Tech
A robot arm toting a Venus flytrap can grab delicate objects
By attaching electrodes to the plant’s leaves, researchers found a way to snap its traps shut on command.
Plants
More Stories in Plants
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Planetary ScienceFarming on Mars will be a lot harder than ‘The Martian’ made it seem
Lab experiments developing and testing fake Martian dirt are proving just how difficult it would be to farm on the Red Planet.
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PlantsHow passion, luck and sweat saved some of North America’s rarest plants
As the list of plants no longer found in the wild grows, botanists and conservationists search for signs of hope — and sometimes get lucky.
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PlantsHow Venus flytraps store short-term ‘memories’ of prey
Glowing Venus flytraps reveal how calcium buildup in the cells of leaves acts as a short-term “memory” that helps the plants identify prey.
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LifeThis parasitic plant eavesdrops on its host to know when to flower
Dodder plants have no leaves to sense when to bloom, so the parasites rely on a chemical cue from their hosts instead.
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PlantsNew Guinea has more known plant species than any island in the world
In the first verified count of plants on New Guinea, a team of 99 botany experts identified more than 13,600 species.
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LifeWild bees add about $1.5 billion to yields for just six U.S. crops
Native bees help pollinate blueberries, cherries and other crops on commercial farms.
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PlantsThis parasitic plant consists of just flashy flowers and creepy suckers
With only four known species, Langsdorffia are thieves stripped down to their essentials.
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TechBubble-blowing drones may one day aid artificial pollination
Drones are too clumsy to rub pollen on flowers and not damage them. But blowing pollen-laden bubbles may help the machines be better pollinators.
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LifePollen-deprived bumblebees may speed up plant blooming by biting leaves
In a pollen shortage, some bees nick holes in tomato leaves that accelerate flowering, and pollen production, by weeks.