Sunflower blossoms face east, presenting their blooms to the morning sun and the bees that come exploring with it. But before they grow their massive flower, each plant spends the Keep reading
Tag: plants
A Pitcher Plant’s Rain-Triggered Trap
Pitcher plants all use slippery rims and sticky digestive juices to capture and trap their insect prey. But two species of pitcher plant independently evolved an extra trap: a rain-activated Keep reading
Dry Plants Warn Away Moths
Drought-stressed plants let out ultrasonic distress cries that moths use to avoid plants that can’t support their offspring. In ideal circumstances, a plant is constantly pulling water up from the Keep reading
Inside the Squirting Cucumber
Though only 5 cm long, the squirting cucumber can spray its seeds up to 10 meters away. The little fruit does so through a clever combination of preparation and ballistic Keep reading
“Plants That Explode”
We often think of plants as passive and stationary, but the truth is that some plants move faster than we can even see. In this “True Facts” video, Ze Frank Keep reading
How Ferns Spread Themselves
Ferns don’t rely on pollen and pollinators to spread. Instead, they use a little water and a lot of ingenuity, as shown in this video from Deep Look. Peer underneath Keep reading
Mimicking Plant Movement
Many plants control the curvature of their leaves by selectively pumping water into cells that line the outer surface. This swelling triggers bending. Engineers created their own version of this Keep reading
Spreading the Word
Just as prairie dogs bark to warn the colony of danger, many plants can signal their neighbors when they’re under attack. This thale cress releases calcium when caterpillars eat it; Keep reading
Dandelion Seeds
Each seed on the head of a dandelion has a preferred wind direction, according to new research. Seeds facing the breeze are most likely to release from the head, with Keep reading
“Reconfiguring It Out”
Leaves flutter and bend in the breeze, changing their shape in response to the flow. Here, researchers investigate this behavior using flexible disks pulled through water. The more flexible the Keep reading