Mycoheterotrophic ParasitismBY: @C_Y_SPAMIn school, we’re taught that plants make their own food from carbon dioxide, water, and energy from the sun thanks to a green, sun-catching pigment called chlorophyll, right? While that’s entirely true for about 99% of plants,...

Two newly discovered fungi species have a similarly macabre mode of action: They eat flies alive while using them to drop spores on new victims.The related species, Strongwellsea tigrinae and Strongwellsea acerosa, attack the fly species Coenosia tigrina and Coenosia...

Photo: Joey Santore (pogonia ophioglossoides)Orchids + FungusesBy: C_Y_SpamIf you can believe it, until about the 60’s, the scientific community considered the immense world of fungi to be a mere offshoot of the plant kingdom. Though we now know much more about the...

Photo by Sean Barefield (@mojave_cerastes)Bufo Alvarius, “The Colorado River Toad”, is a fascinating amphibian found in Northern Mexico and the Southwest parts of the United States. According to PBS Nature Works, “It is 3-7 inches in length and is the largest native...

Santa Claus’ origins are very hazy, some say it was Coca-Cola’s marketing push, old Greek legend, and some Norse folktales among countless other stories. The truth is that the modern-day Santa has become an amalgamation of many myths and legends, and we are diving...

Mycorrhiza is a symbiotic relationship between plants and fungus, a relationship every single plant in nature relies on and benefits from. Mycorrhiza fungus, starting life as microscopic spores, is filament-like in structure, it can be thinner than hair or as thick as...

The common thought is that a billion years ago, in the Proterozoic era, the Earth’s land looked very different, no trees, no vascular plants, no animals. It was basically a bare rock with cool stuff in the water. Except it wasn’t. A research scientist in Canada has...