Botany

European beech trees more than 1,500 kilometers apart all drop their fruit at the same time in a grand synchronization event now linked to the summer solstice.

Plants ignore the most energy-rich part of sunlight because stability matters more than efficiency, according to a new model of photosynthesis.

In the “underground economy” for soil nutrients, fungi strike hard bargains and punish plants that won’t meet their price.

To avoid passing on new mutations to offspring, plants may minimize the number of divisions by the stem cells that make flowers and seeds.

Gene-sequence data is changing the way that botanists think about their classification schemes. A recent name-change for a common houseplant resulted from the discovery that it belonged in an overlooked genus.

Compact genomes and tiny cells gave flowering plants an edge over competing flora. This discovery hints at a broader evolutionary principle.

A definitive explanation for why plants evolved spines remains elusive, and human biases compound the problem.

Striking evidence that plants warn each other of environmental dangers is reviving a once ridiculed field.