Plants
- Plants
City life changes style of weed seeds
City living pushes for rapid evolution in the seed strategy of a little yellow flower along French sidewalks.
- Plants
Promiscuous orchids
When pollinators aren't loyal to a single species of orchid, the plants maintain their species integrity by stymieing reproduction.
- Plants
Traveling tubers
Potato varieties from Chile arrived in Europe several years before the blights of the mid-1800s, a new analysis of DNA from old plant collections reveals.
- Plants
Botanists refine family tree for flowering plants
Two research teams have used the biggest array of flowering-plant genes yet to try to reconstruct the elusive evolutionary history of today's flowers.
- Plants
So Sproutish: Anti-aging gene for plants gives drought protection
A gene that can hold off the decrepitude of old age in plants offers an unusual approach to protecting crops from drought.
- Plants
It Takes a Village: Tweaking neighbors reroutes evolution
The other residents of a plant's neighborhood can make a big difference in whether evolutionary forces favor or punish a plant's trait.
- Plants
Tough Frills: Ferns’ wimp stage aces survival test
A supposedly fragile stage in the life of ferns shows surprising toughness.
- Plants
Stalking the Green Meat Eaters
Pitcher plants in a New England bog hold little ecosystems in their leaves, and also act as indicators of the bog's ecological health.
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- Plants
Cretaceous Corsages? Fossil in amber suggests antiquity of orchids
Orchids appeared on the scene about 80 million years ago, according to evidence from a bee that collected orchid pollen and got trapped in amber.
- Plants
Easy There, Bro: A plant can spot and favor close kin
A little beach plant can recognize its siblings as long as their roots grow in nearby soil.
- Plants
Tiny pool protects flower buds
A rare structure on flowers, tiny cups that keep buds underwater until they bloom, can protect the buds from marauding moths.
