Flowering plants, or angiosperms, are a clade of seed-producing vascular plants characterized by flowers, enclosed ovules, and fruits that develop from ovaries. They exhibit double fertilization, producing both a diploid zygote and a triploid endosperm, and possess highly diversified floral structures that underpin complex pollination syndromes. Angiosperms dominate most terrestrial ecosystems in species richness, morphological diversity, and functional roles, driving global primary productivity and biogeochemical cycles. Research on flowering plants spans phylogenomics, developmental genetics of floral organs, plant–pollinator coevolution, and physiological adaptations, making them central model systems for understanding plant evolution, speciation, and ecosystem dynamics.
The mountain jewelflower inhabits a wide swath of California and Oregon, from summer-scorched foothills to high mountains where snow falls during winter. But it is already suffering from climate change, with plants in the ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 21, 2026
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Every spring, millions of people around the world head outdoors to admire wildflowers. But flowering is much more than a beautiful seasonal display. It is one of the most important stages in a plant's life cycle, determining ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 20, 2026
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Two types of carbohydrates are important to plants—structural carbohydrates (which form cell walls) and nonstructural carbohydrates (NSCs). The latter group represents plants' stored energy reserves, which can be used to ...
Evolution
Jul 14, 2026
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High above the rainforest floor, tiny ponds form in the leaves of plants perched on tree branches. Frogs breed in these ponds, alongside insects, microbes and even tiny crustaceans, creating miniature ecosystems suspended ...
Evolution
Jul 9, 2026
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The warblers—those harbingers of spring in the U.K.—have an unappreciated talent of a different sort. Common U.K. birds, including chiffchaffs and blackcaps, are playing a real role in the pollination of plants, according ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 5, 2026
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Is it possible to study the history of viruses that emerged several hundred million years ago? An international team of INRAE and CIRAD researchers answered this question by exploring plant genomes to find the molecular fossils ...
Evolution
Jul 2, 2026
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A new white paper from eight major EU-funded pollinator projects warns that the resilience of Europe's vital societal functions and food security are at stake if the EU fails to halt and reverse wild pollinator declines and ...
Ecology
Jun 22, 2026
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A new study finds that plants respond to injury by actively redirecting sugars to damaged tissues, helping fuel the regeneration process. Using a fluorescent sensor to track sugar movement in living plants, researchers have ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 15, 2026
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As wildflowers go, the mountain jewelflower is demure, clever and quietly unbreakable. It has spread across many of California's iconic landscapes, from Sonoma wine country to the oak-dotted foothills, even over the Sierra ...
Plants & Animals
May 30, 2026
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Botanists at the University of New England (UNE) have formally described a new plant species endemic to northeastern New South Wales (NSW), ending more than a century of scientific misidentification. The research has been ...
Plants & Animals
May 22, 2026
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