Flower power: EPFL’s Pier Giuseppe Ledda (left) and François Gallaire with pappus simulations (Courtesy: Alain Herzog/EPFL) Scientists in Switzerland, the Netherlands and Italy have explained why the ...

High on sunshine, humans often decide when dandelions get to spread their species -- but the puffballs have their own ideas on how best to proliferate. Knowing what causes dandelions to spread could ...

Long haul flight: micro CT image of a dandelion seed with yellow false colour. (Courtesy: Madeleine Seale and Alice Macente) A brush-shaped structure called a pappus creates vortex rings that help ...

1 Pre-dispersal predation of seeds of Asteraceae has been studied in species where ripening seed is present on plants for long periods but rarely in those where seed maturation is ephemeral and ...

At some point or another, most of us have played travel agent to a dandelion. Blowing on their tufted tops is a childhood rite of passage for many, and a simple puff of air is all it takes to send the ...

As seed plants evolved, they invented many different ways to disperse their seeds away from the maternal plant to new sites. We observe various adaptations for dispersal by wind (maple seed wings, ...

Don't be disappointed if all the fluffy seeds of a dandelion don't fly away with a single blow. The gust of wind from your lungs may be strong, but the dandelion's natural desire to control how its ...

Dandelions are much-maligned weeds, with a paratrooper-like seed dispersal system that makes them difficult to eradicate. However, new research finds a great benefit in an unlikely place for the pesky ...

Waterbirds play a pivotal role in the dispersal of plant seeds, thereby influencing the distribution, genetic connectivity, and composition of ecosystems across diverse habitats. Their dual seed ...

Knowing what causes dandelions to spread could help us understand how the plants respond to climate change, and could even help us design new ‘soft’ robots. Known for their fluffiness and uncanny ...