Paul Simons

Lanmaoa asiatica, a mushroom popular in Yunnan, produces days-long hallucinations of tiny colorful figures despite being unrelated to psilocybin mushrooms. The hallucinogenic compound remains unidentified, though research is ongoing. Cooking the mushroom for 15 minutes eliminates the effect, and outside Yunnan it has only been found in the Philippines.

Scientists are revisiting the Russian dandelion, Taraxacum koksaghyz, as a potential response to the global natural rubber shortage. Its roots produce latex suitable for rubber, and unlike tropical rubber trees, the plant can grow in temperate climates with less water and no pesticides, while avoiding deforestation. A biotech partnership in Norwich is developing high-yield varieties grown in soil-free glasshouses, aiming to produce about 3,000 tonnes of rubber annually, while Germany has already produced bicycle tyres from dandelion-derived rubber.

Goat’s rue, also known as French lilac, contains galegine, a compound that lowers blood glucose but has toxic side effects. Research into galegine helped inspire the development of metformin, a safer synthetic diabetes treatment that is now one of the world’s most prescribed drugs. Metformin is also being studied for possible anti-cancer, cardiovascular, weight-loss, cognitive, ageing and longevity benefits, although the mechanisms behind these effects remain incompletely understood.

In eastern Brazil, the cactus Coleocephalocereus goebelianus attracts bats without relying on scent. Its fuzzy cephalium, located near the flowers, appears to focus bats’ ultrasonic calls toward the bloom and reduce background noise, while the cactus’s height further improves its acoustic visibility. Similar echolocation-assisted relationships occur between bats and some carnivorous pitcher plants, where bats roost and fertilize the plants.

The South African Natal crocus blooms soon after natural grassland fires, using its bright white flowers and sweet scent to attract bee pollinators against the blackened landscape. Its fruits then develop underground for six months, while its seeds produce a scent resembling ant larvae, tricking ants into carrying them to their nests where they are protected until germination.

Cycads, ancient seed plants that emerged about 275 million years ago, heat their reproductive cones by more than 10°C to attract species-specific pollinating beetles. The beetles detect the heat with infrared sensors and locate the cones at night; male cones warm several hours before female cones, guiding beetles to collect pollen before fertilising female plants.

Research on Arabidopsis thaliana found that plants growing in close contact were better able to withstand intense light than isolated plants. Crowded plants activated more than 2,000 stress-protection genes within an hour, while isolated plants showed little additional gene activity. The study suggests that hydrogen peroxide can pass between plants as an airborne signal, prompting neighbouring plants to prepare their defences against stress.

The carnivorous pitcher plant Nepenthes khasiana uses nectar containing the toxic nerve agent isoshinanolone to impair ants and other insects. The chemical causes sluggish movement, weakened muscles and excessive grooming, while sugars in the nectar make the pitcher rim slippery, helping prey fall into the digestive juices below. This combination of chemical bait and physical trap enables the plant to obtain nutrients from prey in poor soil.

Bursera shrubs and trees defend their leaves by storing toxic resin in canals that can spray attackers from distances of up to 1.5 metres. The resin repels or poisons insects and can harden around small attackers. Over millions of years, some beetles have evolved to disarm the plant by nibbling notches into its leaves, although the insects still experience reduced growth and shorter lifespans after feeding.

Rhizanthella is a group of exceptionally rare orchids that lives and flowers entirely underground, without leaves, obtaining nutrients through a fungus connected to broom bush roots. First discovered in Western Australia in 1928, the orchid remains difficult to locate and faces severe threats from habitat loss and drought linked to climate change. Botanist Kingsley Dixon of the University of Western Australia is attempting to conserve it by growing the orchid and its fungus in laboratory conditions before transferring them to potted Melaleuca bushes.

Kentia palms, once fashionable in Victorian interiors and beloved by Queen Victoria, originate from seeds harvested on Lord Howe Island off Australia’s east coast. The island is home to many plant species found nowhere else, including a rare cloud-forest ecosystem on Mount Gower. Strict visitor limits and biosecurity measures have helped preserve its biodiversity and pristine World Heritage environment.

Some flowers use highly sensitive stamens to manipulate visiting pollinators and improve cross-pollination. Berberis and Mahonia species bend their stamens onto insects, while the orchid Catasetum ejects sticky pollen bags at high speed. Australian triggerplants swing their reproductive organ through 180 degrees in milliseconds, striking insects with pollen before rapidly resetting.

Snowdonia hawkweed, a rare plant once thought extinct in the wild and nicknamed the “Welsh dodo,” survives at a protected secret location near its original habitat in north Wales. Three plants discovered in 2002 have increased to six, while seeds collected from the wild population have been successfully cultivated at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in Carmarthenshire.

Dendrosenecio kilimanjari, a relative of the common groundsel, grows up to 9 metres on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Giant groundsels are adapted to harsh high-altitude conditions through insulated stems, antifreeze compounds, nighttime leaf folding and water storage, though their growth is extremely slow.

Dandelions provide important early-season nectar and pollen for wild bees, honeybees and hoverflies, whose populations have declined sharply in the UK. Their ability to thrive in urban environments, tolerate poor conditions and grow before many other flowers makes them especially valuable to pollinators. Gardeners are encouraged by Plantlife’s No Mow May campaign to leave lawns unmown and allow dandelions and other wild plants to grow.

Ancient pingo pools formed at the end of the last ice age are being rediscovered and excavated in Norfolk’s Breckland. Once refilled naturally with groundwater, the ponds can regenerate from seeds preserved for thousands of years, including rare aquatic plants such as fen pondweed and lesser bearded stonewort. The restored wetlands are also attracting diverse wildlife, including water beetles, frogs, toads and great crested newts.

Some spring flowers use heat-generating and heat-trapping adaptations to attract pollinating insects when cool weather limits their activity. Mountain avens can warm their flowers by 3C, producing sweeter nectar that encourages insects to remain longer, while the added warmth accelerates pollination and improves seed weight and germination. Arctic poppies track the sun and close in dim light, and yellow rattle flowers form translucent chambers that trap heat like miniature greenhouses.

The telegraph plant, also known as the dancing plant, has small leaflets that continuously move in circular motions, powered by water-driven motor cells and accelerated by bright light and heat. Charles Darwin described the phenomenon in 1881 but could not explain its purpose. Proposed theories include helping the plant track sunlight or deterring insects, yet the evolutionary reason for the movement remains unknown.

The squirting cucumber (Ecballium elaterium) disperses its seeds through an explosive mechanism powered by pressure from fluid accumulating inside its ripe fruit. Its stiffened stem launches the fruit at roughly a 45-degree angle, sending seeds in a slimy jet at speeds of about 20 metres per second and distances of up to 10 metres, helping reduce competition with the parent plant and other seedlings.

The titan arum, native to Sumatra, attracts carrion flies and beetles with a giant phallic spadix that resembles a rotting carcass, emits sulphur-based odours and briefly heats to around human body temperature. The insects are trapped inside the plant’s leafy structure until its small flowers are pollinated. The plant takes years to bloom, and its striking inflorescence lasts only a few days.