Plants: facts, news, features and articles about our oxygen providers
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Shark Bay: Home to Earth's largest plant — an immortal, self-cloning seagrass meadow stretching 112 milesA 77-square-mile seagrass meadow at the bottom of Shark Bay in Western Australia is both Earth's largest plant and largest clone.
By Sascha Pare Published
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Near-indestructible moss can survive gamma rays and liquid nitrogenThis little moss withstands deadly blasts of radiation, extreme cold and dehydration — and could probably survive on Mars.
By Stephanie Pappas Published
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What is photosynthesis?Reference Photosynthesis is the process plants, algae and some bacteria use to turn sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into sugar and oxygen.
By Daisy Dobrijevic Last updated
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100-foot 'walking tree' in New Zealand looks like an Ent from Lord of the Rings — and is the lone survivor of a lost forestAn 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.
By Harry Baker Published
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Bizarre evolutionary roots of Africa's iconic upside-down baobab trees revealedThe baobab tree evolved on the island of Madagascar before eventually spreading to Africa and Australia, new research suggests.
By Richard Pallardy Published
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2 plants randomly mated up to 1 million years ago to give rise to one of the world's most popular drinksArabica 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.
By Richard Pallardy Published
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Are kale, broccoli and Brussels sprouts really all the same plant?Have you ever heard of the plant Brassica oleracea?
By Marlowe Starling Published
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390 million-year-old fossilized forest is the oldest ever discoveredResearchers have discovered a fossil forest with small, palm-like trees and arthropod tracks dating back to the Middle Devonian.
By Sascha Pare Last updated
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'Living fossil' tree frozen in time for 66 million years being planted in secret locationsWollemi 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.
By Richard Pallardy Published
