plants

It's more than a moisturizer.

Not all cats love it.

Willem van Haecht. 'The Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest, 1628.' Found in the Collection of Rubenshuis.

He created a "world of wonders in one closet shut."

They stand 3 to 4 feet tall.

Warm temperatures mean that national parks are seeing plants emerge from winter earlier.

It's called petrichor, and a surprising amount of research has been done into the origins of the scent since it was first identified more than five decades ago.

Composite by Mental Floss. Illustrations, iStock.

In 1991, recreating Jefferson's legendary garden meant running afoul of federal law.

The tropical flora could one day be a common sight at higher latitudes.

Matthias Heyde/Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Flickr // CC BY-ND 2.0

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is designed to safeguard the world's crops against extinction, and it's getting a major upgrade to keep it safe.

As biology has developed, some of our common plant and animal names have turned out to be pretty far off the mark.

Banana skins were already good for you—now they're easy to eat, too.

His artworks showed the wonders of evolution to a wide audience.

Are the leaves of your houseplant wilting, or turning yellow? Use these five tips to help when things appear to be going south on your windowsill.

The trees want birds to disperse seeds—but sometimes kill them instead.

MAGNIFICENT CRINUM CRASSICAULE, THOMAS BAINES © THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW

Botanical Sketchbooks, a new book by Helen and William Bynum, collects some of the best drawings of the world's flora dating back to the 15th century.