Seeds News

June 13, 2025

Top Headlines

How Madagascar’s Lizards Became the Island’s Last Hope for Reforestation

June 10, 2025 — After millions of years of evolutionary isolation, Madagascar developed an unparalleled array of wildlife, and recent research has uncovered an unsung ecological hero: the lizard. Though often ...

Student Discovers Long-Awaited Mystery Fungus Sought by LSD's Inventor

June 2, 2025 — Making a discovery with the potential for innovative applications in pharmaceutical development, a microbiology student has found a long sought-after fungus that produces effects similar to the semisynthetic drug LSD, which is used to treat ...

Living Libraries Could Save Our Food

May 29, 2025 — Scientists have pioneered a new way to breed climate-resilient crops faster by combining plant genebank data with climate and DNA analysis. The method, tested on sorghum, could speed up global efforts to secure food supplies in a changing ...

Too Much of a Good Thing: Consequences of Overplanting Bt Corn in the US

May 28, 2025 — A new study shows that planting too much genetically modified corn designed to fight off a tough insect -- the corn rootworm -- especially in the eastern U.S. Corn Belt states may be causing more harm than ...

Wild Spinach Offers Path to Breed Disease Resistance Into Cultivated Varieties

May 20, 2025 — Several varieties of wild spinach that originated in Central Asia show resistance to a destructive soil-borne pathogen that beleaguers growers of spinach seed in the Pacific Northwest -- a finding ...

How Did Plants Evolve the Ability to Transport Massive Amounts of Protein Into Seed Vacuoles?

May 19, 2025 — A research team has revealed the molecular steps that led to the emergence of this plant-specific vacuolar transport system. Their work shows that the acquisition of this pathway was driven by the ...

Okra, Fenugreek Extracts Remove Most Microplastics from Water

May 6, 2025 — The substances behind the slimy strings from okra and the gel from fenugreek seeds could trap microplastics better than a commonly used synthetic polymer. Previously, researchers proposed using these sticky natural polymers to clean up water. Now, ...

Targeting Gluten: Researchers Delete Proteins in Wheat Harmful to People With Celiac Disease

May 5, 2025 — Deleting a cluster of genes in wheat may reduce wheat allergies without harming breadmaking, finds anew ...

New Pangenome Analysis Uncovers Genetic Key to Larger Peanut Yields

Apr. 28, 2025 — Researchers have identified crucial structural variations that determine seed size and weight in peanuts, paving the way for the development of higher-yielding crop ...

Want to Understand Grasslands? Look at the Bigger Picture

Apr. 28, 2025 — New research asks how local and regional factors determine the makeup of plant species in grasslands. Researchers from a restoration ecology lab are attempting to solve a longstanding question in community ecology: how do regional and local factors ...

Invasive Weed Threatens Southern California's Deserts

Apr. 24, 2025 — Once thought resistant to invasion, California's deserts are losing native plants to aggressive weedy species like Saharan mustard. New research shows its spread is disrupting biodiversity and reducing the desert's ability to recover from extreme ...

Introduced Trees Are Becoming More Common in the Eastern United States, While Native Diversity Declines

Apr. 21, 2025 — In a new study, researchers used more than 5 million measurements from individual trees across much of eastern North America and showed the rate at which introduced species are spreading has ...

Latest Headlines

updated 12:57pm EDT

What a Dinosaur Ate 100 Million Years ago—Preserved in a Fossilized Time Capsule

June 10, 2025 — A prehistoric digestive time capsule has been unearthed in Australia: plant fossils found inside a sauropod dinosaur offer the first definitive ...

A New Record for California's Highest Tree

Apr. 17, 2025 — A professor's casual hike in the High Sierra turned into a new elevation record for California's highest tree, the Jeffrey pine, which wasn't formerly known to grow at extreme ...

Forward Genetics Approach Reveals the Factor Responsible for Carbon Trade-Off in Leaves

Apr. 16, 2025 — Starch and oils are known as storehouses of carbon in plants. However, the way in which carbon resources are allocated during metabolism in plants ...

First New Plant Tissue Discovered in 160 Years Boosts Crop Yields

Apr. 10, 2025 — A research team has discovered a new tissue in plants that plays an essential role in seed formation by regulating the flow of nutrients into the seed. The team used their findings to increase the ...

Corpse Flowers Are Threatened by Spotty Recordkeeping

Apr. 3, 2025 — Plant biologists examined records for nearly 1,200 individual corpse flower plants from 111 institutions around the world. The data and records were severely lacking and not standardized. Without ...

If Native Plants Are Going to Survive Climate Change, They Need Our Help to Move -- Here's How to Do It Safely

Mar. 26, 2025 — Many native plants in the U.S. cannot possibly move themselves fast enough to avoid climate-change driven extinction. If these native plants are ...

Global Patterns in Seed Plant Distribution Over Millions of Years

Mar. 28, 2025 — Why do some plants thrive in specific regions but not in others? A study explores the factors shaping plant distributions and how these patterns have changed over millions of years. Analyzing nearly ...

Using Cover Plants to Remove Pollutants from Arable Soil

Mar. 25, 2025 — Nitrate, pesticides, metals, plastic -- agricultural soils often contain pollutants. But are there sustainable and climate-friendly ways to restore and promote soil health in agricultural land? Yes, ...

Insecticides May Contribute to Bigger Problems With Certain Weeds

Mar. 25, 2025 — Insecticides may help growers hoping to protect their crops from harmful insects, but they also may contribute to a larger amount of some weeds, according to a new ...

Scientists Discover Genes to Grow Bigger Tomatoes and Eggplants

Mar. 5, 2025 — Bigger, tastier tomatoes and eggplants could soon grace our dinner plates thanks to scientists who have discovered genes that control how large the fruits will ...

Midwestern Field Trials Suggest Overuse of Rootworm-Resistant Corn Reduces Farmers' Profits

Feb. 27, 2025 — An analysis of data covering 12 years and 10 U.S. Corn Belt states reveals that farmers suffer economic loss from the over-application of genetically engineered corn designed to combat rootworm ...

New Spatial Mechanism for the Coexistence of Tree Species

Feb. 26, 2025 — The reason why so many tree species can coexist in species-rich forests has long been a subject of debate in ecology. This question is key to understanding the mechanisms governing the dynamics and ...

Climate Warming Leads to More Frequent Beech Tree Reproduction, at the Expense of Growth

Feb. 6, 2025 — A new long-term study reveals alarming insights into the impact of climate change on European beech (Fagus sylvatica), one of Europe's most widespread and ecologically important tree ...

New 'Matchless' Grass Variety Yields High Seed Count Without Need for Field Burning

Jan. 30, 2025 — A new grass variety, 'Matchless,' offers seed growers higher yields without the harmful impacts of burning. It also provides consumers with the option of a more environmentally friendly ...

Australian Plantago Could Replace Psyllium Husk in Gluten-Free Breads

Jan. 21, 2025 — Seeds of two species of Plantago have been identified as producing mucilage that can be used as a natural additive to make gluten-free bread dough more elastic, resulting in fluffier ...

What Makes Some Plant Species 'Ripe' for Domestication

Jan. 14, 2025 — Researchers have proposed that some wild plant species possess certain attributes which make them more suitable for human cultivation than ...

Just as Gouda: Improving the Quality of Cheese Alternatives

Jan. 14, 2025 — Scientists are working to produce plant-based cheese with all the characteristics of real cheese, but with better health benefits. To create a cheesy product with the same texture as the real thing, ...

An Inexpensive Fix for California's Struggling Wildflowers

Dec. 19, 2024 — California's native wildflowers are being smothered by layers of dead, invasive grasses. A new study shows that simply raking these layers can boost biodiversity and reduce fire ...

Researchers Identify a Mysterious Fossil Seed to Reveal New Chapters in Climate History of Los Angeles

Dec. 19, 2024 — Scientists have successfully identified a previously unknown species to Southern California from fossilized seeds, revealing a drought-fueled dance between two species of juniper with lessons for the ...

Across Southeastern US, Weedy Rice Steals Herbicide Resistance from Crop Rice

Dec. 16, 2024 — A new study shows that more than half of the weedy rice sampled in the rice-growing region of the southeastern U.S. has become herbicide ...

Human Disruption Is Driving 'Winner' and 'Loser' Tree Species Shifts Across Brazilian Forests

Dec. 10, 2024 — Fast-growing and small-seeded tree species are dominating Brazilian forests in regions with high levels of deforestation and degradation, a new study shows. This has potential implications for the ...

Neem Seed Extract Improves Effectiveness of Pesticide

Dec. 6, 2024 — A research group has developed an innovative pesticide delivery system called nanopesticides. These tiny technologies could change how we use ...

Insects Wearing Two Hats Solve Botanical Mystery

Dec. 4, 2024 — The discovery of a unique case where the same insect species both pollinate a plant and distribute its seeds not only solves a long-standing botanical mystery. The find also stresses the diverse ...

New Study Reveals the Explosive Secret of the Squirting Cucumber

Nov. 25, 2024 — A team has solved a mystery that has intrigued scientists for centuries: how does the squirting cucumber squirt? The findings were achieved through a combination of experiments, high-speed ...

What's the Story, Morning Glory?

Nov. 21, 2024 — Morning glory plants that can resist the effects of glyphosate also resist damage from herbivorous insects, according to a new ...

The Reasons Flowers Wilt Could Explain How Plants Spend (and Save) Their Energy

Nov. 1, 2024 — Wilting flowers might not signal poor flower or plant health, but rather the effects of a sophisticated resource management strategy in plants, millions of years in the ...

New Illinois Study Explores Adoption of Robotic Weeding to Fight Superweeds

Oct. 30, 2024 — Most corn and soybean fields in the U.S. are planted with herbicide-resistant crop varieties. However, the evolution of superweeds that have developed resistance to common herbicides is jeopardizing ...

Modern Mass Extinction in an Ecuadorean Cloud Forest Found to Be a Mirage

Oct. 15, 2024 — An international team of botanists finds no proof of extinctions in Centinela, but abundant evidence that Centinela's flora lives on in the scattered remaining fragments of coastal ...

Mexican Jumping Beans Jump to Safety in a Dynamic World

Oct. 8, 2024 — What makes Mexican jumping beans jump? Research reveals that Mexican jumping bean larvae respond to different colors of light, jumping more vigorously under different hues, which can help them avoid ...

New Seed Fossil Sheds Light on Wind Dispersal in Plants

Oct. 8, 2024 — Scientists have discovered one of the earliest examples of a winged seed, granting insight into the origin and early evolution of wind dispersal strategies in ...