Springtails (Fasciosminthurus quinquefasciatus) are found in any damp soil.
Andy Murray/chaosofdelight.org
With more than one species for every person on the planet, soils are the most diverse habitat on Earth.
Labrador Tea is one of the boreal plants that are classified as pests or weeds. The plant is important to Indigenous communities for its healing properties.
(J. Baker)
Some boreal plant species are classified — and treated — as weeds, affecting Indigenous communities’ access to important cultural, medicinal and ceremonial resources.
A bumblebee flying over a blooming bramble bush.
Legonkov Vladimir
Native common wildflowers provide large amounts of pollen and nectar for insects – but many are undervalued by the public.
Water and sediment pour off the melting margin of the Greenland ice sheet.
Jason Edwards/Photodisc via Getty Images
The soil was extracted during the Cold War from beneath one of the U.S military’s most unusual bases, then forgotten for decades.
Without spices, our meals would have less color and flavor.
Helaine Weide/Moment via Getty Images
Humans have figured out how to season their food with virtually every part of plants.
The spiky branches of a monkey puzzle tree.
Joshua Bruce Allen/Shutterstock
The arrangement of leaves on most plants follows a mathematical pattern – new research sheds light on how it evolved.
Shutterstock
Different grasses respond to and cope with winter in different ways.
Biobank samples can be used to support research in a range of disciplines.
luchschenF/Shutterstock
The research conducted through biobanks can help to address challenges like climate change and food security.
Digitizing plants preserved in the herbarium at La Sapienza University in Rome.
Mimmo Frassineti/AGF/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
The colonial era profoundly shaped natural history museums and collections. Herbaria, which are scientists’ main source of plant specimens from around the world, are no exception.
Lake surrounding a mining site in Northern Québec.
(Maxime Thomas)
Human activities can affect plants and have consequences for the human populations that consume them.
Rimma Bondarenko/Shutterstock
Why plants’ oscillating genes matter for humans.
Ruby E Stephens
New research suggests insects have pollinated flowers since the pollen-bearing blooms first evolved more than 140 million years ago.
Purple saxifrage, snow pearlwort and drooping saxifrage (left to right).
Sarah Watts
Why we need to pay more attention to these minute flowers and how they survive in some of the harshest places in the world.
The practice of gardening is deeply tied to colonialism. Here a woman pushes a cart of flowers at her garden centre in Toronto, May 4, 2020.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
As we approach the start of gardening season, it’s a good time to ask some questions about what to plant and who gets to plant.
Many people struggle to keep their houseplants alive.
Okrasiuk/Shutterstock
An expert’s tips on how to keep your indoor plants looking their best.
Elvira Tursynbayeva/Shutterstock
Before you reach for the weed killer, spare a thought for struggling pollinators.
Agrivoltaic farming — growing crops in the protected shadows of solar panels — can help meet Canada’s food and energy needs.
(Alexis Pascaris, AgriSolar)
Canada can meet its carbon emission reduction targets, make food cheap again and open up a gigantic trade surplus with the U.S. by shading farm crops with solar panels.
There are hidden worlds in nature.
PeopleImages.com/Yuri A/Shutterstock
Ants are skilled surgeons, bacteria have their own internet, and scientists think sperm whales have names.
Stock-Asso/Shutterstock
If you’re reading this over a mug of tea or coffee, you’re using plants to alter your body chemistry.
Soil was key to making the Earth habitable.
EyeEm / Alamy Stock Photo
What fossil records tell us about when the Earth was first covered by plants.