Plants
- Plants
Venus flytraps use defensive genes for predation
Genetic analysis suggests that Venus flytraps repurposed plant defenses against herbivores to live the carnivore life.
- Plants
Here’s what a leaf looks like during a fatal attack of bubbles
Office equipment beats synchrotrons in showing how drought lets air bubbles kill the water-carrier network of veins in plant leaves.
- Plants
Nightshade plants bleed sugar as a call to ants for backup
Bittersweet nightshade produces sugary wound goo to lure in ant protectors that eat herbivores, researchers have found.
- Plants
Prions may help plants remember
A plant protein has passed lab tests for prionlike powers as molecular memory.
- Plants
Plants might remember with prions
A plant protein has passed lab tests for prionlike powers as molecular memory.
- Plants
New species of tumbleweed is just as bad as its parents
Two species of invasive tumbleweeds hybridized into a third. A new study finds it probably will be invasive, too.
- Microbes
Diverse yeasts make their home on coffee and cacao beans
Yeasts in coffee and cacao are shaped by geography and human migration, genetic analysis finds.
- Ecosystems
Australian fairy circles first to be found outside Africa
Strange patterns of grassland bald spots called fairy circles show up in Western Australia.
- Plants
How to keep seagrasses as happy as a clam
Drought can do more damage to seagrass meadows if their partnership with clams break down.
- Climate
Earlier blooming intensifies spring heat waves in Europe
The early arrival of spring plants due to climate change amplifies springtime heat waves in Europe, new climate simulations suggest.
- Climate
Forest management not so hot at fighting warming
Forest management practices in Europe have slightly worsened climate change, new research shows.
- Plants
To catch a meal, a Venus flytrap counts to five
It takes two taps to trigger a Venus flytrap to close. Another three, a new study finds, are needed to turn on genes for producing enzymes.
