News Plants

A special shape shift helps a shrub thrive in blistering heat

A Death Valley plant's microscopic morphing tactic might help crops in a warming world

A small desert plant with pale green leaves and tiny purple buds growing in dry, cracked soil.

The Arizona honeysweet (Tidestromia oblongifolia) grows like gangbusters at blistering temperatures that make other plants wither. Now researchers have a better idea of why.

Karine Prado

By Siddhant Pusdekar

From growing smaller leaves to shape-shifting its insides, a desert flowering plant goes all in to flourish in the harshest of conditions.