plants

Latest in plants

a flower with red petals and a large pole-like center growing in a tropical forest

Rare rotting-flesh smelling flower blooming at a Massachusetts college

By Margherita Bassi

a pink orchid with delicate petals

Beware, bees! This wildflower will trap you in a floral escape room.

By Margherita Bassi

Close up of two people clinking together red wine glasses

This pinot noir hasn’t changed in 500 years

Red tulips blooming in the tulip fields in the northern Netherlands. Tulips rely on increasing temperatures to know when to bloom.

How plants know when to bloom

By Laura Baisas

Beachgoers cleaning sargassum seaweed from beach in Caribbean

2026 Sargassum bloom on track to be the largest, smelliest season yet

Bright tropical monstera leaves basking in sunlight

How much light houseplants actually need

By Debbie Wolfe

yellow flowers blooming near hills

Best superbloom since 2016 fills Death Valley with wildflowers

By Laura Baisas

A worker searches for evidence at Burr Oak Cemetery July 14, 2009 in Alsip, Illinois. Police recently closed the cemetery declaring the site a crime scene after human remains were found on the ground at various locations in the cemetery. Police suspect hundreds of graves could have been dug up in the historic black cemetery over the last several years and the bodies dumped elsewhere on the grounds in order for the gravesites to be resold by the cemetery management. Blues music legend Willie Dixon and civil rights figure Emmett Till are among those buried in the suburban Chicago cemetery. The First Lady's office confirms that Michelle Obama's father, Fraser Robinson, is also buried there. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Moss helped nab notorious grave-robbers

trees and shrubs are surrounded by a bright yellow weed

Weed that smells like paint thinner takes over Arizona

By Laura Baisas

green spruce needless with blue halos on top

Leaf tips glow blue in thunderstorms

By Laura Baisas

Comparison of short green and long red lipstick vine flowers

This odd vine contradicts long-standing evolutionary theory

The tiny blooms of Dendrobium eruciforme, known as the caterpillar orchid due to its creeping habit and small size. © Andre Schuiteman RBG Kew

Zombie fungus, ‘living stones’ among favorite botany discoveries of 2025

Both sides of one of the arrowheads analysed. The left-hand image shows the organic remains in which the arrowhead residues were identified. Photo: Marlize Lombard

World’s oldest poison-tipped arrow discovered in South Africa

a capybara between two evergreen trees

Donated Christmas trees get a second life at the zoo

By Laura Baisas

‘Mr. Fezziwig's Ball,’ an 1843 illustration by John Leech for ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens. This novella was the earliest and most popular of Dickens' Christmas stories. The kissing under mistletoe (left) and evergreen decoration hanging from the ceiling are vestiges of pre-Christian winter rites.

A history of mistletoe: The parasitic ‘dung on a twig’

several red and beige mushroom-like plants growing at the base of a tree

Asexual parasitic plants break biology’s rules

By Laura Baisas

Tumbleweed inspired robot next to actual tumbleweed

Tumbleweeds inspire this rolling, resilient robot

Legume leaf fossil

Without dinosaurs, there’d be no Thanksgiving dinner

green moss on a rock

International Space Station

Moss survived 283 days in space, shocking biologists

By Laura Baisas

hands holding forensic evidence slip in front of moss

Moss can be a key witness in murder investigations