Endangered Plants News

May 13, 2025

Top Headlines

A Plant You've Never Heard of Can Do What Scientists Once Thought Impossible

May 13, 2025 — A new study shows that an unassuming plant has some very unusual family ...

Growth Before Photosynthesis: How Trees Regulate Their Water Balance

May 13, 2025 — In order for trees to grow, they need to control their water balance meticulously. A study shows how trees react to drought -- and revises previous ...

New Pests and Diseases Will Cut UK Tree Growth

Apr. 28, 2025 — The arrival of new plant pests and diseases is likely to severely damage UK trees and woodlands in the coming decades, new research ...

Traditional Forest Medicinal Plant Ghost Pipe Used Differently Today

May 2, 2025 — Despite a long history of traditional medicinal use in the United States, the collection, consumption and efficacy of the peculiar forest plant aptly named ghost pipe, scientific name Monotropa uniflora, remains a mystery. Now, with social media and ...

Latest Headlines

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New Study Unlocks How Root Cells Sense and Adapt to Soil

Apr. 30, 2025 — Scientists have discovered, for the first time how root cells respond to their complex soil environment revealing that roots actively sense their microenvironment and mount precise, cell-specific ...

Will the Vegetables of the Future Be Fortified Using Tiny Needles?

Apr. 29, 2025 — Researchers have shown they can inexpensively nanomanufacture silk microneedles to precisely fortify crops, monitor plant health, and detect soil ...

Invasive Weed Threatens Southern California's Deserts

Apr. 24, 2025 — Once thought resistant to invasion, California's deserts are losing native plants to aggressive weedy species like Saharan mustard. New research shows its spread is disrupting biodiversity and ...

E-I-E-I-Omics: New Discoveries in Corn Genetics Could Help Grow More Productive, Resilient Crops

Apr. 22, 2025 — By analyzing DNA from different cells in nearly 200 lines of maize plants, research has revealed insights that could help growers better adapt their ...

How Bacteria Use Sneaky Chemistry to Disable Plant Defenses

Apr. 21, 2025 — In the microscopic battlefield of plant-microbe interactions, plants are constantly fighting off invading bacteria. New research reveals just how clever these bacterial invaders can ...

Sugar-Mimicking Molecule Central to Virulence of a Common Crop Disease

Apr. 17, 2025 — In plants, the space between cells is a key battleground during infection. To avoid recognition in this space, a strain of the bacterial tomato disease Pseudomonas syringae manipulates plants by ...

Nutrients Strengthen Link Between Precipitation and Plant Growth, Study Finds

Apr. 17, 2025 — A new study has investigated how the relationship between mean annual precipitation (MAP) and grassland biomass changes when one or more nutrients ...

Forward Genetics Approach Reveals the Factor Responsible for Carbon Trade-Off in Leaves

Apr. 16, 2025 — Starch and oils are known as storehouses of carbon in plants. However, the way in which carbon resources are allocated during metabolism in plants ...

First New Plant Tissue Discovered in 160 Years Boosts Crop Yields

Apr. 10, 2025 — A research team has discovered a new tissue in plants that plays an essential role in seed formation by regulating the flow of nutrients into the seed. The team used their findings to increase the ...

Growing Wildflowers on Disused Urban Land Can Damage Bee Health

Apr. 15, 2025 — Wildflowers growing on land previously used for buildings and factories can accumulate lead, arsenic and other metal contaminants from the soil, which are consumed by pollinators as they feed, a new ...

New Plant Molecule Encourages Plant-Fungi Symbiosis to Improve Crops

Apr. 14, 2025 — Scientists use small peptides to enhance symbiosis between plants and fungi, offering a sustainable alternative to artificial fertilizers. Plant biologists discover new plant molecule, CLE16, as well ...

From Bacterial Immunity to Plant Sex

Apr. 9, 2025 — Could it be that one of only three known markers directly targeting the DNA does not exist outside the realm of microbes? Now, researchers have demonstrated that this marker -- N4-methylcytosine ...

Researchers Reveal Why Young Plants May Be More Vulnerable to Disease

Apr. 4, 2025 — A new study reveals an evolutionary trade-off that young plants face to develop disease ...

Picky Eaters by Day, Buffet by Night: Butterfly, Moth Diets Sync to Plant Aromas

Apr. 3, 2025 — The scent of blooming flowers and fresh plant life is not just a perk of springtime; it is a key driver in the survival and evolution of butterflies and moths. New research reveals how the daily ...

Corpse Flowers Are Threatened by Spotty Recordkeeping

Apr. 3, 2025 — Plant biologists examined records for nearly 1,200 individual corpse flower plants from 111 institutions around the world. The data and records were severely lacking and not standardized. Without ...

Plant Doctor: An AI System That Watches Over Urban Trees Without Touching a Leaf

Apr. 2, 2025 — Monitoring urban plant health traditionally requires extensive manual labor and botanical expertise, creating challenges for cities facing expanding green spaces, higher population densities, and ...

The Food and Fuel That Farms Itself

Apr. 1, 2025 — Scientists have released new and more accurate genome sequences for five species of duckweed. Their research reveals the specific genes responsible for some of the plant's most useful traits, ...

Global Patterns in Seed Plant Distribution Over Millions of Years

Mar. 28, 2025 — Why do some plants thrive in specific regions but not in others? A study explores the factors shaping plant distributions and how these patterns have changed over millions of years. Analyzing nearly ...

Nature's Viny Vampire: Discovering What Drives Parasitic Cuscuta Campestris

Mar. 27, 2025 — Researchers have discovered the mechanism that drives the parasitic vine Cuscuta campestris to insert organs into plants after making contact with the ...

If Native Plants Are Going to Survive Climate Change, They Need Our Help to Move -- Here's How to Do It Safely

Mar. 26, 2025 — Many native plants in the U.S. cannot possibly move themselves fast enough to avoid climate-change driven extinction. If these native plants are going to have any chance of surviving into the future, ...

Using Cover Plants to Remove Pollutants from Arable Soil

Mar. 25, 2025 — Nitrate, pesticides, metals, plastic -- agricultural soils often contain pollutants. But are there sustainable and climate-friendly ways to restore and promote soil health in agricultural land? Yes, ...

Why Do Lymphatic Vessels Form a Jigsaw Puzzle-Like Pattern?

Mar. 20, 2025 — While researchers have long been familiar with the surface structure of lymphatic vessels, a groundbreaking study has now focused on their jigsaw puzzle-like pattern. This arrangement helps cells ...

Plant Patch Can Detect Stress Signals in Real Time

Mar. 19, 2025 — Environmental conditions can cause damaging stress to plants, posing challenges for home gardeners and farmers. Therefore, early detection -- before leaves visibly discolor, wilt or wither -- is ...

Protecting Crops: Researchers Open Up New Avenue to Combat a Widespread Plant Virus

Mar. 18, 2025 — New RNA-based active agents reliably protect plants against the Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), the most common virus in agriculture and horticulture. They were developed by researchers at the Martin ...

Conservation Efforts Analysis Reveals Which Actions Are Most Helpful for Endangered Species Status

Mar. 18, 2025 — Targeted conservation actions are essential to prevent wildlife extinctions, but more efforts are needed to fully recover biodiversity, according to a new ...

New Discovery in Plant-Pest Warfare Could Lead to Sustainable Farming Solutions

Mar. 17, 2025 — Overuse of chemical pesticides has driven resistance in agricultural pests, including the adaptable two-spotted spider mite. Researchers have discovered novel elicitor proteins, Tet3 and Tet4, in ...

Researchers Demonstrate New Technique for Boosting Plant Growth With Bacteria

Mar. 17, 2025 — Researchers have demonstrated a technique for successfully encapsulating bacteria that can then be stored and applied to plants to improve plant growth and protect against pests and pathogens. The ...

The Long Wait for Bees to Return to Restored Grasslands

Mar. 13, 2025 — Recovered grasslands need more than 75 years of continuous management to regain their biodiversity because specialized pollinators are slow to return. A new finding underscores the importance of ...

Evolution of Plant Network: 600 Million Years of Stress

Mar. 10, 2025 — Without plants on land, humans could not live on Earth. From mosses to ferns to grasses to trees, plants are our food, fodder and timber. All this diversity emerged from an algal ancestor that ...

Nearly Half of Popular Tropical Plant Group Related to Birds-of-Paradise and Bananas Are Threatened With Extinction

Mar. 7, 2025 — A new analysis reveals that nearly half of the genus Heliconia, a group of tropical plants popular for their bright, beak-shaped flowers, are threatened with ...