Plants
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Latest about Plants
Shark Bay: Home to Earth's largest plant — an immortal, self-cloning seagrass meadow stretching 112 miles
By Sascha Pare published
A 77-square-mile seagrass meadow at the bottom of Shark Bay in Western Australia is both Earth's largest plant and largest clone.
Near-indestructible moss can survive gamma rays and liquid nitrogen
By Stephanie Pappas published
This little moss withstands deadly blasts of radiation, extreme cold and dehydration — and could probably survive on Mars.
What is photosynthesis?
By Daisy Dobrijevic last updated
Reference Photosynthesis is the process plants, algae and some bacteria use to turn sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into sugar and oxygen.
100-foot 'walking tree' in New Zealand looks like an Ent from Lord of the Rings — and is the lone survivor of a lost forest
By Harry Baker published
An unusual northern rātā tree that looks like it is striding across an empty field has been crowned New Zealand's Tree of the Year. The giant plant, which looks strikingly similar to an Ent from "The Lord of the Rings," is centuries old.
Bizarre evolutionary roots of Africa's iconic upside-down baobab trees revealed
By Richard Pallardy published
The baobab tree evolved on the island of Madagascar before eventually spreading to Africa and Australia, new research suggests.
2 plants randomly mated up to 1 million years ago to give rise to one of the world's most popular drinks
By Richard Pallardy published
Arabica coffee plant appears to have evolved between 600,000 and 1 million years ago after two other coffee species crossbred in the forests of what is now Ethiopia.
Are kale, broccoli and Brussels sprouts really all the same plant?
By Marlowe Starling published
Have you ever heard of the plant Brassica oleracea?
390 million-year-old fossilized forest is the oldest ever discovered
By Sascha Pare last updated
Researchers have discovered a fossil forest with small, palm-like trees and arthropod tracks dating back to the Middle Devonian.
'Living fossil' tree frozen in time for 66 million years being planted in secret locations
By Richard Pallardy published
Wollemi pines — thought to have gone extinct 2 million years ago — were rediscovered in 1994. Scientists are now hoping to reintroduce the species in the wild in a conservation effort that could take centuries.
'We were gobsmacked': 350 million-year-old tree fossils are unlike any scientists have ever seen
By Sascha Pare published
Rare tree fossils preserved with their leaves have an architecture unlike any plant known today and represent the earliest evidence of smaller trees growing beneath the forest canopy.
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