Plants
The Venus Flytrap Mechanism Explained
Learn how a carnivorous plant uses electrical signals and snap-buckling physics to move faster than the human eye can…
Filed in the Field Guide
Category: Plants
Plants
How the Bunchberry Dogwood Fires Pollen Like a Cannon
This common forest plant uses a trebuchet-like mechanism to explosively launch its reproductive dust faster than a bullet.
Plants
Meet the Hammer Orchid: The Plant That Pretends to Be an Insect
Learn about the devious plant that fools male wasps into pollinating it by pretending to be a female insect.
Plants
The Plant That Hunts Faster Than You Can Blink
Discover the bizarre mechanics of a carnivorous plant that evolved to move with the speed and precision of an…
Plants
The Plant That Can Survive Being Crushed Flat
Learn about the almost indestructible resurrection plant that treats being crushed flat as a minor inconvenience, defying death with…
Plants
The Plant That Lets Itself Be Eaten to Spread Faster
Discover the darkly humorous and brilliant evolutionary tactic of flora that sacrifice themselves to animals for the sake of…
Plants
The Plant That Lures Prey With a Fake Safe Landing Zone
Discover how this carnivorous plant runs a brilliant botanical scam, using visual and chemical lures to create a beautiful…
Plants
The Plant That Can Smell a Wound
Discover the eerie truth about how greenery senses and reacts to harm, using a hidden network of chemical and…
Plants
The Plant That Uses Ants as a Private Security Team
Discover how certain plants operate like tiny mob bosses, providing food and shelter to ants in exchange for a…
Plants
The Plant That Traps Animals in a Slippery Death Maze
Discover the scientifically accurate, terrifying process behind how a beautiful plant traps and consumes animals in a slick, inescapable…
Plants
The Plant That Can Sense When Its Neighbor Is Being Attacked
Discover the unsettling science of how plants use a secret language of chemical alarms and stress sounds to warn…
Plants
The Coral That Can Fight Back Like a Living Army
Learn about the secret, aggressive lives of corals and the underwater battles they wage for territory and dominance.
Plants
The Plant That Can Count Before It Eats
Learn about the sinister, calculating way a certain carnivorous plant uses a form of memory and mathematics to hunt.
Plants
The Plant That Boils Its Pollinators Alive With Heat
Discover the strange science behind plants that produce their own heat to deceive pollinators.
Plants
The Mushroom That Glows in the Dark for a Sinister Reason
Discover the strange science and manipulative evolutionary strategy behind why some fungi produce an eerie, otherworldly light in the…
Plants
The Plant That Explodes Just to Spread Its Seeds
Discover the strange and violent reproductive strategies of plants that have evolved to use explosive force to launch their…
Plants
The Tree That Poisons the Ground Around It
Discover why some plants create toxic soil to eliminate competition and what this means for your garden and local…
Plants
Plants That Can Detect Touch Without Any Nervous System
Plants use a complex system of cellular sensors and chemical signals to perceive their environment.
Plants
Plants That Can Trigger Chemical Hallucinations in Animals
Discover which common backyard plants contain compounds that can be dangerously toxic to your pets and what to do…
Plants
Plants That Can Control the Growth of Nearby Roots
Understand how some plants use natural chemicals to suppress the growth of others and how to use this knowledge…
Plants
Plants That Can Permanently Paralyze Insects Without Killing Them
Discover the clever survival strategies certain plants use to incapacitate insects without delivering a fatal blow.