Plants

Plants

Lichen Lovelies

Should anyone dismiss lichens as so much gray-green crust, send the detractor to the lichen glamour shots in this Web site’s portrait gallery. The lush photography details shapes from goblets to anchors and colors from blue to neon Lycra-pants lemon. Other images illustrate the importance of lichens for other creatures (see the flying squirrel nest) […]

Plants

The bladderwort: No ruthless microbe killer

A carnivorous plant called a bladderwort may not be a fierce predator at all but a misunderstood mutualist.

Plants

Dead pipes can still regulate plants’ water

Physiologists say they have demonstrated for the first time that dead xylem cells in plant plumbing can control water speed.

Plants

Botany under the Mistletoe

Twisters, spitters, and other flowery thoughts for romantic moments.

Plants

Lowering lilies on the tree of life

Water lilies may belong on the lowest branch of the family tree of flowering plants, along with a shrub called Amborella.

Plants

Glitch splits hermaphrodite flowers

In a newly proposed scenario, polyploidy may trigger perfectly good hermaphrodite plants to evolve gender forms.

Plants

Team corners culprit in sudden oak death

After 5 years of mystery, California pathologists announced they may have identified the cause of a new tree disease called sudden oak death.

Plants

New gene-altering strategy tested on corn

Scientists have created herbicide-resistant corn with a new kind of genetic engineering that involves subtly altering one of the plant's own genes rather than adding a new gene.

Plants

Why tulips can’t dance

An elliptical stem gives daffodils an unusual liveliness in the wind compared with tulips.