Plants

  1. Plants

    Scientists Say: Bromeliad

    Bromeliads are plants with long spiky leaves. They are common houseplants, and we even see one in the grocery store — the pineapple.

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  2. Plants

    Houseplants suck up air pollutants that can sicken people

    Certain indoor air pollutants can sicken people. But some houseplants can remove those chemicals from a room’s air, new data show.

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  3. Plants

    Scientists Say: Chlorophyll

    Plants can make energy out of sunlight, all thanks to a pigment called chlorophyll.

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  4. Agriculture

    Sneaky! Virus sickens plants, but helps them multiply

    The cucumber mosaic virus helps tomato plants lure pollinators. When the plants multiply, the virus now gets new hosts.

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  5. Plants

    Young sunflowers keep time

    The plants don’t just use light to follow the sun. An internal clock helps their stems bend as the sun moves across the sky.

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  6. Life

    Plants, animals adapt to city living

    Cities have turned into experiments in evolution for both plants and animals, from the taste of clover to the stickiness of lizards’ toes.

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  7. Plants

    Climate closing the gender gap for this mountain flower

    Among valerian plants, males like it hotter than the females do. So a warming climate has been speeding their migration up once-cool mountainsides.

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  8. Fossils

    Identifying ancient trees from their amber

    A Swedish teen’s analyses of a sample of amber may have uncovered a previously unknown type of ancient tree.

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  9. Plants

    New species of terrifying tomato appears to bleed

    A new species of Australian bush tomato bleeds when injured and turns bony in old age.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Common plant could help fight Zika virus

    A teen discovered that extracts from leaves of the San Francisco plant (Codiaeum variegatum) kill larvae of the mosquito that helps spread the Zika and dengue fever viruses.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    The cool science of hot peppers

    Why are chili peppers spicy? Why does anyone crave food that burns? Uncovering this fiery veggie’s secrets could help fight pain and obesity.

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  12. Animals

    Pollen can become bee ‘junk food’ as CO2 rises

    Increasing levels of the greenhouse gas are changing diminishing the food value of pollen, bees’ only source of protein.

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