plants

Imaggeo On Monday: The desert of the cauliflowers

Luca Barale July 4, 2022

The desert of the cauliflowers. Credit: Luca Barale (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Bouâmama Cauliflowers (Fredolia aretioides) in the stony plateaus of the Eastern High Atlas near Ayt Wazag (Morocco). The compact, cushion-like habit, the tiny coriaceous leaves and the deep-reaching roots of this shrub allow it to thrive under arid climatic conditions. Photo by Luca Barale, as described on imaggeo.egu.eu. Imaggeo is the EGU’s online open access geosciences image repository ...[Read More]

How certain plants survive mass extinction events: study

Conor Purcell October 11, 2017

How do plants survive mass extinctions? . Credit: Marta Galvagno (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu).

We often read about Earth’s mass extinction events and how they wiped out vast numbers of animal species, leaving survivors to evolve and repopulate the planet. But it’s rarer to hear about how plants managed these catastrophes. A new study published last month by a team at University College Dublin, Ireland, in the journal Nature Plants shows how plants with thicker, heavier leaves we ...[Read More]

Geosciences Column: From the desolate to the diverse, a story of volcanic succession

Sara Mynott July 18, 2014

When a volcano erupts and spews lava onto the surrounding terrain, it is merciless in its destruction. All that is green on the land is engulfed in flame, or buried by an insurmountable mass of molten rock. Whatever charred remains of what lies beneath it will not see the light of day once the lava cools, turning the landscape into a barren black mass of solid basalt. But volcanoes around the worl ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Iceland’s highlands

Sara Mynott March 3, 2014

This week’s Imaggeo on Mondays provides a little insight into what you might find beneath your feet as you explore the Icelandic highlands… You can stumble upon wild blueberries, better known to botanists as vaccinium uliginosum, in cool temperate regions of the Arctic, as well as other mountainous areas including the Pyrenees, Alps, and Rockies. They thrive in wet acidic soils – the sort y ...[Read More]