When restoring or replanting vegetation in degraded ecosystems, it may be tempting to let nature run its course, and allow native herbivores to claim their fair share. Yet a new…
In 2009, a village in southern India became a part of a long experiment. The Shola Trust, an NGO, trained the village’s Indigenous communities to harvest stems of a vibrant…
Breathing clean air in Brazil’s Cerrado grassland has become increasingly hard, according to a recent study by researchers in the central state of Goiás. It found a relationship between dying…
"One of the greatest pleasures I had when I came here was telling my friends, 'Today I planted 5,000 fig tree seeds,'" says Yacov Kilsztajn. "Planting seeds here at the…
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recorded 44 exotic plant species in five protected areas (PAs) in Bangladesh. Among them, seven species have significant harmful environmental impacts…
A new report from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBG Kew) warns that Earth's vast numbers of plant and fungal species are threatened with extinction, and many may meet that…
The Amazon Rainforest — together with other forests around the globe — lies at the center of concern over climate changes inside Brazil and worldwide. Yet little is studied and…
MALIKO’MIJK, Canada — Decades ago, the sea around Maliko’mijk Island was an expansive green carpet of eelgrass, the meadows so thick that members of the Pictou Landing First Nation had…
An expedition team has found a rare Brazilian tree that botanists thought might be extinct after nearly two centuries without a confirmed sighting. The Pernambuco holly tree (Ilex sapiiformis), which…
Remember Indiana Jones’ famous line "Snakes! Why’d it have to be snakes?" in the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark? That iconic moment has taken on a new twist…
In the Chapada dos Veadeiros area, in Goiás state — 230 kilometers (143 miles) from Brasília — members of seed networks from several parts of Brazil met for almost a…
Used as food, pets, medicine and décor, plants and animals across the globe are threatened by international trade. A recent study reveals concerning gaps in trade protections for the most…
What do Taylor Swift, Jackie Chan, Adolf Hitler and several Nobel Peace laureates all have in common? Over the past 100 years, they’ve all had plants, animals, or other new-to-science…
Among the 188 identified orchids once found in Bangladesh, 32 are extinct from nature in the last few decades, according to a study published in the now-defunct International Journal of…
Back in the mid-1990s, before the era of internet, mobile phones and satellite televisions, the government-run terrestrial broadcaster Bangladesh Television (BTV) was the only source of visual entertainment for the…
Blue carbon – the carbon stored in coastal and marine ecosystems – is an unsung ally in our fight against the climate crisis. Marine vegetated habitats like mangroves, seagrasses, salt…
Found only in Southeast Asian rainforests, the Rafflesia genus produces the world’s largest flowers. Their prodigious size is no small feat, considering that Rafflesia possess neither roots, leaves nor stems.…
More carbon is stored in the soil than in all plants, animals and the atmosphere combined, making it among the most critical conservation frontiers as we face the climate crisis.…
Plants play a vital role in purifying water, regulating the climate, supporting biodiversity, and stabilizing the soil. Or more simply put, vegetation holds the planet together. Because of this, international…
DHAKA — Bangladesh has over the last century lost seven plant species that once occurred in the country, and now risks losing at least another five, according to the first-ever…
From high up in the Serra das Almas Private Natural Heritage Reserve in Brazil’s Ceará state, the forest spreads out beyond the horizon. It’s April here in the municipality of…
Harvard-trained ethnobotanist and host of the popular podcast Plants of the Gods, Mark Plotkin is no stranger to psychedelic plants. But many people across the world, particularly in countries where…
Plants and fungi struck a deal way back when. More than 400 million years ago, plants began trading sugar made from sunlight (a.k.a. carbon) for some of the soil nutrients…
Urban green spaces — parks, gardens and other green areas where people can go to enjoy some fresh air — are more than just pretty places to relax. New research…
A thick-thumbed bat, a color-changing lizard, and a Muppet-looking orchid are just a few of the 380 new-to-science species found and described in the Greater Mekong region of Southeast Asia…
It's easy to miss the mosses, the ubiquitous green, silver and brown carpets that drape across nature's surfaces, from forest to fen. It’s also easy to underestimate just how big…
JAKARTA — The rampant deforestation for monoculture plantation and logging in western Indonesian Borneo has exacerbated the extinction risks of three plant species endemic to the island’s riparian lowland rainforests,…
COLOMBO — The Sinharaja Biosphere Reserve and UNESCO World Heritage Site is a large complex of lowland wilderness that is largely fragmented due to human activity. Walankanda and Viharakanda are…
PUNTA CHUECA, Mexico — Legend has it that, many thousands of years ago, a messenger arrived in the Comcaac land on board a strange boat after sailing on the waters…
Trees are good for many things, and their widespread planting is promoted as a solution to challenges ranging from climate change to biodiversity loss, desertification of cropland and rangeland, to…
