cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/41960022

Plectranthus barbatus grows to its full height in 1-2 months from a cutting and the cutting itself costs around 50 Kenyan shillings ($0.37).

"The leaves are similar in size to an industrial toilet paper square, making them suitable for use in modern flush toilets or for composting in latrines," says Odhiambo.

They emit a minty, lemony fragrance. Covered in tiny hairs, the leaves have a soft texture.

New Zealand is home to a small handful of endemic parrots, including the nocturnal, flightless kākāpō to the mischievous alpine kea.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/20537638

In a drought-hit Mexican border region at the center of growing competition with the United States for water, conservationists are working to bring a once-dying river delta back to life.

While bonobos (Pan paniscus) produce grunts, peeps, whistles and hoots, they also combine these calls to create new meanings, researchers found, suggesting they may share a trait once deemed uniquely human: a complex language structure called nontrivial compositionality.

The researchers say these findings may be a clue toward how early human language began to develop. “One interpretation of the data could be that nontrivial compositionality can be traced as far back as the last common ancestor of bonobos and humans, 7 million to 13 million years ago,” the authors write.

It could also mean that many more forms of life communicate in this way but have not been studied before.

archived (Wayback Machine)

research cited (Wayback Machine) - page 420 of PDF

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/climate-lab/more-details-surface-in-trump-administration-plan-to-cut-national-forests/

The scent of blooming flowers and fresh plant life is not just a perk of springtime; it is a key driver in the survival and evolution of butterflies and moths. New research led by scientists at Penn State reveals how the daily cycles of plant aromas are linked to the dietary habits and evolution of the winged insects collectively known as Lepidoptera.

Factors affecting the survival of the California native trees are more complex than previously understood, with deer and seedling-supporting “nurse plants” playing unexpected roles.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/20381758

Archived (Wayback Machine)

Pollinating insects such as bumblebees often repeatedly visit the same type of flower, even when a variety of flowers bloom nearby. This behavior is known as "flower constancy." Darwin speculated that flower constancy was a passive response to avoid the effort involved in remembering the different flower characteristics. However, researchers at University of Tsukuba have revealed that this theory is incomplete, since it focuses too heavily on "memory constraints."

Instead, they found that flower constancy actually results from an optimal strategy that dynamically adjusts to balance the time required to recall different flower types with the time required to move between flowers. The findings are published in the journal Functional Ecology.

Since February we’ve gone in search of the invertebrate of the year. Now it’s your chance to choose

Cave-dwelling orb spiders have adapted their webs so they act as tripwires for prey that crawl on the walls of the caves

Archived link of the article

While humans are more boisterous than ever, other species are talking too – this is what you will hear if you really listen

Tiny aquatic animal can also withstand desiccation, radiation and extreme heat, and reproduces asexually

The long-standing question of how animals came to have an anus may have been solved by studies of which genes are active during development in various animals

• Archived version of the article: https://archive.is/x2eUW
• The study: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.10.637358v1