Perfectly Awesome

"A set of experimental techniques and technologies that might seem harmful to trees is actually helping ancient forests survive."

A fast-spreading bacteria could cause an olive-oil apocalypse.

One species of tropical tree seems not only to survive lightning strikes but also to thrive because of them

The fight to save America’s iconic tree has become a civil war.

As forests succumb to ever-fiercer wildfires, the federal government and some adventurous private companies are trying to resuscitate an industry.

Oddities, marvels and revelations proliferate in groves of the tallest trees on the planet.

Cork oaks are making homes warmer, cars lighter and clothes biodegradable — while still feeding the birds and absorbing carbon.

Chaco Canyon Great Houses have timber of more than 200,000 massive log beams. Where Ancestral Puebloans got the wood is no longer a mystery.

In 1970s Bali, a sudden rice crisis prompted an unexpectedly far-reaching scientific discovery

Tagimoucia is so rare that it only grows on one of Fiji's 330 islands, it's found high atop a steep mountain ridge and it blooms for less than three months a year.

An American undergoes a gruelling apprenticeship to a Japanese master.

Thousands of years ago, Saharans ate the kernels before the fruit became sweet

The oldest relationship between humans and ancient trees naturally occurs in Africa. The continent’s longest-lived tree is the largest, too. Amazingly wide for its height, a mature baobab appears o…

High-profile initiatives to plant millions of trees are being touted by governments around the world as major contributions to fighting climate change. But scientists say many of these projects are ill-conceived and poorly managed and often fail to grow any forests at all.

Across Appalachia, scientists and foresters are trying to reintroduce a hybrid version, helping to revive damaged land while also bringing back a beloved tree.

The American chestnut tree used to grow throughout the eastern U.S., but was devastated by a blight in the early 20th century.

Famed American biologist Patricia Wright explores an astonishing breadth of biodiversity in the wilderness of Madagascar

To fight climate change, companies and nonprofits have been promoting worldwide planting campaigns. Getting to a trillion is easier said than done.

Posted by Sara Beery, Student Researcher, and Jonathan Huang, Research Scientist, Google Research, Perception Team Over four billion people live in...

Near Fort Stockton, Hoven Riley has been quietly growing more than 20,000 of the prized plants, which are being illicitly uprooted from public and private lands to meet a growing demand.

Clinical trials show that curcumin, present in the spice, may help fight osteoarthritis and other diseases, but there’s a catch – bioavailability, or how to get it into the blood

The Alexander Valley Truffle Farm has found its first truffle almost a decade after planting its truffle orchard in Geyserville, Calif.

The fig is an ecological marvel. Although you may never want to eat one again.

How one 90-year ecological mystery reveals the complexities of conservation—and the problems with the “endangered species” approach.

A study digs up the origin of the single species that gives us turnips, bok choy, broccoli rabe, and more.

When a Russian scientist identified the Malus sieversii as the progenitor of the domestic apple, harvests in Kazakhstan’s forests were bountiful; now this wild fruit is threatened.

Once considered a rangeland weed, this plant is the cornerstone of America’s desert ecosystems

I mean, the idea that you would give a psychedelic—in this case, magic mushrooms or the chemical called psilocybin that's derived from magic mushrooms—to people dying of cancer, people with terminal diagnoses, to help them deal with their - what's called existential distress.

Mistletoes have all but shut down the powerhouses of their cells. Scientists are still trying to understand the plants’ unorthodox survival strategy.

The discovery of a lost plant species highlights the need to protect other endangered species in one of the most biodiverse regions in the U.S.

By Anupum Pant Remember the biosphere 2? In short, it’s a miniature version of our planet, now owned by the university of Arizona, constructed for scientists to study how the planet’s l…

Humans and other mammals and birds would have been killed many times over by Chernobyl's radiation that plants in the most contaminated areas received. So why is plant life so resilient to radiation and nuclear disaster?

On the plight of the baobab tree.

Arborists are cloning saplings from the stumps of the world's largest, strongest, and longest-lived trees -- felled for timber more than a century ago -- to create redwood "super groves" that can help fight climate change. "Using saplings made from the basal sprouts of these super trees to plant new...

Nature - The seeds contain a lot of open space, which seems to be the key to sustaining flight.

From the memories of flowers to the sociability of trees, the cognitive capacities of our vegetal cousins are all around us

A new idea: If we revive the tiny creatures that make dirt healthy, we can bring back the great American topsoil. But farming culture — and government — aren't making it easy.