Plants
To spy this palm’s blooms and fruits, start digging underground
Plants across 33 families are known for subterranean flowering or fruiting. But this palm is extremely rare. It does both.
Plants
More Stories in Plants
- Animals
Pikmin’s plant-animal mashups don’t exist — but sun-powered animals do
Corals team up with photosynthetic zooxanthellae. Some sea slugs steal chloroplasts. How might animals and plants team up in Nintendo’s Pikmin games?
- Animals
Scientists Say: Camouflage
Plants and animals alike hide in plain sight using this sneaky strategy.
- Tech
Bits of trees can make and store energy for us to use
This cellulose and lignin, two major building blocks of trees, could lead to greener electronics.
- Tech
Bionic plants and electric algae may usher in a greener future
Some can aid the climate by removing pollutants. Others would just avoid dirtying the environment in the first place.
- Climate
Some tree leaves are finding it too hot for photosynthesis
Earth’s ongoing fever threatens to push entire forests toward this heat limit — and possible death.
- Plants
Young corn leaves can ‘smell’ danger
As they mature, these leaves lose their ability to detect threatening scents.
- Plants
Scientists Say: Fertilize
This word describes both a stage of sexual reproduction and the agricultural practice of adding nutrients to soil.
- Chemistry
Scientists Say: Lignin
This rigid polymer transports water and gives trees their strength.
- Agriculture
Crops are being engineered to thrive in our changing climate
Plants are already the best carbon catchers on Earth. New research could make them even better.
