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Plants

This "smart" mattress cover can track sleep patterns along with respiration and heart rates.

This Week in Crowdfunding

A “Smart” Mattress Cover and Other Wild Ideas That Just Got Funded

Don’t have a green thumb? A sensor for your potted plants alerts you when they need watering

New Research

This Mysterious Plant Doesn’t Have Time for Junk DNA

Utricularia gibba has less DNA, but more genes

Revolution Bioengineering is working to genetically engineer petunias that continuously change from pink to blue and back again.

Art Meets Science

Would You Like to Grow Color-Changing Flowers?

A Colorado company is working to genetically engineer petunias that change colors throughout the day

You can thank these Theobroma cacao flowers for your brownie sundae.

The World of Chocolate

You Wouldn’t Have Chocolate Without Invisible Flies and Extreme Yeast

It takes a wild and temperamental menagerie to bring the beloved candy to store shelves. Bon appétit!

Dyed droplets are propelled off leaves by simulated rainfall

New Research

Life-Giving Rain Also Spreads Deadly Plant Disease

High-speed cameras show how leaf flexibility influences raindrop dispersal into the air — along with pathogens picked up from infected plants

New Research

Creating Drought-Tolerant Plants By Hacking Their Natural Responses

Which new technique will help plants survive with less water?

An aerial view of the lower portion of the Colorado River shows the leading edge of the water pulse flow on May 12, before it connected with the sea.

Anthropocene

The Colorado River Delta Turned Green After a Historic Water Pulse

The experimental flow briefly restored the ancient waterway and may have created new habitat for birds

Frost on a sprig of European mistletoe.

Medical Mistletoe: Can the Holiday Plant Really Fight Cancer?

In some countries, cancer patients take mistletoe injections to ease symptoms, but the exact effects of the extracts are still up for debate

2014 Holiday Gift Guide

Best Gifts of 2014 for Nature Lovers

Smithsonian editors, gardeners and scientists offer ideas to give the gifts that keep wildlife thriving

Cool Finds

Some Plants Eavesdrop (And Steal) Via an Underground Fungal Network

An underground network can be used for friendly communication—or for evil

Cool Finds

Get Past the Vile Smell: Ginkgo Nuts Are Delicious

People have been feasting on these tasty little morsels since at least the 11th century

Around 1,400 chimps might lose their home in Congo.

Cool Finds

How a Misdrawn Map Put 1,400 Chimps and a Rare Plant in Peril

Miners and farmers are moving into a protected forest in Congo thanks in part to an administrative blooper

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Cool Finds

This Artist Makes E. coli-Shaped Popsicles

For those who prefer plants to pathogens, there’s popsicle cacti, too

This twisted wing parasite is one twisted killer.

The Everyday Cannibals and Murderers of Los Angeles

Who needs film noir when you’ve got these insects in the City of Angels?

A farmer in Sierra Leone holding cassava roots

Cool Finds

How the Gates Foundation Is Making Cassava the Next Corn

Sophisticated plant breeding techniques (but no GMOs) and lots of money are aimed at improving this staple crop of the tropics

Cool Finds

Scientists Plan to Kill Off the American West’s Tumbleweeds

Two species of fungus from Russia could be the bane of America’s tumbleweed

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Cool Finds

Thousands of Strange Green Balls Appeared Overnight on a Beach in Australia

Scientists believe that the balls are actually extremely rare algae congregations called marimo

The ornate black gates to the Poison Garden warn visitors of the deadly plants that grow within.

Step Inside the World’s Most Dangerous Garden (If You Dare)

The Poison Garden at England’s Alnwick Garden is beautiful—and filled with plants that can kill you

New Research

Why We Shouldn’t Worry About Growing Plants With Recycled Water

Trace amounts of common pharmaceuticals show up in crops grown with recycled water, but not as much as you’d think

Cool Finds

Detroit’s Dumps Are Slowly Being Reclaimed By Nature

Some illegal dumping grounds in Detroit are being repopulated by hardy plants

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