plant biology

Mistletoe might be a nice yuletide decoration, but it’s also a nefarious, parasitic badass that preys upon a series…

Sunflowers may look like the sun if you squint your eyes a bit, but they also do this weird thing where they turn to…

The Sumatran titan arum’s species name – Amorphophallus titanum – means “giant misshapen penis”. Guess what its…

No, it's not hipster Cthulhu. Known as "honey fungus," this huge underground organism is the world's biggest living…

With its small bright green leaves and dangling, pearl-white flowers, Raven's Manzanita is instantly…

Here's a terrifying experiment that will haunt your dreams, especially as winter comes on. You know those…

Within 30 years, it's likely that farmers will be battling deadly crop pests that they've never seen before. Pests…

Beneath our feet, plants are locked in a slow-motion struggle for the elements necessary for survival: water,…

Most people don't have very strong feelings about flowers, unless they are incredibly beautiful or smell really…

Generally speaking, plants get filed under the "boring" category. Occasionally, they smell nice, look pretty, or…

Carbon fiber is one of the strongest and most resilient materials on the market, used in everything from car frames …

A patch of moss that lay buried beneath the antarctic ice for over 1,500 years has been successfully revived by…

Researchers from the John Innes Centre have shown that plants are capable of doing basic division — a calculation…

In the small, freshwater streams of South Dakota, a horrible menace is creeping along the rockbeds. Known as rock…

The KinnowLS mandarin orange, pictured at right, is incredibly sweet, has almost no seeds, a skin so thin it's…

The lovely scent of cut grass is the reek of plant anguish: When attacked, plants release airborne chemical…

When every crop has to be licensed from patent owners like Monsanto, only those practiced in the art of pirate…

Flowering plants go through a complicated double-fertilization process that involves a lot of sperm. But until…

You might already know about the glowing mushrooms of Japan. Every spring, the rains cause bioluminescent fungi to…