Trees
The strange science behind the 'rainbow' tree
This stunning, brightly coloured tree has neon stripes running along its trunk making it look as if it has been painted.
Is there a known limit on how tall a tree can grow?
The tallest tree in the world hasn’t reached the maximum height a tree can grow... yet.
The oldest trees in world (top 6, ranked)
The world's oldest living tree is in the National Forest White Mountains in California, USA.
It's not just you, hay fever season is getting a whole lot worse. Here's why
Hay fever sufferers may have noticed their allergies getting worse. What role is climate change playing?
The Amazon rainforest: The wonders of Earth’s most unexplored wilderness, explained
Welcome to the world’s biggest, most beautiful, and most biodiverse rainforest.
Climate CSI: How counting tree rings can unlock environmental mysteries
At its core, dendrochronology is the science of using tree rings to date and analyse events in the past. But how does it work? Here's a closer look at this fascinating process.
What if there were no fossil fuels?
How different would our world look?
What is ash dieback?
It's a disease that affects the UK’s native ash species, the European ash.
Wildfires: A climatologist explains what you need to know
Wildfires are unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable. Here's what you need to know.
Why do trees have such shallow root systems?
A tree's feeder roots are often found in the top 20-30cm of the ground.
Top 10: countries with increasing forest areas
China, Australia, France and Romania all have net growth when it comes to forest areas. But which nation grows the most per year?
Why is amber so good at preserving life?
A chemist explains the science that underpins the Jurassic Park saga.
The Royal Astronomical Society is searching for the UK's "Moon Trees"
It is thought that there are around 15 trees in the UK whose seeds were flown around the Moon during NASA's lunar mission in 1971.
Coffee waste can supercharge the growth of new forests
Forests with a caffeine habit could recover four times sooner, ecologists say.
Extreme annual fires reduce forests' ability to store carbon
Scientists analysed decades’ worth of data on the impact of repeated fires on ecosystems across the world.
How tall can a Christmas tree grow?
The 'Christmas Tree' can refer to various different species of tree, but which of these is biggest?
Merlin Sheldrake | How have fungi shaped the world?
Our lives have always been entangled with fungi, says biologist Merlin Sheldrake, and the future of this relationship is full of possibility.
Merlin Sheldrake reveals the complexity of the fungal world
Read the full transcript of our Science Focus Podcast interview with fungi expert Merlin Sheldrake – listen to the episode at the bottom of the page.
The wood-wide web | Can trees and plants really talk to each other?
There’s evidence that trees communicate via a vast, underground network of fungal connections – we dive in to the murky world of mycorrhizal networks.
Potential childhood cancer treatment found in willow trees
It comes more than a century after aspirin was discovered in the same plant, with scientists hailing ‘a goldmine of exciting new chemistry’.
Tropical forests could switch from a carbon sink to a carbon source in the next 20 years
A study tracking 300,000 trees over 30 years finds the Earth's tropical forests are slowly losing their ability to remove carbon from the atmosphere.
Why have trees evolved such a variety of leaf shapes?
Asked by: Mark Buckmaster, Leicester
Major Tim Peake plants trees grown from space-faring seeds
The saplings, which were grown from seeds which spent six months aboard the International Space Station, were planted at the home of Sir Isaac Newton.
‘War on drugs’ is driving deforestation
Military action is pushing criminals into protected areas.