Endangered Plants News

April 14, 2025

Top Headlines

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 (4mC) -- is essential for sperm development and ...

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 complete information, conservationists were unable to ...

Latest Headlines

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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 ...

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, ...

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 ...

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 ...

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. ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Plants Struggled for Millions of Years After the World's Worst Climate Catastrophe

Mar. 6, 2025 — Scientists have uncovered how plants responded to catastrophic climate changes 250 million years ago. Their findings reveal the long, drawn-out process of ecosystem recovery following one of the most ...

The Yucca and the Moth: How Extreme Weather Impacts the Timing of Biological Events

Mar. 5, 2025 — A study sheds light on how extreme weather events impact phenological processes, specifically the flight period of butterflies and moths and the flowering time of plants, with implications for food ...

Discovery of a Common 'Weapon' Used by Disease-Causing Fungi Could Help Engineer More Resilient Food Crops

Feb. 27, 2025 — The discovery of a powerful 'weapon' used by many disease-causing fungi to infect and destroy major food crop staples, such as rice and corn, could offer new strategies to bolster global ...

Genetic Switch Could Help Control Leaf Growth in Poor Soils

Feb. 27, 2025 — A new study has identified a genetic circuit in plants that controls individual leaf growth and allows the plants to adapt to their environment. The findings could help the development of more ...

New Manzanita Species Discovered, Already at Risk

Feb. 25, 2025 — A new species of manzanita -- a native California shrub famous for its twisted branches and wildfire resilience -- has been discovered on the central coast, but its survival is already threatened by ...

Unexpected Discoveries in Study of Giraffe Gut Flora

Feb. 24, 2025 — The gut bacteria of giraffes are not primarily determined by what they eat, but by the species they belong to. This is shown in a new study in which researchers have analyzed the link between diet ...

Parasitic Orchids Are Healthier

Feb. 19, 2025 — Why have some orchids stopped photosynthesis and become parasites feeding on fungi? Researchers found that in at least one species the transition may be driven by the opportunity -- more than by the ...

From Plants to People: How Amino Acid, Vitamin Balance Links Plant Immunity to Epilepsy

Feb. 18, 2025 — A groundbreaking study has revealed a surprising biochemical connection between plant immune responses and human neurological health. Researchers have discovered that the metabolic pathways ...

Biomedicine Shows the Way to Future Food Crops

Feb. 18, 2025 — Researchers have introduced genetic material into plants via their roots, opening a potential pathway for rapid crop ...

Global Warming and Mass Extinctions: What We Can Learn from Plants from the Last Ice Age

Feb. 12, 2025 — Global warming is producing a rapid loss of plant species -- according to estimates, roughly 600 plant species have died out since 1750 -- twice the number of animal species lost. But which species ...

Large Differences in Water-Seeking Ability Found in U.S. Corn Varieties

Feb. 6, 2025 — A study has identified key genetic pathways in corn that help its roots branch out to find water in soil; the varieties adapted to temperate regions like the U.S. corn belt showed large differences ...

Plant Power: A New Method to Model How Plants Move Water Globally

Feb. 5, 2025 — Earth systems models are an important tool for studying complex processes occurring around the planet, such as those in and between the atmosphere and biosphere, and they help researchers and ...

The Cost of Preventing Extinction of Australia's Priority Species

Feb. 3, 2025 — A new study has estimated it would cost $15.6 billion per year for 30 years to prevent extinction for 99 of Australia's priority species. The research highlights the urgent need for increased ...

High-Yield Rice Breed Emits Up to 70% Less Methane

Feb. 3, 2025 — Rice cultivation is responsible for around 12% of global methane emissions, and these emissions are expected to increase with global warming and as the human population continues to grow. Now, ...

Burn Grasslands to Maintain Them: What Is Good for Biodiversity?

Jan. 31, 2025 — As grasslands get abandoned, controlled burning is discussed as a labor-saving method of keeping forests at bay. A research team found that this method results in higher biodiversity and a higher ...