Feature Agriculture

How plant microbes could feed the world and save endangered species

Digging into the plant microbiome could help future farmers and conservationists

Koolau mountain range

PLANT PARTNERS  Phyllostegia kaalaensis grew on Oahu’s Koolau Range (above) until about 1970. Researchers are looking to microbes to help reestablish the mint plant.

David L. Moore-HI/Alamy

By Amber Dance

One fine Hawaiian day in 2015, Geoff Zahn and Anthony Amend set off on an eight-hour hike. They climbed a jungle mountain on the island of Oahu, swatting mosquitoes and skirting wallows of wild pigs.