Plants, features and articles | Educational Science

Dec 22, 2020

World's ugliest orchid looks like a soul-sucking, eyeless worm

Orchids are usually prized for their grace and loveliness, but a newly described species from Madagascar probably won't be winning any beauty contests. Its small flowers are a mottled brown, and it resembles a moldy paper bag (or maybe an eyeless, wormlike head with a mouth gaping in a silent...

Feb 5, 2021

Venus flytraps produce magnetic fields when they eat

Carnivorous plants known as Venus flytraps (Dionaea muscipula) lure insects between their blushing leaves with a fragrant nectar. When these insect-hungry plants snap down on their unassuming prey, they generate a measurable magnetic field, according to a new study. The plant's magnetic field is more than a million times weaker...

Feb 25, 2021

1st time-lapse of rare moonflower blooming is stunning

A rare Amazonian cactus that blooms only once a year for just 12 hours has successfully flowered in the U.K. for the first time, capturing the attention of hundreds of thousands of people around the world who watched the event online. The moonflower (Selenicereus wittii) is a rather unusual cactus...

May 25, 2021

Flowers use the smell of death to lure and imprison coffin flies

Scientists recently discovered a flower that lures in and imprisons coffin flies with the smell of death. The plant uses this stinky aroma to trick the insects into pollinating its flowers. This is the first time that a flower has been found to mimic the scent of dead insects as...

May 26, 2021

$1.2 million worth of rare, stolen cactuses confiscated and returned to Chile

Rare cactuses taken illegally from the driest place on Earth are finally going home. Cactuses in the genuses Copiapoa and Eriosyce grow in arid regions in northern Chile, such as the Atacama Desert, and a number of these species are highly prized by specialist collectors for landscaping and as houseplants....

Jun 29, 2021

Rare 'zombie fingers' parasitic fungus is hanging on (barely) in Australia

A fungus that resembles decaying human fingers is endangered but hanging on for dear life in Australia, wrapping its zombie-like digits around fallen trees on an island near the continent's southern coast. Hypocreopsis amplectens is commonly known as tea-tree fingers, as its shape resembles pudgy human fingers clinging to wood...

Sep 17, 2021

Firefighters race to save the world’s largest tree as wildfires rage

California firefighters have wrapped the bases of the world's largest trees in fire-resistant aluminum blankets to protect them from a wildfire that is raging nearby, according to recent news reports. The Paradise and Colony fires, collectively called the KNP Complex Fire, have been burning, uncontained, in California's Sequoia National Park...

Oct 27, 2021

Corpse Flower: Facts about the smelly plant

The corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanum) also known as titan arum, reeks of rotting flesh and death when in bloom. Lucky for us, this stinky plant blooms once every seven to nine years according to the Eden Project and each bloom only lasts 24 to 36 hours. Not only is the...

Oct 28, 2021

Girthy 'penis plant' blooms for the first time, sparking excitement at Dutch garden

A plant that stands taller than a grown human, reeks of decomposing flesh and looks vaguely phallic recently bloomed in the Netherlands' oldest botanical garden, to the delight of garden staff and visitors alike. The Amorphophallus decus-silvae, a type of penis plant, bloomed for the first time last week after...

Dec 9, 2021

Do indoor plants purify air?

House plants have become incredibly popular in recent years, but do indoor plants purify air? And to what extent? Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, there's been a huge focus on the importance of indoor air quality since so many of us have spent increasing amounts of time inside. Further to...

Feb 8, 2022

Ancient trees form bloodlines that bolster forests for thousands of years

Ancient trees, the venerable sentinels of forests, may preserve genetic diversity that helps woodlands thrive for thousands of years, a new study suggests. In a typical deciduous forest, the oldest of the old trees — many of which were standing during the First Crusade — can act almost like time-travelers,...

Apr 17, 2022

How to care for houseplants

Knowing how to care for houseplants so that they stay happy and healthy can feel like a complex topic. You’ll find that investing in one of the best humidifiers can be helpful in keeping the humidity level in the room just right for your plants, but there’s also underwatering, overwatering,...

May 7, 2022

Do trees exist (scientifically speaking)?

If you look at an evolutionary diagram, you can see where Homo sapiens branched off from other primates. You can see where apples branched off from the rest of the rose family. But you won't see where trees branched off from other plants. That's because they never did. Trees are...

May 17, 2022

Stop picking carnivorous penis plants, Cambodian environmental officials plead

The Cambodian government recently asked people to stop picking a rare carnivorous plant that, when viewed from a certain angle, looks a lot like human male genitalia. The Cambodian Ministry of Environment shared images on Facebook of three women snatching up pitcher plants and posing with them, and ministry officials...

May 23, 2022

What is the world's tallest tree?

Trees are some of the most majestic and awe-inspiring living things on the planet. And many of them are really, really big. But which one is the tallest? It turns out that the tallest trees on Earth are the coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) that loom over the mist-shrouded coastline of...