Botany

Smithsonian magazine’s top science titles this year.

The Ten Best Science Books of 2024

From a deep dive on a fatal space shuttle disaster to a study of a dozen iconic trees, these are our favorite titles this year

The crowning glory of the Gardenia brighamii is its pearly flower.

Can Fungi Save This Endangered Hawaiian Tree?

By inoculating greenhouse na’u seedlings with mycorrhizal fungi, researchers hope to boost survival odds when the plants are returned to the wild

Leaf senescence creates a golden canopy over a trail in the Harvard Forest.

What 30 Years of Studying the New England Woods Reveals About the Colors of Changing Leaves

An ecologist’s long walks and detailed observations allowed him to chronicle the shifts in an iconic habitat and grow a once-overlooked branch of science

This fossil palm leaf (Sabalites sp.) found in Alaska can be seen in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Sixty million years ago, dense, wet forests covered North America, and many plants, including palms, grew in places such as Alaska where temperatures are too frigid for them today. A new study published in Science gives scientists a picture of when the Earth was warm and when it was cool over the past 485 million years.

In a Landmark Study, Scientists Discover Just How Much Earth's Temperature Has Changed Over Nearly 500 Million Years

Researchers show the average surface temperature on our planet has shifted between 51.8 to 96.8 degrees Fahrenheit

Gambel oak branchlet

This Massive New Guidebook Will Forever Change the Way You Look at Trees

Written by Smithsonian botanist W. John Kress, the book details more than 300 North American tree species in words, maps and photographs—and why we shouldn't take them for granted

Recent genetic research could be used to produce plants without prickles, making it easier for gardeners to pluck roses without getting jabbed.

Scientists Identify the Gene Behind Thorny Roses and Other Prickly Plants

A recent study could pave the way to cultivating various thornless plants, making them easier to grow and potentially more widely available

Partially submerged trees are reflected in the waters of a dam lake.

Honor the Natural Beauty of These Tremendous Trees With 15 Photographs From the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest

Find your inner Lorax and enjoy the glory of the forest and the trees in these submissions

Rainforests, like this one in Ecuador, only appeared after the mass extinction that ended the Age of Dinosaurs.

No, Dinosaurs Did Not Trudge Through Thick Rainforests

The first jungles dense with flowering plants only formed after an asteroid impact wiped out the giant creatures

Project leader Laura Cinti visited the Wood's cycad at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London.

The 'World's Loneliest Plant' Could Soon Find a Mate With a Little Help From A.I.

The only known wild Wood's cycad was discovered in 1895, and it has since been cloned into many male trees. Now, researchers are scouring a forest in South Africa for an elusive female specimen

The Kei apple tree (Dovyalis caffra) is native to southern Africa. It is one of the species that will have its scientific name changed after a recent vote.

Botanists Vote to Remove Racial Slur From Hundreds of Plant Species Names

In a first for taxonomy, researchers opted to change scientific names containing derivatives of the slur “caffra” to derivatives of “afr,” in reference to the plants' origins in Africa

Asteroid impacts and volcanism have led to mass extinctions on our planet.

Has Life on Earth Survived More Than Five Mass Extinctions?

Scientists aren’t just arguing whether humans are causing a sixth mass extinction event now, but whether many more occurred in the past

The grape family had a complex, tumultuous history of extinction and dispersal in Central and South America.

Did the Extinction of the Dinosaurs Pave the Way for Grapes?

Newly discovered fossils in South America hint at the evolution and proliferation of grapes around the world

False mermaid-weed is small and only emerges for a short window every spring.

Rare 'Absolutely Tiny' Plant, Not Seen for More Than a Century, Found in Vermont

The last time a botanist recorded a sighting of false mermaid-weed in the state was in 1916

The fern Tmesipteris oblanceolata, which scientists just discovered has the longest known genome of any organism. Ferns are known among scientists for having particularly large genomes.

This Tiny Fern Has the World's Largest Known Genome

The plant's genome has about 50 times as many base pairs as a human's, and its DNA from a single cell would stretch longer than a football field

Acorns cover the forest floor.

Why Do Trees Drop So Many Seeds One Year, and Then Hardly Any the Next?

A new paper suggests that plants may use slow seed years to prevent the spread of disease

Farmer Robert Tomlinson harvests forced rhubarb by candlelight on his farm in Pudsey, near Leeds in northern England, in January 2022. 

The English Farmers Who Harvest Rhubarb by Candlelight

The secret to the world’s sweetest rhubarb? Sealed sheds, total darkness and a little old-fashioned flair

The flowers of the toromiro

How Rapa Nui Lost a Tree, Only to Have It Sprout Up Elsewhere

Before the toromiro disappeared from the island, at least two men grabbed seeds from the last remaining plant and brought them home

Leaves and roots analyzed by botanist Mason Heberling

These Researchers Are Digging Into the Understudied Science of Roots

After centuries of neglect, botanists are using new techniques to understand roots

A forest in Minnesota

In Minnesota, Researchers Are Moving Trees Farther North to Save Forests

As the world warms, trees in such forests will no longer be adapted to their local climates. That's where assisted migration comes in

See-through wood has a number of interesting properties that researchers hope to exploit.

The Surprising Possibilities of See-Through Wood

Stronger than plastic and tougher than glass, the resin-filled material is being exploited for smartphone screens, insulated windows and more

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