Damsea / shutterstock
Oxygen produced by these plants helps animals boost their metabolism to match the heat.
The aftermath of a bushfire at Holsworthy, New South Wales.
Brendan Esposito/AAP
A startling phenomenon occurs after a fire tears through a landscape. So what is it in bushfires that gives plants this kiss of life?
Buttongrass survives and rapidly regrows after a fire. Tasmania, Australia.
Tim Rudman/Flickr
Not only can plants survive fire, they can use the experience of being burned to prepare themselves for future blazes.
Got the time?
Sameer mishra/Shutterstock
Plant cells signal between each other in order to agree what time it is.
A hapless animal will swim by, triggering the sensitive hairs at the front of the bladderworts’ bladder, which open like a trap door.
Emma Lupin
On the outskirts of Darwin, small insects are gobbled up by strange plants. Enter the world of the bladderwort.
Are you thinking what I’m thinking?
John and Penny/Shutterstock
Plants clearly lack brains but does all intelligence have to look like our own?
FEED me, Seymour!
Adam Cross
Albany pitcher plants are more closely related to cabbages and roses than any other carnivorous plant.
Pulses of light followed by extended dark periods might help make indoor agricultural production more sustainable.
DutchScenery/Shutterstock.com
Indoor plant factories have high energy costs since LEDs replace the sunlight outdoor plants get for free. Scientists found a way to dial back how much light is needed by breaking it into tiny bursts.
The whaterwheel plant can snap up its prey in milliseconds.
The Conversation
Waterwheel plants use snap up mosquito larvae, tiny fish and even tadpoles in freshwater wetlands around the world – including remote parts of north Australia.
Shutterstock
The rapid invasion is a major threat to the environment and rural people’s livelihoods.
The eight-mile ‘river of flowers’ that grows alongside a motorway near Rotherham, UK.
Pictorial Meadows
Britain’s councils are cutting roadside verges less often to allow vibrant wildflower meadows to bloom.
An abandoned hotel building in Pripyat, a few miles from Chernobyl.
Fotokon/Shutterstock
Most plant life survived the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl - and they have a lack of legs to thank for it.
Katja Schulz
They might be a hated household pest, but ants actually live fascinating and complex lives.
Matchstick banksia (Banksia cuneate ). There are only about 500 of these plants left in the wild at 11 different sites, with much of its habitat having been historically cleared for agriculture.
Andrew Crawford/Threatened Species Hub
A recent global survey found almost 600 plants have gone extinct. And this figure is likely to be an underestimate.
Photo Art Lucas/Shutterstock
We don’t notice the plant species we’re losing, but we won’t be able to ignore the effect of their loss on our supply of food and medicine.
The short answer is that leaves fall off trees when they aren’t doing their job any more.
Emily Nunell/The Conversation CC-NY-BD
Leaves fall off trees when they aren’t doing their job any more. If there isn’t enough water, the leaf can be damaged and stop working.
How many species still to name? That’s a good question.
Shutterstock/ju see
New species are being discovered all the time, which only adds to the problem of knowing how many there are on the planet today. It also helps to know what we mean by species.
A grizzly bear eats ripe buffaloberry fruit in the Bow Valley of Alberta. Shifts in the timing of buffaloberry development in the Rocky Mountains will change the behaviour of grizzly bears, and could threaten reproductive rates in this vulnerable population.
Alex P. Taylor
As warming temperatures shift the availability of key food sources, Alberta’s grizzly bears will be forced to adjust.
Elizaveta Galitckaia/Shutterstock
Pollen counts focus on the amount of grains in the air, but it could be the species that are more important.
Phragmites, an invasive species, line this marsh at Sachuest Point in Middletown, Rhode island.
Tom Sturm/USFWS
Phragmites australis, an invasive reed, has taken over wetlands across the US. But it also stabilizes shorelines and harbors many fish and birds. Is it time to compromise with this alien?