Mycorrhizal fungi are the supply chains of the soil. With filaments thinner than hair, they shuttle vital nutrients to plants and tree roots. In return, the fungi receive carbon to grow their networks. In this way, 13 billion tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide — one-third of fossil-fuel emissions worldwide — enter the soil each year….
It may be more heartbreaking than hearing your Thanksgiving dinner is wasteful or your Halloween chocolate is problematic. But yes: Those Valentine’s roses do have an environmental cost. The majority of cut flowers this time of year are flown in from Colombia and Ecuador on refrigerated airplanes, burning through fossil fuels. Commercial flower farming has…
The vast majority of plants are hermaphrodites, with both male and female reproductive parts. Oaks, some orchids, the potted spider plant in your office — they’re all capable of reproducing without a member of another sex nearby. “It makes sense if you are an organism that can’t run around and find mates,” said Deborah Charlesworth,…
Flower mites spend their lives slurping nectar and nibbling pollen in flowers throughout the tropics. To travel from one blossom to another, these tiny, eight-legged creatures hitch rides on the beaks of hummingbirds, taking shelter in the birds’ nostrils during flight. When a speedy hummingbird arrives at a flower to drink nectar, mites run toward…
