Plant news, features and articles

Have you ever heard of the plant Brassica oleracea?

Researchers have discovered a fossil forest with small, palm-like trees and arthropod tracks dating back to the Middle Devonian.

Wollemi pines — thought to have gone extinct 2 million years ago — were rediscovered in 1994. Scientists are now hoping to reintroduce the species in the wild in a conservation effort that could take centuries.

Rare tree fossils preserved with their leaves have an architecture unlike any plant known today and represent the earliest evidence of smaller trees growing beneath the forest canopy.

Fossils discovered on Barro Colorado Island suggest central Panama was once home to a vast mangrove forest that was preserved when a volcanic mudflow buried it 23 million years ago.

Fossils from Australia provide the first direct evidence that photosynthesis was happening at least 1.75 billion years ago.

"The fungus swiftly colonizes and liquefies the caterpillar's delicate innards via powerful enzymes that pervade the creature's entire body cavity, effectively consuming the caterpillar from the inside out."

New buds are sprouting through the charred remains of California redwoods that burned in 2020, suggesting the trees are more resilient to wildfires than thought.

Scientists participating in one of the longest-running active scientific experiments have discovered a surprising hybrid plant hiding among seeds buried at a secret location on a university campus since 1829.

Plants draw on a suite of pigments to produce energy from sunlight, and in the fall, some become more obvious than others.