The shrub-like plant Rhynchotechum discolor produces fruit that are difficult to see from above but suitable for ground-dwelling insects. However, seed dispersal by insects was previously thought to ...

Ant-mediated seed dispersal, or myrmecochory, represents a sophisticated mutualism between a wide range of flowering plants and ants. In this interaction, plants produce nutrient‐rich elaiosomes—a ...

Jan. 13 (UPI) --As ecosystems warm or dry out because of climate change, plants and animals are being forced to move in search of friendly conditions. Animals can swim, scamper and fly, but plants are ...

New research analyzing more than 3,000 tropical forest sites reveals that areas with fewer seed-dispersing animals store up to four times less carbon than forests with healthy wildlife populations.

A professor presents evidence of the apparently unusual seed dispersal system by crickets and camel crickets in Apostasia nipponica (Apostasioideae), acknowledged as an early-diverging lineage of ...

HERE TODAY, GONE TONIGHT. A seed-filled trillium fruit before deer predation (at top) and after; various seeds found by Cornell ecologist Mark Vellend in a single pile of deer scat; and a sprouting ...

Fruit exist to invite animals to disperse the swallowed seeds. A research team found that plants targeting insects rather than birds or mammals for this service are more common than previously thought ...