Plants
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Carbon storage stars
Mangrove forests get top sequestering marks.
Mangrove forests could be the key to reducing carbon, according to a new study. Researchers studying mangrove for...
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Home gardens vital for pollinators
They provide a rich and diverse nectar source, study finds.
Urban areas are a surprisingly rich food reservoir for pollinating insects such as bees and wasps, according to a UK ...
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Fungi first
A microfossil from China might be among the oldest land organisms discovered.
A US-China collaboration has uncovered the oldest terrestrial fossil ever found: that of a tiny, fungi-like organism ...
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Gardeners may have one gene to thank
Study pinpoints the cause of flower diversity.
The huge variety of flowers we know has made them seem very complex, but there may be a relatively simple reason why ...
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The underground life of plants
Study investigates why roots go where they go.
The energy a plant devotes to its roots depends on its proximity to other plants, according to a new study. The ro...
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Naming that plant just got easier
Researchers streamline the list of known vascular species.
A major difficulty in plant research is the sheer abundance of names. Most databases contain multiple or archaic ...
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The banyan tree looks odd for a reason
Genomic study reveals secrets of those aerial roots.
The banyan tree (Ficus macrocarpa) is known for its rather odd appearance, thanks to the ability to sprout roots from...
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Circular truth
Ecologists confirm Alan Turing’s theory for fairy circles.
Fairy circles – regularly spaced, round patches of bare soil surrounded by grass – are one of nature’s greatest enigm...
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NatureWatch: When the living isn’t easy
Battling extremes in the Americas and the Arctic.
Scientists continue to discover how the plants and animals around us are struggling to survive in some pretty hostile...
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Conversation
New genus of daisies found by accident
Routine analysis leads to an unexpected result.
By Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn and Ben Gooden, CSIRO When it comes to new botanical discoveries, one might imagine it...
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The stinging tree’s ouch
A ferociously painful venom has been decoded.
Australia is out to get you. If it’s not the snakes, it’s the spiders. If it’s not the spiders, it’s the sharks. If i...
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Fast-growing trees die younger
Analysis suggests this could affect carbon storage predictions.
Higher temperatures and increased atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels resulting from climate change are thought t...