We may think of plants as passive life forms, but they can cooperate, share resources, send one another warnings, and distance themselves from their communities when survival depends on it.
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Articles on Plants
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All the ways plants, animals, insects and the bacteria around us can be beneficial to human health.
The idea that seed banks must be full of potentially helpful microfungi inside seeds was not a stretch, and yet no one had ever looked before.
This ancient ecosystem showed that the ice sheet had melted to the ground
in northern Greenland within the past million years.
Trees and shrubs in cold-weather climates rely on certain signals, such as temperature and light, to know when to leaf out and bloom. Climate change is scrambling those signals.
COVID-19 kept many scientists from doing field research in 2020, which means that important records will have data gaps. But volunteers are helping to plug some of those holes.
Glaciers support a unique community of plants, many of which are found nowhere else.
For some sand-dwelling plants, stickiness is a defense tactic that keeps predators at bay.
As invasive species transform the world, frontline agencies take solace that species needing unique partners can’t invade alone. A new study on figs shows they may find new partners to invade anyway.
People love to connect with nature and that's possible with vertical gardens on high-rise developments. But gardens need a gardener to keep things under control.
Australia's plants help make our landscapes unique. But many are in grave danger of extinction, and in many cases, the problem is getting worse.
A new nature-based approach to managing oilsands tailings shows promise in the lab and may soon be tested in the field.
Two planters added to bare front gardens had as much benefit as eight weekly mindfulness sessions.
House plants enrich our domestic lives in ways we often fail to notice. But lockdown may have changed all that.
A new study of how stinging tree venom causes intense agony may help uncover new ways to manage pain.
Before 200,000 years ago, close to the origin of our species, people preferred the use of broad-leaved grasses to build their beds and resting areas using ash layers underneath.
Researchers are figuring out how plants respond to the presence of human cadavers. The findings could prove important for discovering the locations of murder victims or mass graves.
Just as humans can suffer from an imbalance of microbes in their gut, plants can suffer a similar syndrome in their leaves. This finding opens up new possibilities for improving food security.
Consuming the plant can be lethal to animals and humans.
They're a familiar sight on forest walks and long drives, but tree ferns are more fascinating than you may have realised.
Top contributors
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Doctor of Botany, The University of Melbourne
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Chief research scientist, Climate Science Centre, CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere; and Executive Director, Global Carbon Project, CSIRO
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Senior Lecturer in Plant Biochemistry, University of Westminster
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PhD Candidate in Biodiversity and Human Health, Edith Cowan University
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Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science, Western Sydney University
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Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University
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Professor, School of Science, Edith Cowan University
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Senior Lecturer in Horticulture, Nottingham Trent University
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Postdoctoral research fellow, iThemba LABS
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Senior Lecturer in Ecology, Edith Cowan University
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Ph.D. Student in the School of Plant and Environmental Science, Virginia Tech
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Professor of Horticultural Sciences and Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Florida
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Research fellow, University of Aberdeen
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Associate Professor in Biophysics, University of Pretoria
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Postdoctoral associate in Ecology, University of Sheffield
