Growth & Development
Why won’t Marion Island’s stubborn soil feed its starving plants?
Only invasive weeds thrived when scientists warmed island soil, while native plants stayed hungry despite being surrounded by potential food.
Growth & Development
The plants that photosynthesise to a deadline
In the forest understorey, Spring fires the starting gun on a race to catch sunlight before the forest canopy fills. But changing climates means different plants now start at different times.
Growth & Development
500 kilometres from friends, these trees are running out of places to hide from climate change
How can isolated trees survive rising heat? Botanists have been looking for microrefugia, small locations with favorable conditions for stressed plants.
Growth & Development
High-Speed Analysis Reveals Squirting Cucumber’s Ballistic Precision
High-speed cameras capture squirting cucumbers shooting seeds at 29 mph across 12-meter distances using perfectly angled, pressurised fruit explosions.
Growth & Development
The Best Way to Farm on the Moon Uses Barely Any Fertiliser
Adding tiny amounts of organic waste transforms sterile lunar dust into farmland, but the secret lies in managing competing bacterial communities around plant roots.
Growth & Development
Scientists Bust the Myth of the Saltwater-Sipping Desert Shrub
The dream of crops that could drink seawater has taken a hit as botanists prove that Nolana mollis, a desert survivor long believed to hydrate itself from atmospheric brine, actually relies on conventional deep-root water uptake to survive Chile’s bone-dry Atacama Desert.
Growth & Development
Nepenthes creates an unusually slippery trap using common developmental processes
Scientists reveal how pitcher plants develop their deceptively slippery rims that send unsuspecting insects to their doom.
Ecosystems
How Soil and Climate Help Maintain a Flower Colour Polymorphism
Why do flowers of the same species come in different colours? Researchers have discovered that one answer to this phenomenon lies in soil conditions and adaptations to environmental stress.
Growth & Development
Tomato photosynthesis benefits from far-red light
Far-red light boosts tomato photosynthesis in low-light conditions, but offers no benefit at higher intensities, suggesting optimal greenhouse lighting depends on intensity levels.
Cells, Genes & Molecules
How Buriti Seeds Survive Floods and Droughts
Buriti seeds may be sensitive to drying out, but a thorough analysis of their anatomy and physiology reveals surprising resilience to water stress.
Growth & Development
That’s Why This Hairy Flower is a Trap
Some flowers go to extreme lengths to ensure pollination—like trapping their pollinators inside. A study by Matallana-Puerto shows how tiny floral hairs turn Aristolochia flowers into inescapable prisons.
Ecosystems
Could Climate Change and Pollinator Loss Turn Chocolate Back into an Expensive Delicacy?
A new study outlines some of the biggest threats that environmental change poses to the worldwide production of cacao, the plant source for chocolate, and some ideas to overcome them in the near future.