Plants
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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...
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Could plants help us find dead bodies?
Scientists are designing experiments to find out.
This is still quite a way from reality, but the whole idea is too intriguing to ignore. A collaborative team of fo...
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Small trees may offer hope for rainforests
Study suggests they use extra light to survive drought.
Small trees that grow up in drought conditions could form the basis for more drought-resistant rainforests in the fut...
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A new approach to working blue
These fruits are full of fat and want birds to know.
Blue fruits are rare because the required pigment compounds are relatively uncommon in nature. Viburnum tinus does it...
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New Guinea home to richest island flora
Co-ordinated effort finally reveals true number of species.
New Guinea boasts the greatest plant diversity of any island in the world, according to a new study published in the ...
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Diverse alpine flora has some serious history
DNA tests and fossils suggest it’s the oldest on Earth.
You could be looking at some of the oldest temperate alpine flora anywhere on the planet. A new study suggests the...