Take a look inside the bladder of an aquatic bladderwort plant. You can see the single-celled algae, called desmids, that it has consumed. They will be digested to provide the plant with needed ...

These spiked yellow pollen grains are still contained within the anther of this aster (a daisy-like flower) where they were produced. However, once they are released, they can travel great distances ...

This conglomeration of shapes and colors is a cluster of sporangia – known as a sorus – of a fern. A sporangium is where a fern produces the spores that allow it to reproduce. Get a closer view of the ...

Don’t let this ghostly image frighten you. Though spectral-looking, this depiction of a thale-cress flower is the result of chemically clearing its outer tissue so you can see inside the flower. Don’t ...

Neurons communicate using electricity and chemistry. Most neurons are composed of three main parts, each of which plays a special role in this communication. First is the cell body, which is the ...

This yawning abyss surrounded by colorful ovals is a cross section through the spore-bearing part of a fungus that’s a cousin of the famous (at least in culinary circles) porcini mushroom. Get a ...

This is neither an award nor a sculpture. It’s the fruiting body of a slime mold – a structure that helps the slime mold reproduce and spread. Fruiting bodies contain spores that are released into the ...

This might be the youngest plant you will ever see: a brand-new thale-cress sprout, or germen, emerging from its seed casing – ready to take root and grow. This might be the youngest plant you will ...

How many mantises do you see in this image? The two mantises shown are among the largest and smallest of all mantises. While they seem to be getting along fine, most mantises like to keep to ...

While this might look like an impressionistic painting of a lush bouquet, it’s actually a microscopic image of mold growing in a culture dish. In fact, if you’ve ever wondered what the fuzz on those ...

These golden strands look as if they could be the “amber waves of grain” extolled in the song “America the Beautiful.” But they’re actually spore-producing filaments, growing from a tangle of fibers ...

Wouldn’t it be great to have food constantly delivered to your doorstep? If you look closely at these coral polyps, you can also see zooxanthellae, single-celled algae, doing exactly that – providing ...