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Plants Articles

A plant enemy’s enemy

By Jill Richardson / April 3, 2013

When eaten by caterpillars, some plants can emit chemicals that signal the help of special wasps. Once called, a wasp lays its egg inside a caterpillar. Credit: Ted Turlings

Plants use chemicals to recruit help in fighting off pests

Posted in Agriculture, Chemistry, Plants | Tagged Ali Zakir, Amanuel Tamiru, Barack Obama, botany, caterpillars, corn, corn rootworms, cotton, crop protection, Desmodium, Egyptian cotton leafworm, entomology, fall armyworm, farming, feature, features, insect communications, insects, integrated pest management, John Pickett, Kenya, larvae, Marcel Dicke, Maurice W. Sabelis, mite, moths, Napier grass, nematodes, pesticides, pests, plant breeding, plant communications, plant protection, plant signaling, plants, predation, predators, priming, push-pull, Sarah Obama, stem borer, Ted Turlings, Thomas Degen, topstories, volatiles, wasp, Zeyaur Khan

Cool Jobs: Green Science

By Sharon Oosthoek / March 14, 2013

White spruce grow across northern North America, from Alaska to Labrador. As Arctic temperatures rise, spruce are spreading even farther north. Credit: Mark W. Skinner at USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database

Scientists get at the root (and stem, leaf, flower, fruit and seed) of the relationship between plants and their environment

Posted in Agriculture, Plants, STEM Careers | Tagged air pollution, air pollution control, albedo, allelopathy, arabidopsis, benzene, Bill Wolverton, birch, botany, climate change, contaminants, cool jobs, ecology, feature, forests, formaldehyde, global warming, greenhouse effect, greenhouse effectPlants, herbicide, houseplants, Joseph Jez, juglone, Labrador, NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, plant chemistry, plants, Pollination, pollinator, Quebec, rice, seeds, Serge Payette, sorghum, spruce, topstories, transpiration, tree line, trees, trichloroethylene, tundra, Université Laval, Washington University, weed killers, X-ray crystallography

Flower power

By Stephen Ornes / March 11, 2013

Scientists report that bees and flowers appear to have a charged communication. In addition to a flower’s color and scent, its electric field may also bring in bees, a new study shows. Credit: Emily Krieger

Electric field around flowers may help bees find nutritious blooms

Posted in Animals, Plants | Tagged bees, biology, charge, Daniel Robert, electric field, electric potential, electricity, entomology, flowers, getinvolved, nectar, negative charge, Pollination, positive charge, sensory biology, Stephen Buchmann, University of Arizona at Tucson, University of Bristol

Whale-free perfume

By Stephen Ornes / July 9, 2012

Sperm whales are among the largest mammals on Earth. Credit: Wayne Hoggard NOAA/NMFS/SEFSC

Tree gene trick is good news for people who like perfume made without sperm whale waste

Posted in Plants, Uncategorized | Tagged ambergris, balsam fir, DNA, getinvolved, Joerg Bohlmann, perfume, sperm whales. trees

Ancient flower blooms again

By Roberta Kwok / March 16, 2012

Fruit frozen underground for more than 31,000 years produce plants

Posted in Plants | Tagged getinvolved

Carnivorous plants say ‘cheese’

By Stephen Ornes / March 1, 2011

It took high-speed cameras to reveal how the bladderwort gets lunch

Posted in Plants | Tagged getinvolved

Surprise Visitor

By Stephen Ornes / February 3, 2010

Newly discovered cricket pollinates orchids in nighttime rendezvous

Posted in Plants

Flower family knows its roots

By Stephen Ornes / December 3, 2009

Impatiens wildflowers seem to know who’s sharing their soil

Posted in Plants

Hungry bug seeks hot meal

By Dina Fine Maron / November 18, 2008

A seed-loving insect finds food by sensing its temperature

Posted in Animals, Plants

A ‘book’ on every living thing

By Susan Milius / March 5, 2008

The biggest encyclopedia ever, with an entry for every living species, is available now at a computer near you.

Posted in Animals, Life, Plants

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