Plants Archives

June 17, 2026June 16, 2026

Sensing Up and Down

How do you tell the difference between up and down? Vision helps, but blind people still know up from down. We sense gravity mostly through our inner ear. Sensory hairs inside the inner ear are stimulated by small calcium carbonate crystals. As we move, those crystals brush against the hairs, sending electrical signals through our nervous system to the brain. The brain interprets the signals, thus sensing up and down.

We know that plants can determine up and down because, no matter which direction you plant the seed, the roots grow down as the stalk goes up. How does the plant know which direction to grow without a brain or nervous system?

Since ancient times, people have known that plants grow upward while their roots grow downward, but they didn’t know why. Plant growth is controlled by hormones, and the primary one affecting growth is auxin. Plants have specialized organelles known as amyloplasts that enable gravitropism, the ability to sense up and down.

Most plants have heavy amyloplasts at the tips of their roots, where they settle in response to gravity. The amyloplasts trigger the production of auxin. When higher levels of auxin are produced on the lower side of plant roots, the lower side grows downward in the direction of gravity.

A mysterious part of this system is that amyloplasts do not produce auxin. It is produced in another set of cells that are physically distant from the amyloplasts. Without a system of nerves connecting the amyloplasts and the auxin-producing cells, how does the directional information get to the auxin-producing cells? Scientists have not fully answered that question, but they are working on it. The Creator knows.

Auxin is also the major hormone causing plants to grow upward toward light. Phototropins are pigments that sense light and trigger the production of auxin at the tips of the shoots. The auxin is transported to the bottom side of the stem, where it stimulates growth and causes the stem to grow upward toward the light.

Sensing up and down, and many other functions of plants, are carried out without the benefit of a brain or central nervous system. We may think of plants as simple compared to animals, but they must be very complex to accomplish what animals do (including taking in nourishment, defending themselves, and reproducing) without being able to move from where they are planted. The design of living things, both animals and plants, shows that there is an intelligent Designer.

June 15, 2026June 14, 2026

Sunflowers Are Amazing

When we stock our bird feeders with sunflower seeds, many birds come and crack open the hard shells to reach the nutritious kernels inside. Humans do the same, though we prefer them already shelled. When you look at the sunflower head, with its center surrounded by petals, you are actually seeing a cluster of flowers surrounding a cluster of seeds. Sunflowers are amazing not only for the nutritious seeds they produce but also for the way they track sunlight.

Phytochromes are pigments within plant cells that sense light and help maintain a plant’s biological clock. This “circadian rhythm” helps a plant determine the passage of 24-hour periods. It can persist for days, even when sunlight isn’t present. The sunflower head moves during the day to track the Sun. On a cloudy day, it may even “see” the Sun using wavelengths outside the visible light spectrum. Because of the circadian rhythm, the sunflower head turns to the east to await the morning sunrise.

It is hard to believe that this incredible design is a product of blind chance. It seems that the sunflower design is not the result of any fortuitous accident. Sunflowers are amazing, with their nutritious seeds and the plant’s relationship to the Sun exemplifying God’s design.

May 29, 2026May 27, 2026

Intelligent or Unintelligent?

Causes can be of two types: intelligent or unintelligent. As we look for what caused the universe to come into existence or what caused life to appear on this planet, we should ask whether it was an intelligent cause or an unintelligent one, meaning chance. When you see the Grand Canyon, you can conclude that it was the result of natural forces and therefore not a direct intelligent cause. When you see Mount Rushmore, the mountain itself can be attributed to natural causes, but the faces of four presidents carved into that mountain testify to an intelligent cause.

Darwinists agree that the living things we see around us appear to be designed. But those who reject intelligent causation for living things have to keep reminding themselves that what they’re seeing was not designed by an Intelligence, but rather merely happened by chance. Is that attitude intelligent or unintelligent?

The complexity of DNA is certainly a challenge to those who believe that life happened by chance. However, they also have to contend with the fact that DNA relies on proteins for its structure, while proteins require DNA to provide the instructions for how they are to be constructed and folded. Since each requires the other, which comes first: proteins or DNA?

Spontaneous generation of life from non-life was advocated by Aristotle and accepted by science for 2,000 years until Louis Pasteur disproved it. However, those who believe that life came into being without guiding intelligence from purely natural chemicals must accept the concept of spontaneous generation, even though it is not supported by any empirical observation. Francis Crick, an atheist and co-discoverer of the DNA molecule’s structure, said, “Every time I write a paper on the origin of life, I swear I will never write another one, because there is too much speculation running after too few facts.”

Other scientists, such as Fred Hoyle, recognizing the problem of life’s origin, have proposed panspermia (“seeds everywhere”). That idea suggests that life on Earth was seeded by aliens from another star system. Besides having zero evidence for such a thing, it doesn’t explain where the interstellar life came from, stretches the imagination, and requires a great deal of blind faith. When scientists and others stick to their belief in spontaneous generation or panspermia, is that intelligent or unintelligent?

Physicist and information scientist Hubert Yockey, realizing the difficulty of explaining intelligent life without an intelligent cause, wrote, “The belief that life on earth arose spontaneously from nonliving matter is simply a matter of faith in strict reductionism and is based entirely on ideology.” The faith of those who refuse to believe in intelligent design is not based on scientific evidence but on ideological bias. Do you think that believing in creation without a Creator is intelligent or unintelligent?

May 26, 2026May 24, 2026

A Neatly Arranged Tree of Life

According to the Darwinian concept, gradual changes over long periods lead to the development of new traits. The Darwinian tree of life displays branches leading to diverse life forms. Along each branch, we see new traits emerging and then being further developed in subsequent generations of creatures. That means similar traits indicate common ancestry. Over billions of years, the result should be a tree, with each branch showing an obvious progression of similar traits. A neatly arranged tree of life should be the result. However, that is not the case.

Convergent evolution throws the tree into disorder. Scientists use the term “convergent evolution” to explain similar characteristics appearing on different branches of the tree. Those similarities show up not only in obvious physical traits but even at the genetic level. According to the common understanding of the evolutionary tree, a trait should appear in a branch and then be carried forward, further developed, or even lost in the succeeding branches or twigs. For a neatly arranged tree of life, the same trait should not appear in other, unrelated branches.

According to Richard Dawkins, “It is vanishingly improbable that exactly the same evolutionary pathway should ever be traveled twice.” In other words, it is unlikely that evolution would cause the same trait to appear multiple times in different evolutionary lines. That is, two separate branches of the tree should not be marked by the appearance of the same evolved trait.

However, in many instances, the same trait shows up in animals or plants that are not closely related. In other words, the same evolutionary change occurred independently many times. According to a paper published April 30, 2026, by Yacine Ben Chehida and others in the journal PLOS Biology, “Convergent evolution, the repeated evolution of similar phenotypes, is widespread in nature.” (Phenotypes are the sets of observable characteristics or traits of an organism.)

Who is correct, Richard Dawkins or the paper in PLOS Biology? How can it be “vanishingly improbable” and yet “widespread in nature?” Furthermore, Simon Conway Morris, who has held the Chair of Evolutionary Paleobiology in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge for more than 30 years, said, “Convergence is ubiquitous.” If by ubiquitous he means present anywhere and everywhere, how can unguided evolution explain that? How can something be “vanishingly improbable” and “ubiquitous” at the same time?

Since a neatly arranged tree of life does not seem to exist, perhaps the existence of a common creator God has more explanatory power than mere chance evolution. For more examples of convergent evolution, read our posts HERE and HERE.

References: scienceandculture.com and journals.plos.org

May 19, 2026May 16, 2026

The Sound of Rainfall

Researchers in the U.K. and at MIT have found that seeds sprout faster when exposed to the sound of rainfall on the ground. When raindrops hit the ground, they create vibrations strong enough to jostle microscopic structures called statoliths inside the seeds. That sets off a biological chain reaction that triggers germination. The study shows that seeds can germinate 40% faster when exposed to rainfall sounds.

This new research helps explain why seeds germinate faster in jungle-like environments than in areas with very little rain. Researchers have had great success with rice seeds exposed to rainfall sounds, compared with rice without them. With all other factors identical between the two groups, rice seeds exposed to the sound of rainfall grow 40% faster.

This discovery can be applied to other food crops and should be a valuable tool for addressing food shortages worldwide. It is difficult, if not impossible, to attribute this design characteristic to chance. The extensive design in nature is a strong apologetic for God’s existence.

Reference: The Week for May 15, 2026, page 21.

May 15, 2026May 14, 2026

The Creativity of Chance

I’m sitting by my window, looking out at the beautiful trees, green grass, flowers, birds, groundhog, and squirrels, and I’m thinking about Darwinism. According to Darwinism, all living things have evolved from a common ancestor, a single-celled creature about four billion years ago. I’m thinking that it takes a lot of faith to believe in the creativity of chance.

People often cite similarities among living things as evidence that all life originated from a single common ancestor. In their book I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, Norman Geisler and Frank Turek consider how much faith it takes to be a Darwinist. To believe in Darwinism, you must be able to explain the dissimilarity among living things. I think that may be more difficult than explaining the similarities.

Think about the variation among the millions of life forms. Geisler and Turek point out that if you believe in Darwinism, you must explain the dissimilarity between “the palm tree, the peacock, the octopus, the locust, the bat, the hippopotamus, the porcupine, the sea horse, the Venus flytrap, the human, and mildew.” The question is, how could those and all other species have descended from the first unicellular life by mere chance and without intelligent intervention?

As you ponder that, you must also realize that if you’re going to leave God out of the picture, how did nonliving chemicals organize into that original single-celled organism from which all life sprang into being? Furthermore, how can you explain the existence of the fine-tuned universe that makes life, and especially advanced life, possible? Could chance and time have created all of this, or does it require an intelligent Designer? Believing in the creativity of chance takes more faith than I have.

April 27, 2026April 27, 2026

Underground Bees in a Cemetery

A cemetery in Ithaca, New York, not only has a large number of graves but also an even greater number of bees. Researchers estimate there are perhaps 5.6 million underground bees in that plot of land. It is the largest known aggregation of ground-nesting solitary bees, known as miner bees or mining bees, in the family Andrenidae.

The Andrenidae family of bees consists of more than 1300 species. They don’t build hives, and they don’t swarm. They are solitary bees that live out their lives, build their nests, and raise their young underground. The species of bees that have found a home in the Ithaca cemetery is Andrena regularis. This particular species pollinates crops such as apples and blueberries.

Bees in the Andrenidae family of underground bees are designed to carry pollen on their legs. Various species within this family tend to pollinate specific plant species. We often think of honeybees as essential pollinators, but we tend not to think about or even know about the bees that don’t make honey but are still important pollinators

These underground bees emerge for a short period in the spring and do their pollination work. As temperatures get warmer, they go back underground. Because of the pollen-carrying features of these solitary bees, they can deposit more pollen than individual honey bees. This cemetery discovery is unusual because of how many of them are concentrated in one area. Researchers estimate that there are more than 800 bees per square meter.

God’s amazing web of life is often overlooked because many creatures are largely out of sight and therefore out of mind. These underground bees remind us that there is a lot of life underground, even in a cemetery.

Reference: Discovermagazine.com

April 21, 2026April 20, 2026

The Wood Wide Web

Hidden underground is a network that enables most green plants to survive. Without it, most green plants would be unable to survive. It’s a network of mycorrhizal fungi. In 1960, a Swedish botanist demonstrated that substances pass between plants through a fungal pathway. In the 1980s, it became clear that most plants form mycorrhizal associations. In a play on words from the “worldwide web,” English researcher David Reed called this underground network “the wood wide web.”

Through this network, plants exchange nitrogen, phosphorus, water, and carbon. These fungal networks collaborate by connecting with one another, forming a vast, complex mycorrhizal network. Although it is not worldwide, it can be wood wide.

An extreme example of a plant that depends on the wood wide web is Monotropa uniflora, also known as ghost pipes. They resemble white smoking pipes, with their stems stuck in the ground. They are white because they lack chlorophyll and therefore cannot use photosynthesis to produce the nutrients plants need. Since the fungal networks form physical connections between plants, allowing them to share nutrients, Monotropa plants freeload on other plants.

Although Monotropa is an extreme example of dependence on the wood wide web, most other plants depend on receiving and sharing the nutrients required for plant life. We normally think of plants as separate units, and we may even think of them as competing with one another, but that is not always the case. Sometimes tall plants, such as trees, compete with smaller plants by blocking sunlight. However, they may also share nutrients underground through the mycorrhizal network.

Only in recent years have scientists discovered the wood wide web, even though it has surely been around since God created plants. This fungal network is still not fully understood, but science is seeking to understand it. How many other things in God’s creation will we discover in the future? It is clear that we have much to learn about the vast web of life. “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).

March 12, 2026March 11, 2026

Honeybee Pollination

We recently discussed that honeybees can make on-the-fly decisions individually and that they can also make group decisions by communicating with one another. Another important aspect of these remarkable insects is their role in honeybee pollination.

The flowers of various types of plants produce nectar. What is the purpose of nectar? Nectar is actually made up of two substances that are essential for plants—sugar and water. Flowers that produce nectar do so not for their direct benefit but to attract pollinators. Many plants depend on the wind to carry their pollen from one flower to another. However, this method is not very efficient because it requires a lot of pollen to fill the air, causing problems for allergy sufferers, while only a small amount will reach the intended target. A more efficient way to pollinate flowers is to attract pollinators, such as honeybees, to visit and collect pollen, either intentionally or accidentally.

Honeybees have pollen baskets on their legs to collect pollen for their use. Pollen contains protein, vitamins, minerals, and even fat, which benefits honeybees. But even more important is the nectar that honeybees use to produce honey. They accidentally collect pollen because their fuzzy bodies brush against the flower’s stamens. Honeybees even attract pollen without touching the stamens. The motion of the bees makes them positively charged, while the flowers have a negative charge, and static electricity pulls grains of pollen onto the bees’ fuzzy bodies. Honeybee pollination takes place when the bees visit another flower and deposit pollen on the sticky stamen. Ninety percent of the time, a honeybee will visit the same species of flower, which is helpful because pollen from one species would not aid a flower of a different species.

The bottom line is that 80% of the world’s most important crop plants are pollinated by insects. Two-thirds of North American crops depend on insects for pollination, and honeybees are the most vital pollinators for crops in North America. Honeybees are another part of the beautifully designed system that makes life possible in the world God created.

March 5, 2026March 4, 2026

Trees Are Beneficial to Life

It’s well known that trees benefit the environment by taking in carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen into the atmosphere through the complex process of photosynthesis. However, recent research indicates another way that trees are beneficial to life. Tree bark is home to over 1000 microbial species that help to eliminate methane, hydrogen, and carbon monoxide from the atmosphere.

There has been much concern about the greenhouse effect produced by carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Often overlooked is the fact that the greenhouse effect of methane is many times more potent than that of carbon dioxide, and methane is produced by many natural sources, such as decomposing organic matter. Also, carbon monoxide produced by incomplete combustion is deadly for humans, and many of us have carbon monoxide detectors in our homes because of that. Hydrogen, along with carbon monoxide, apparently helps methane remain longer in the atmosphere. Therefore, removing carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, and hydrogen from the atmosphere can reduce the greenhouse effect.

Researchers studied flooded lowlands in the Amazon region, where microbes living in lake and wetland sediments produce methane. When they measured the amount of methane bubbling up and compared that to methane data acquired by satellites, they were surprised. The satellite data indicated only half as much methane as predicted by ground-based measurements. The research showed that methane levels were reduced because microbes in tree bark oxidized methane. They also found that microbes in the tree bark oxidize hydrogen and carbon monoxide from the air. This shows another way that trees are beneficial to life.

The researchers found that different tree species had distinct microbial communities in their bark. Further study is needed to understand which tree species are most beneficial to the atmosphere. Previous research has found that tree trunks harbor many beneficial microbes. The bottom line is that trees are beneficial to life. In addition to being good for the environment, they are beautiful and beneficial for people’s emotional well-being. The more we learn about the design in the natural world, the more we are amazed by how God has given us exactly what we need for a living environment. It is up to us to enjoy and protect what God has provided.

Reference: Science News magazine for March 2026, pages 22-23, and sciencenews.org