The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are holding their annual meetings this week, Oct. 14-20, in Washington, D.C. Amid the discussions around jobs, poverty reduction and value chains,…
Elephant poachers are using logging roads to infiltrate some of the last remaining pristine forests in Central Africa, according to a study published in July. The study’s authors also revealed…
Plant and animal species living in wilderness areas are less likely to go extinct, a recent study has found. Defined as intact habitats that haven’t been affected by human use…
Pines, firs, junipers, cedars — the world’s magnificent conifers have adapted to survive in unique landscapes and adverse environments, from snowy mountains and drought-ridden lowlands, to small, lonely islands. But…
The plant Roussea simplex, usually referred to by its scientific name, is one of a kind. It grows only in the mountains of the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius; it’s…
If you’re looking to buy orchids from plant markets in southern China, chances are you’ll find plenty of orchids that have been collected from the wild, sometimes illegally. And these…
When Kenji Suetsugu is out looking for plants in Japan’s forests, he's not looking for the usual green ones. Instead, on dark forest floors, where little light penetrates, Suetsugu painstakingly…
From Japan’s Amami-Oshima and Tokunoshima islands, researchers have described a new-to-science species of orchid that produces dark brown flowers that likely never bloom. Kenji Suetsugu of the Kobe University Graduate…
Researchers from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and CALeDNA have developed a toolkit designed to quickly identify the species in a biological community by simultaneously analyzing the environmental…
After two years of severe drought, lacking electricity and water, with a $500 annual budget, the Botanical Garden of Caracas struggles valiantly to protect its precious collection.
On the remote mountaintops of Queensland, Australia, researchers have rediscovered two species of ferns last seen more than 50 years ago. One of the ferns, Hymenophyllum whitei, was first recorded…
For more than 200 years, naturalists, adventurers, explorers and plant hunters have navigated the Earth, documenting the planet’s rich, unique plant life in journal pages, books and herbaria. From hard…
Earlier this year, the EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet and Health published its version of a sustainable diet that could feed the nearly 10 billion people expected to inhabit the…
From rays to deep-sea snails, primates to rosewood trees, the latest IUCN Red List update paints a gloomy picture for our world’s species. The update, which includes assessments of 105,732…
From the Usambara mountains of northeastern Tanzania, researchers have described a new species of tree that could already be on its way toward extinction. The tree, which grows up to…
In a joint customs and police operation spanning 109 countries, authorities have confiscated thousands of plants and animals, including more than 2,600 plants, nearly 10,000 live turtles and tortoises, more…
While the world wonders whether sentient robots are in the offing, scientists continue to grapple with an ancient mystery: Are plants conscious? A new opinion piece in the journal Trends…
When plants slide into extinction, they rarely make news. But more species of plants have disappeared from our planet than previously thought, a recent study has found. Since botanist Carl…
When a mining company came to exploit an old-growth cloud forest near Edicson Parra’s hometown of Fusagasuga in Colombia, he decided to take action. He rallied as many relatives and…
“I once asked a Matapí elder if he could spare an hour or two to tell me about what palms he knew, and how he used them,” says Rodrigo Cámara-Leret,…
