When did we start giving flowers for Mother’s Day?

The author of a book on the history of cut flowers digs into the history of our obsession with them, including how they became the go-to Mother's Day gift.

Jennifer Rainey Marquez-Georgia State • futurity
May 4, 2021 ~7 min

Plant flower ‘billboards’ in your garden to help bugs in trouble

You can help declining insect populations by planting groups of the same kinds of flowers together, researchers say. They act like big ads for bug food.

Samantha Murray-Florida • futurity
April 26, 2021 ~4 min


Evidence backs Darwin’s theory about ‘runt’ flowers

Until now, no one had properly tested Darwin's hypothesis on the link between cleistogamy and bilateral symmetry in flowers.

Frederique Mazerolle-McGill • futurity
Feb. 3, 2021 ~6 min

Flowers boost predatory insects’ pest control skills

Predatory insects are super pest controllers. Planting flowers can help them help farmers to reduce the use of pesticides.

Katherina Killander-U. Copenhagen • futurity
Jan. 25, 2021 ~6 min

Bumble bees in places with fewer flowers are sicker

Bumble bees in low-quality landscapes with fewer flowers and places for nesting have more diseases and parasites, researchers say.

Chuck Gill-Penn State • futurity
Jan. 7, 2021 ~7 min

Team finds chewed psychedelic flowers at rock art site

Archaeologists have long debated the relationship of psychedelics to rock art. New evidence from Pinwheel Cave in California clarifies the connection.

Kristin Strommer-Oregon • futurity
Dec. 9, 2020 ~5 min

Monarchs lay more eggs where milkweed isn’t alone

Milkweed is key to monarch butterflies' life cycle. But adding other flowering plants may help monarchs more than milkweed alone.

U. Florida • futurity
Oct. 21, 2020 ~7 min

Gardenias show how plants became great chemists

Sequencing the gardenia genome shows how plants evolved to re-use tricks from their genetic toolbox to create new chemicals.

Charlotte Hsu-Buffalo • futurity
June 25, 2020 ~9 min


When pollen’s scarce, bees stab plants to speed up flowering

When pollen resources are low, bumblebees damage plants to help drive more flowering so they can get more, researchers have found.

Peter Rüegg-ETH Zurich • futurity
May 22, 2020 ~8 min

Spiny pollen evolved to ‘velcro’ onto bumble bees

A wild dandelion's spiny pollen has evolved to attach to traveling bumblebees, report researchers.

Eric Stann-Missouri • futurity
May 20, 2020 ~4 min

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