botany

A surprising discovery inside desert mosses could reshape scientists’ understanding of plant evolution. In some of the driest places on Earth, the ground itself can be alive. What looks like a thin, dark crust on desert soil may actually be a miniature ecosystem, packed with mosses, fungi, bacteria, algae, and tiny animals. These biological soil [...]

A genetic study of 2,000-year-old grape seeds is shedding new light on ancient winemaking. For centuries, the vineyards of Tuscany have been associated with some of the world’s most celebrated red wines. But a cache of grape seeds buried in ancient wells is revealing a very different story about what people were growing and drinking [...]

Meet Drag Me Outside, a Portland, Oregon, hiking group fusing queer community with biology. The post How Drag Me Outside Is Rebranding Queer Nature Walks in Portland appeared first on Outside Online .

A new pharmaceutical production method could allow astronauts on long space missions to "grow" fresh medicines on demand using plants. The work could also bring low-cost pharmaceutical production to resource-limited areas on Earth.

Nature Communications, Published online: 19 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-74577-w The authors identify conserved gene networks across fern and angiosperm reproductive development, including between the sporophyte ovule and the fern gametophyte egg-chamber. Repurposing of this network could partly explain the ovule’s evolutionary origins.

To a driver passing Fish Lake on State Route 25, in Utah, an aspen grove would look just like a forest of pale trunks. But this is isn’t your average forest. Rather, it’s a single quaking aspen masquerading as a forest; one organism, spread across 106 acres (43,000 square meters), joined underground by one living […]

John Ray, 17th-century botanist who coined words petal and pollen, was a tutor at Cambridge when he created his first garden He coined the terms petal and pollen, helped to lay the foundations of modern biology and is widely regarded as the greatest English naturalist of the 17th century. But it was while he was a young college tutor at Cambridge in the 1650s that the botanist John Ray – also kno…

BackgroundMedicinal plants used in traditional systems of medicine are a valuable source of bioactive compounds with therapeutic potential against oxidative stress–related disorders, including male infertility. Curcuma caesia Roxb. is an ethnomedicinally important species known for its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and aphrodisiac properties; however, its effects on male reproductive function r…

A research team led by Iowa State University botanists confirmed cotton was domesticated from a diverse population native to Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, a potentially fruitful target for finding genetic traits that could strengthen the world's most important fiber crop.

Researchers also discover bees can adjust their diets when pollen sources do not provide healthy level of nutrients Honeybees blend a special “baby food” to give their larvae a balanced diet, with adult bees also able to regulate their feeding to avoid overconsuming certain nutrients, according to a study. Researchers have discovered that bees can adjust how much they eat when pollen sources do n…

In this ‘Behind the Paper’ blog post, we’re dealing with drought! Author Caitlin Terry – a PhD student at Cornell University – delves into their research article “Forest type and leaf habit mediate thermal and drought tolerance across a tropical elevational gradient“. Caitlin discusses drought and thermal tolerances in tropical tree species, freezing leaf…

Garden borders often rely on familiar favorites such as hydrangeas and roses for color and seasonal interest. Allium giganteum takes a different approach. Large purple flower heads rise above neighboring perennials on tall stems, creating floating spheres that remain visible across the landscape. Unlike shrubs that form dense masses of foliage, giant ornamental onions add... The post Not Hydrange…

Frome, Somerset: This much-maligned midsummer menace has few friends among humans, but look closely and you might find an orgy of eating and mating Eyes smarting, throat tickling, nostrils dog-wet, I pick my way along a thready footpath up the combe, only half-prepared for the next irritation. Nettles, I am watching you. But not well enough it seems, for a sneaky one hidden under the skirts of en…