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When you pick a daisy, you are actually picking hundreds of flowers at the same time. That's because daisies have evolved a special trick, which is to hide a whole field of flowers in the head of what seems to be a single bloom. In this video, University of Cambridge plant biologist Beverley Glover shows you a microscopic image of a daisy that reveals the truth about these deceptively plain flowers. More »
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The fossils were lost, and nobody even knew it. For ages, a stockpile of over 300 specimens — including several collected by Charles Darwin on his historic Voyage of the Beagle — has been changing hands throughout England, hidden away inside a nondescript cabinet. More »
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Venus flytraps can't hurt you, even if you leave your fingers in there for a long time. But what if you were a particularly creative mafioso who needed to dispose of a body? Is there a particular circumstance in which they could digest human flesh? Well, the answer is... More »
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Two 400-million-year-old fossil plants are the oldest known examples of wood. They are small herbs, suggesting that wood did not evolve to help plants grow tall. More »
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Etched on a photoluminescent display, these liquid crystal ginkgo leaves can shift through a trio of autumn colours under the glow of UV light. Previously, displays made from a single luminescent organic or organometallic compound could only switch between two colour states. Now Takashi Kato and Yoshimitsu Sagara of the University of Tokyo have developed a reversible display that glows red-orange, green or yellow in response to temperature and mechanical force. More »
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Most of us wouldn't welcome getting partially eaten by a wild animal — but it could be the best thing that can happen to a plant. More »
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Much of the southeastern US is struggling with Chinese tallow trees, an invasive species that is overrunning the Gulf Coast and wreaking havoc on the natural habitat. And, until now, people figured it was that big jerk Benjamin Franklin's fault. More »
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The Vienna-based Vegetable Orchestra is just what it sounds like: an orchestra that plays instruments made of fresh vegetables. The 13-year-old musical ensemble has played its experimental pieces in concert houses all over the world. More »
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The world's tallest tree is found in northern California - it's a redwood that stands 379 feet tall. This tree and its relatives are the largest single organisms in the world, but just how big can these trees really get? More »
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The amorphophallus titanum has perhaps the least charming nickname of any flower: it's known as the corpse flower because it smells like rotting flesh. And yet its latest bloom this weekend is expected to bring over 10,000 eager admirers. More »
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I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues. More »
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This perfectly fossilized flower has been unearthed 125 million years after it grew. Some scientists speculate that it was part of a revolution that took down the dinosaurs. More »
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If you're looking for a perfect holiday gift for science lovers, consider these ten amazing books. They prove science is awesomer than fiction, and are packed with beautiful pictures too. More »
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Botanists estimate there are 70,000 species of flowering plant still waiting to be identified. They also suspect that about half of those were already found up to 200 years ago, and nobody has gotten around to identifying them yet. More »
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One click and you'll have no trouble understanding the name. More »
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Egad, look at this poor tree! Some bulbous, parasitic infection is leaching the life right out of it! Could this creature arrive at to your local park? Are we looking at the onset of an arboreal apocalypse? More »
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This geranium is having sex right now, before your very eyes. Those little grains of pollen clinging to the flower's stigma are competing to plunge their genetic material deep into this flower and reproduce. More »
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It's no Triffid, but a new species of giant pitcher plant discovered in the highlands of the Philippines has a hunger for mammalian flesh. Fortunately, they're mostly interested in insects and rodents — at least for now. More »
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A common French weed known as Crepis sancta underwent a form of superaccelerated evolution to cope with the difficulties of spreading their seeds in cities. Scientists studying C. sancta discovered that over a period of just twelve years, the plants went from mostly producing "dispersing" seeds that spread on the wind, to producing "nondispersing" seeds that fall to the ground nearby. Why would a plant shift its reproductive cycle so radically and quickly? More »
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