What’s usually purple, but sometimes pink,
and in the summer you might want it in a drink?
Creature: Plants
Photosynthetic organisms that form the base of most ecosystems and provide food and shelter for various creatures.
Featured Creature: Kingfisher
What creature often looks blue, but isn’t, is found on every continent but Antarctica, and inspired a train’s design?
Featured Creature: Strangler Fig
What creature grows backwards and can swallow a tree whole?
Featured Creature: ‘Ōhi’a Lehua
What tree has adapted to grow directly in lava rock and is a keystone species of the Hawaiian watershed?
Featured Creature: Stone Pine
What Mediterranean tree is uniquely equipped to withstand wildfires with armor-like bark and high, out of reach, branches?
Featured Creature: Sphagnum moss
What bog-builder can hold 15-20 times its dry weight in water?
Featured Creature: Mouse-ear cress
What plant was the first to flower in space and is the most widely used model species for studying plant biology?
Featured Creature: Cheatgrass
What plant plays an important role in its native Eastern Hemisphere grasslands, but alters soil moisture and fire regimes when introduced in North America?
Featured Creature: Cork Oak
What creature is the engine of the Portuguese economy and works hard to delight wine-lovers around the world?
The Cork Oak!
Featured Creature: Northern Red Oak
What statuesque organism is a champion of beauty, hardiness, and capacity to nurture life around it?
The Northern Red Oak!
Featured Creature: American Chestnut
What tree, the “Redwood of the East,” once dominated the forests of the Eastern United States, and the cultural landscape as well?
The American Chestnut!
Featured Creature: Bamboo
What organism can grow up to 35 inches in a day, conduct electricity, and survive an atomic bomb?
Bamboo!
Featured Creature: Pando
What is the heaviest, oldest and one of the largest creatures on the planet?