Category: Amazing Plants

Nutrient exchanges between plant and fungal symbionts are relatively fair, with partners that provide the most resources being rewarded with more nutrients in return.

Scientists have developed a mathematical model that predicts the maximum height trees can reach in particular environmental conditions.

The most massive fruiting body of any fungus yet documented has been discovered growing on the underside of a tree in China. The fruiting body, which is equivalent to the mushrooms produced by other fungi species, is up to 10m long, 80cm wide and weighs half a tonne.

If you think glowing mushrooms are the figment of some trippy imagination, think again. After its initial discovery back in 1840, one of the most bioluminescent species of mushroom known to humans was not seen again until a pair of primatologists recently stumbled upon it in the Brazilian forests.

Instead of consuming all bacteria in their patch, [the amoebae will] stop feeding early and incorporate bacteria into their fruiting bodies… They then carry bacteria during spore dispersal and can seed a new food crop, which is a major advantage if edible bacteria are lacking at the new site.

As trees grow taller, increasing leaf water stress due to gravity and path length resistance may ultimately limit leaf expansion and photosynthesis for further height growth

The podocarps' broad leaf-like structure, which may be formed from one or more flattened needles or from a flattened petiole (stalk), has allowed them to mimic one of the most successful adaptations of flowering plants

They can clean your wastewater, fuel up your car, and then help grow a fish for your dinner.

Outer' tree canopy leaves influence the sunlight reaching inner canopy leaves by changing their shape