Floral Scents Have Provided Olfactory Excitement Since Mid-Cretaceous Period
The compounds behind the perfumes and colognes you enjoy have been eliciting olfactory excitement since dinosaurs walked the Earth amid the first appearance of flowering…
Flowers
UW Study Reveals How Climate Change May Reshape Wildflower Communities
A new study from the UNiversity of washington shows that with a changing climate, Mount Rainier floral communities could ‘reassemble’ with new species relationships and…
How Scent and Nectar Influence Pollinators and Herbivores
Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology reveal how flowers use scent and nectar to manipulate pollinators and herbivores. Some pollinators not only…
Study Shows That Bees and Flowers Communicate Using Electrical Fields
Scientists from the University of Bristol have discovered that flowers use patterns of electrical signals in concert with the flower’s other attractive signals to enhance…
High Levels of Anthocyanins Give Black Dahlias Their Color
There are more than 20,000 varieties of dahlias, including white, yellow, deep reds, and magenta-colored flowers. The rarer black dahlias are especially alluring to horticulturists….
Human Obsession with Orchids Goes as Far Back as Roman Times
A careful study of ancient artifacts in Italy has pushed back the earliest documented appearance of orchids from the Renaissance to Roman times. The orchid’s…
Horizontal Gene Transfer Between Plants is More Widespread than Previously Thought
While studying the parasitic “corpse flower” of Southeast Asia, researchers from Harvard and Stony Brook University found that horizontal gene transfer between plants is much…
Increased Number of Plant Species Responding to Global Warming
A new study from a team of biologists suggests that many wild plant species are feeling the effects of global warming, even the species that…
Genetic Clues to Van Gogh’s Teddy Bear Sunflower Florets Uncovered
The famous Dutch impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh was obsessed with sunflowers, until he died in 1890. His iconic paintings of sunflowers fetch millions of…