The coral reef, once bustling with more than 5,000 long-spined sea urchins, became a ghost town in a matter of days. White skeletons with dangling spines dotted the reef near…
Category: Plants
A Caribbean island gets everyone involved in protecting beloved species
The coral reef, once bustling with more than 5,000 long-spined sea urchins, became a ghost town in a matter of days. White skeletons with dangling spines dotted the reef near…
How Kenyans help themselves and the planet by saving mangrove trees
On the fringe of Kenya’s Gazi village, 50 kilometers south of Mombasa, Mwatime Hamadi walks barefoot on a path of scorching-hot sand toward a thicket of trees that seem to…
Proposed Federal Wildfire Actions Threaten Environmental Protections
By Nick Jensen and Brendan Wilce Los Padres National Forest – Upper Fir Canyon and Hurricane Deck; Image: Bryant Baker/Los Padres ForestWatch California’s wildfire seasons are longer and more extreme…
The worldwide water-lifting power of plants is enormous
When it comes to hoisting water, plants are real power lifters. For a tall tree, slurping hundreds of liters of water each day up to its leaves or needles, where…
Native Grass Alternatives to Lawns
By Audrey Pongs There are few things more American than the concept of expansive lawns. We love our dutiful blades of grass, all lined up and trimmed, just waiting to…
Flower shape and size impact bees’ chances of catching gut parasites
Bees that land on short, wide flowers can fly away with an upset stomach. Common eastern bumblebees (Bombus impatiens) are more likely to catch a diarrhea-inducing gut parasite from…
This pitcher plant species sets its deathtraps underground
Biologist Martin Dančák didn’t set out to find a plant species new to science. But on a hike through a rainforest in Borneo, he and colleagues stumbled on a subterranean…
Cats chewing on catnip boosts the plant’s insect-repelling powers
For many cats, a mere whiff of catnip can send them into a licking, rolling, plant-shredding frenzy. That destruction amplifies catnip’s natural defenses against insects and its appeal to cats,…
These are the first plants grown in moon dirt
That’s one small stem for a plant, one giant leap for plant science. In a tiny, lab-grown garden, the first seeds ever sown in lunar dirt have sprouted. This small…
