Plants

Plants

Blooms on ‘chocolate’ tree are crazy-hard to pollinate

The cacao trees must be pollinated or those seeds that give us chocolate will never form. The rub: The trees’ flowers challenge all but some of the tiniest pollen-moving insects.

Plants

Increasingly, chocolate-makers turn to science

Chocolate is delicious and may even have health benefits. To make sure there’s enough to go around, scientists are growing heartier cacao trees.

Ecosystems

Here’s why scientists have been fertilizing the Arctic

For more than 30 years, scientists have been fertilizing small parcels of Arctic tundra. Here’s what happens when you push an ecosystem to the brink.

Plants

Explainer: The fertilizing power of N and P

Two elements — nitrogen and phosphorus — help plants grow. When the soil doesn’t have them, farmers might add them in the form of fertilizer.

Environment

Tropics may now emit more carbon dioxide than they absorb

Analyses of satellite images suggest that degraded forests now release more carbon than they store.

Climate

Thawing mosses tell a climate change tale

Plants long entombed beneath Canadian ice are now emerging. They’re telling a story of warming unprecedented in the history of human civilization.

Plants

Earthworm invaders may be stressing out some maples

Worms are great for soil when ecosystems have evolved with them. But in earthworm-free places, like parts of the U.S. Upper Midwest, they can cause problems for plants and animals.

Plants

Cool Job: Rethinking how plants hunt for water

Studies probing the very beginnings of root development may have important implications for growing food in a world where the climate is changing.

Chemistry

Why onions make us cry

Researchers add another piece to the molecular puzzle biochemists have tried to solve for decades — why onions can make our eyes tear up.

Chemistry

Scientists Say: Capsaicin

This chemical is produced by pepper plants and gives them their hot flavor.

Agriculture

Scientists Say: Domestication

Domestication is the process of deliberately taking a wild organism — a plant or animal for instance — and making it a part of our daily lives.

Plants

Scientists Say: Guttation

When water vapor can’t escape a plant, it might force its way out through a process called guttation.