Balanophora is a plant that abandoned photosynthesis long ago and now lives entirely as a parasite on tree roots, hidden in ...

Some plants bend the rules of plant life so far that they barely resemble plants at all. Balanophora is one of them - a ...

A plant that looks like a fungus, lives like a parasite, and clones itself in the dark—Balanophora may be one of evolution’s strangest experiments.

The clubmosses and their relatives are the most ancient group of vascular plants — plants with specialized tissue called xylem that transports water and nutrients throughout the plant. The only plant ...

“Many people equate plants with photosynthesis, yet Balanophora illustrates that being a plant does not require being green,” ...

A rare fossil plant reveals how early plants moved water and food, helping to explain the secrets of tree growth.

A new study unveils the most comprehensive understanding of the evolutionary history of flowering plants to date. The research analyzed 1.8 billion letters of genetic code from more than 9,500 species ...

New research solves a mystery as to why mitochondria in some plants evolve faster than others. The University of Texas at Austin Evolution is a slow process occurring over many generations, but it can ...

Rare tree fossils preserved with their leaves have an architecture unlike any plant known today and represent the earliest evidence of smaller trees growing beneath the forest canopy. When you ...

Collaborations across research disciplines can lead to unexpected breakthroughs and discoveries. Collaborations across species lead to unexpected evolutionary paths of mutual benefit. For example, ...

“You shouldn’t make decisions when you’re hungry.” Tell that to the cell that ate a bacterium 1.5 billion years ago and set in motion the evolution of all plants on Earth. In this episode of Crash ...