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Kirtida Mekani. Photo courtesy of Singapore Women’s Hall of Fame

Kirtida Mekani, Singapore’s tree lady, has died, aged 66

Rhett Ayers Butler 23 Jan 2026
Soil microbes. Invisible to the naked eye, microbial communities play a huge role in planetary processes, such as nutrient cycling, and are vital to ecosystem and human health.

IUCN launches group to conserve at-risk microbes vital to life on Earth

Sean Mowbray 21 Jan 2026
East African mahogany (Khaya anthotheca), Chirinda Forest, Zimbabwe. Image courtesy of Tony Robello via Wikimedia Commons.

Too many African plants fall into the IUCN’s ‘not evaluated’ trap (commentary)

Victor Nsereko Wantate 20 Jan 2026
Study co-lead author Luke Jeffrey climbs a tree in a melaleuca wetland forest to measure microbial community gas fluxes.

Hidden heroes: Australian tree bark microbes consume greenhouse & toxic gases

Ruth Kamnitzer 16 Jan 2026

Nitrogen may turbocharge regrowth in young tropical forest trees

Bobby Bascomb 15 Jan 2026
Orchid

Myanmar’s botanical data gaps risk its unique flora, collaborations could help, study says

Carolyn Cowan 13 Jan 2026

Photos: Kew Gardens’ top 10 newly named plants and fungi for 2025

Liz Kimbrough 12 Jan 2026

Measuring biodiversity in a world of tree-planting pledges

Ruth Kamnitzer 12 Jan 2026

Silvopasture gains momentum in the Amazon, but can it shrink beef’s footprint?

Charlie Espinosa 12 Jan 2026
Mushrooms in San Mateo County, California. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler.

An inventory of life in California

Rhett Ayers Butler 6 Jan 2026
Ocimum basilicum flower.

Amazon entrepreneur spreads seeds of growth with recycled paper

Rafael Spuldar 6 Jan 2026
Truphena Muthoni hugging a tree for 72 consecutive hours. Image by Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga via X.

From Chipko to Nyeri: The enduring logic of the tree hug

Rhett Ayers Butler 2 Jan 2026
A barn owl hunting for fleeing prey along a fire’s periphery.

How are California’s birds faring amid ever more frequent wildfires?

Gloria Dickie 31 Dec 2025
The orchids at Levy Preserve are naturally occurring and indicate that this land hadn’t been disturbed for many years.

A small preserve leads a big effort to save native plants in the Bahamas

Marlowe Starling 30 Dec 2025

Photos: Top new species from 2025

Liz Kimbrough 29 Dec 2025
Scrub jay.

In California’s redwoods, scientists rebuild lost ecosystems high up in the canopy

Marlowe Starling 29 Dec 2025
Illustration of a slender-billed curlew by Elizabeth Gould & Edward Lear via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

Declared extinct in 2025: A look back at some of the species we lost

Shreya Dasgupta 26 Dec 2025
Truphena Muthoni hugging a tree for 72 consecutive hours. Image by Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga via X.

Environmentalist hugs tree for 72 hours for Kenya’s native forests

Shanna Hanbury 25 Dec 2025
Photos of Nepenthes megastoma, a newly described critically endangered species endemic to Palawan in the Philippines, showing its lower pitcher (a) and two distinct variant forms of its upper pitcher (b-c). Image courtesy of Altomonte et al., 2025 (CC BY-NC-ND).

New pitcher plant found in the Philippines may already be critically endangered

Shreya Dasgupta 24 Dec 2025

Taboo against harming strangler fig spirits protects forests in Indonesian Borneo

Liz Kimbrough 22 Dec 2025
Giant conebird in Peru.

Project sees long-term success restoring forests in the high Andes: Study

Ruth Kamnitzer 22 Dec 2025
A fungi in the family Hygrophoraceae. This fungi, which may represent a new genus, is rare and restricted to California’s coastal regions, says Singer.

Statewide survey aims to put California’s fungi on the conservation map

Sean Mowbray 20 Dec 2025
Eastern tree hyrax in Pare mountains. Image courtesy of Hanna Rosti.

Tanzania’s tree-climbing hyraxes have adapted to life without trees

Ryan Truscott 19 Dec 2025
22-year-old environmentalist Truphena Muthoni, when she started her 72-hour tree hugging challenge in Kenya’s Nyeri County, on the foot of Mount Kenya. The local county governor Dr Mutahi Kahiga (second right) witnessed the start of the challenge that ended on December 11, 2025. Photo: Mutahi Kahiga X

Kenyan woman hugs tree for 72 hours in protest against loss of beloved trees

Lynet Otieno 18 Dec 2025
A tree kangaroo.

Malaysian companies dominate PNG forest-clearance permits: report

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 15 Dec 2025
Thismia selangorensis, courtesy of Gim Siew Tan.

A new ‘fairy lantern’ species is found at a Malaysian picnic site

Shreya Dasgupta 9 Dec 2025
Courtesy of Grupo de Intervención en Altura.

Cristina Gallardo, 39, a devoted guardian of Spain’s wild places, is lost to a fall

Rhett Ayers Butler 7 Dec 2025

Wildfire burns climate-vulnerable Joshua trees in US national park

Bobby Bascomb 4 Dec 2025

Decades-old palm trees in Rio de Janeiro flower for the first — and only — time

Associated Press 4 Dec 2025
The river survey team near the Zambian border. Image courtesy of Jen Guyton / TWP/NGOWP.

Scientists chart a new source, and length, for Africa’s famous Zambezi River

Ryan Truscott 3 Dec 2025
A male black grouse, currently declining in Wales. Image by Vnp via Wikimedia Commons (CCBY-SA3.0)

Extinctions ‘already happening’ in Wales as report lists 3,000 at-risk species

Mongabay.com 3 Dec 2025
Rainforest in northern Borneo. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

Endangered knowledge and endangered plants: Threats to Indigenous medicinal traditions in Borneo

Cassidy Beach 1 Dec 2025

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