Articles for category: Plants

Trees Talk to Each Other Through Fungi (Really)

Annette Uy

Beneath your feet, as you stroll through any forest, lies one of nature’s most remarkable and sophisticated communication networks. It’s not the stuff of science fiction or fairy tales – it’s real, it’s happening right now, and it’s absolutely mind-blowing. Trees, those silent giants we’ve always thought of as solitary beings, are actually engaged in ...

A lush wildflower field with yellow and purple blooms under a summer sky.

The Science of Restoration: How Native Plants Are Fighting Back

Maria Faith Saligumba

Picture this: a barren strip of land beside a highway, scarred by construction and choked with invasive weeds. Five years later, that same spot blooms with wildflowers, buzzes with pollinators, and pulses with life. This isn’t magic—it’s the incredible power of native plants waging their own quiet revolution across the landscape. While invasive species grab ...

Canada Thistle: The Spiky Invasion Creeping Through the Midwest

Canada Thistle: The Spiky Invasion Creeping Through the Midwest

Annette Uy

Picture this: you’re walking through what should be a pristine Midwestern prairie, but instead of native wildflowers dancing in the breeze, you’re confronted by towering purple-topped spears reaching five feet high, their stems lined with razor-sharp leaves that could slice through denim. This isn’t some post-apocalyptic scene from a sci-fi movie – this is the ...

Cheatgrass.

Cheatgrass and Wildfire: How One Invasive Plant Is Fueling Western Blazes

Trizzy Orozco

The American West has always danced with fire, but in recent years, the flames have grown more ferocious, sweeping across grasslands and mountains with a terrifying hunger. At the heart of this fiery surge is a silent, green invader—cheatgrass. This seemingly harmless plant, with its delicate stalks and feathery seeds, disguises a dangerous secret. Cheatgrass ...

Fireproof Trees That Need Flames to Grow

Fireproof Trees That Need Flames to Grow

Gargi Chakravorty

Nature constantly surprises us with ingenious adaptations that defy common sense. While most plants flee from fire or perish in its flames, some trees have evolved remarkable strategies not just to survive blazing infernos but to actively embrace them. These extraordinary plants have turned what should be their greatest threat into their most powerful ally ...

Two birds perched on top of a pine tree

The Pine Beetle Epidemic: How One Insect Is Reshaping the Rockies’ Forests

Trizzy Orozco

Imagine standing in a vast pine forest, the air fresh and cool, sunlight streaming through towering green canopies. Now picture that same forest, but with mile after mile of trees tinged in rust-red, their needles dying, their trunks riddled with tiny holes. This isn’t the aftermath of a wildfire or a logging operation—it’s the signature ...

Genetic Time Capsules and DNA Durability

Seeds Sprouting After 3,000 Years

Jan Otte

  What do you get when archaeologists find a cache of ancient seeds buried deep in frozen soil? Something that shouldn’t be possible according to our understanding of biology. Yet scientists have managed to resurrect plants from seeds that predate the Roman Empire, proving that life can remain dormant far longer than anyone imagined. These ...

Invasive Species: The Uninvited Guests

Plants That Only Exist on One Mountain — And Why That’s Dangerous

Annette Uy

In isolated areas where there is little possibility for organisms to disperse to new places or to receive new gene flow from outside, the rate of endemism is particularly high. Similarly, isolated mountainous regions like the Ethiopian Highlands, or large bodies of water far from other lakes, like Lake Baikal, can also have high rates ...