Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Plants

This Venus flytrap is just biding its time to ensure the meal is worth its energy.

New Research

Venus Flytraps Know How to Count

Figuring out when to chomp is as easy as one, two, three, four, five

An eight-year-old Firethorn "Air Bonsai"

Cool Finds

These Levitating Bonsai Will Brighten Your Home With Science

A workshop in Japan created tiny Bonsai plants that float with the help of magnets

This flower isn't just a pretty face—its the first one ever grown in space.

Cool Finds

Check Out the First Flower Grown in Space

It was a close call for this brilliant orange zinnia

New Research

A New Rose Is Part Plant, Part Color-Changing Machine

Innovation has never looked so pretty

Opuntia cacti grow in the desert near Twentynine Palms, California. The area is home to plenty of dry plants and weeds—perfect for the city's annual Weed Show.

At This Unique Flower Show, Weeds Are the Stars

The women of this small desert town have found beauty in getting in the weeds

Montsechia’s origins in freshwater lakes challenge the idea that flowers evolved on land before moving into water.

These Are the Oldest Known Flowers in the World

Found in the fossil record, these plants are more than 100 million years old

Cool Finds

This Giant Van Gogh Painting Is Made of Pumpkins, Watermelons and Squash

How crop artist Stan Herd made an acre-wide ode to “Olive Trees”

By the time the Salt River reaches downtown Phoenix, it is a river in name only. Some scientists think that is why a non-native plant, the salt cedar, is thriving while native flora are suffering.

Age of Humans

How We Created a Monster In the American Southwest

The salt cedar is often seen as an un-killable invader. But are humans the real reason this unwanted plant is thriving?

Setting up sound monitors in Papua New Guinea.

Scientists Are Recording 24-Hour Soundtracks of Rainforests

The bioacoustic data gives Nature Conservancy researchers clues about the health of an ecosystem

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”?

Page 27 of 39