Plants, features and articles | Educational Science

Dec 20, 2016

In Photos: Bizarre New Species Discoveries Include 'Klingon Newt'

Ziggy Stardust snake (Image credit: WWF)The Greater Mekong region in Southeast Asia holds an incredible range of biodiversity, and new species found in 2015 include a Ziggy Stardust snake and a newt that resembles a Star Trek Klingon. The unique colors on the head of this rainbow-headed snake, Parafimbrios lao,...

Jan 9, 2017

California's Iconic Drive-Through Tree Felled by Winter Storm

Editor's Note: This story was updated at 3:30 p.m. E.T. Oh how the mighty have fallen. An iconic California tree with a hole big enough to drive a car through has died. The tree, which stood in Calaveras Big Trees State Park, had lasted 137 years with a giant hole...

Feb 18, 2017

What's the Oldest Thing Alive Today?

The oldest living thing on Earth today is … well, it's controversial. Let's back up. Figuring out the oldest thing alive requires defining alive. That's not as easy as it might seem. If you want to be strict about finding the oldest living thing, you have to look for organisms...

Feb 22, 2017

How Buttercups Get Their Yellow Gloss

If you've ever played the childhood game of holding a buttercup under your chin to see if you like butter, you might have wondered why the cheery little flowers are the only type that provide the requisite reflection on your skin. A new study reveals the answer: Buttercups are unique...

Feb 24, 2017

Facts About Venus Flytraps

Unlike most plants, Venus flytraps are carnivorous, which means they eat meat. Charles Darwin wrote in his 1875 publication, Insectivorous Plants, that the Venus flytrap is one of the most wonderful [plants] in the world. There's no doubt that this opinion was formed after watching the jaws of this plant...

Mar 20, 2017

Stunning Images of a California Superbloom

yellow-flowers-blue-sky (Image credit: Sicco Rood)Yellow flowers paint a bright contrast against the bright blue sky in Anza Borrego State Park in 2017. The area experienced a superbloom thanks to a wet winter. yellow-flowers (Image credit: Sicco Rood)More yellow flowers from Anza Borrego State Park's 2017 superbloom. yellow-purple-orange-flowers (Image credit: Sicco...

Apr 6, 2017

Plant Photos: Amazing Botanical Shots by Karl Blossfeldt

Plant Portraits The cover of Karl Blossfeldt's collection of masterworks. (Image credit: Courtesy of D.A.P.)Karl Blossfeldt (June 13, 1865 – December 9, 1932), a German photographer, sculptor and teacher, is best known for his extreme close-ups of plants, which he used mainly as visual teaching aids. Blossfeldt's teacher at the...

May 4, 2017

Giant Sequoias and Redwoods: The Largest and Tallest Trees

Giant sequoias and California redwoods (also called coast redwoods) are nature's skyscrapers. These enormous trees exist primarily in Northern California, Oregon and Washington and though they have a number of common characteristics, including distinctive cinnamon-red bark, they are different species. Giant sequoiasGiant sequoias can grow to be about 30 feet...

May 9, 2017

Australia Incinerates 'Irreplaceable' Plant Specimens After Paperwork Error

Australian biosecurity officers have destroyed historic and irreplaceable plant specimens that date back to the mid-1800s due to a paperwork error, according to news reports. A rare collection of flowering plants from France's National Museum of Natural History in Paris was incinerated in March due to an email mix-up and...

Aug 31, 2017

Photos: Colorful Blooms Sprout Across the World's Driest Desert

Introduction (Image credit: Mario Ruiz/Zuma)Chile's Atacama Desert, one of the world's driest places, is now flush with flowers after an unexpected rain. The desert typically gets just 0.6 inches (15 millimeters) of rain a year. Even so, it's earned the name desierto florido (flowering desert) from locals because whenever it...

Sep 1, 2017

See the World's Driest Desert Covered in Wildflowers

An unexpected rain has caused the world's driest nonpolar desert to burst into bloom. Chile's Atacama Desert typically gets a mere 0.6 inches (15 millimeters) of rain every year. But unusual rains that fell during the winter in northern Chile led the barren landscape to blossom in August. Typically, the...

Nov 21, 2017

Christmas Trees: Real vs. Fake, and How to Keep Them Fresh

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, how lovely are thy branches, goes the traditional German carol. But are those branches real or fake? Conscious consumers may wonder which type of Christmas tree — real or artificial — is better for the environment. And if the branches are real, how do...

Dec 6, 2017

The World's Largest Organism Is Dying

It's death by a thousand nibbles. Pando, the world's largest living organism — and possibly its oldest — is being destroyed by the voracious appetite of mule deer. Also known as the trembling giant, Pando is a colony of quaking aspen that spans 106 acres (43 hectares) of south-central Utah....

Dec 27, 2017

When the World Turned Green: Age of Plant Photosynthesis Revealed

Ancient rocks from a remote Canada island contain the oldest algae ever discovered. The samples, found on Canada's Baffin Island, also reveal roughly when plants had the components necessary for photosynthesis, a new study finds. The finding reveals that Bangiomorpha pubescens, the oldest known algae on Earth, is more than...

Mar 5, 2018

Bizarre, Parasitic 'Fairy Lantern' Reappears in the Rainforest After 151 Years

A strange plant that needs no sunlight and sucks on underground fungi for nutrients has turned up in Borneo, Malaysia, 151 years after it was first documented. Thismia neptunis is what's called a mycoheterotroph, meaning it's part of a group of plant species that has given up photosynthesis entirely, in...