

Urban Explorations

Visit Frida Kahlo’s Recreated Garden to See the Plants That Influenced Her Art

The New York Botanical Garden is showing rare paintings and drawings alongside the types of flora Kahlo herself once cultivated

Riders view the incredible vista in Dýrafjörður, Iceland, alongside their equine companions.

Why the Best Way to See Iceland Is by Horse

The country’s landscape is surreal and one-of-a-kind—so is a ride on the Icelandic equine

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