“Nature produces individuals, and nothing more. She produces them in such countless numbers that we are compelled to sort them into kinds in order that we may be able to carry them in our minds. This sorting is classification— taxonomy (Bessey 1908).” The science of identifying and classifying organisms (taxonomy) is responsible for categorizing the …
Today, we know that introducing a foreign species into a habitat, no matter how benign it seems to be, is a really bad idea. The Bradford pear is one prime example of this. The small and decorative tree was a staple of the thousands of new subdivisions that sprung up across the country between the …
There are several dangerous animals out in the wild, but what about plants? As it turns out, plants can be just as dangerous as some of the other creatures found in Mother Nature, and the Giant Hogweed is proving this very point. According to news reports, the Giant Hogweed is popping up around Virginia, and …
Sometimes, when the beat drops, you can’t control yourself – you gotta dance! Turns out, this isn’t an exclusively human thing. Many animals have been observed moving in a rhythmic way, either to attract a mate or as a form of communication or to warn off predators – birds, dolphins, bears, dogs, squirrels, and honeybees, …
We often think of fire as the ultimate destructive force but for pyrophile trees, fire is necessary to reproduce. Although several pyrophile plants – plants that have adapted to tolerate fire – exist worldwide, some species of trees have taken this relationship a step further. They have adapted to harness the power of fire to …
As it turns out, we may have more in common with bees than we previously thought. New research from a group of researchers from the University of Sussex have discovered that some plants are capable of producing caffeine. In fact, they do so to accommodate bees, which react in a specific way to the caffeine. …