Plants: facts, news, features and articles about our oxygen providers
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390 million-year-old fossilized forest is the oldest ever discoveredResearchers have discovered a fossil forest with small, palm-like trees and arthropod tracks dating back to the Middle Devonian.
By Sascha Pare Last updated
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'Living fossil' tree frozen in time for 66 million years being planted in secret locationsWollemi 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.
By Richard Pallardy Published
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'We were gobsmacked': 350 million-year-old tree fossils are unlike any scientists have ever seenRare 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.
By Sascha Pare Published
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Fossils locked away for 1.75 billion years hold clues about key moment in Earth's historyFossils from Australia provide the first direct evidence that photosynthesis was happening at least 1.75 billion years ago.
By Jacklin Kwan Published
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'Few insect orders have been spared': Why death by parasite keeps life in the forest thriving"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."
By Alison Pouliot Published
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California redwoods 'killed' by wildfire come back to life with 2,000-year-old budsNew buds are sprouting through the charred remains of California redwoods that burned in 2020, suggesting the trees are more resilient to wildfires than thought.
By Jacklin Kwan Published
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Mysterious hybrid species discovered hiding among 144-year-old 'zombie seeds' from secretive experimentScientists 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.
By Harry Baker Published
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Why do leaves change color in the fall?Plants draw on a suite of pigments to produce energy from sunlight, and in the fall, some become more obvious than others.
By Amanda Heidt Published
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Asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs allowed flowers to thrive in a post-apocalyptic worldScientists have discovered flowering plants were largely unscathed by the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction event 66 million years ago, allowing them to take advantage of the new, dinosaur-free planet.
By Patrick Pester Published
