To borrow shamelessly from Benjamin Franklin, guacamole is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. The Agricultural and Natural Resources people at the University of California-Riverside would seem to agree. In this Web site devoted solely to the lovely avocado, readers can learn all about the history and horticulture of this subtropical fruit (that's right -- fruit). Features include...

The animal kingdom may have its egg-laying platypus, but the plant kingdom is not without its own odd twists on taxonomy. If movies like Little Shop of Horrors are any indication, carnivorous plants like the Venus flytrap, sundew, and pitcher plant never fail to spark the imagination. The following set of Web sites presents a brief introduction to carnivorous plants and includes loads of great...

Roger P. Hangarter of Indiana University's Department of Biology has created this wonderful collection of time-lapse photography that allows us "to see the movements of plants and clearly demonstrates that plants are living and capable of some extraordinary things." The videos available show a broad range of plant growth phenomena, including germination, circadian responses, phototropism, and much...

Science NetLinks offers online learning resources for the educational radio program Science Update. This Web site contains an audio file and a transcript of a recent Science Update program called Eavesdropping Plants. The program describes research on how plants communicate with one another chemically. Discussion questions follow, helping K-12 students explore the material and think about the...

The Missouri Botanical Garden (MBO) hosts this site on duckweeds, the world's smallest flowering plants. Sections include Botanical Facts (anatomy through population growth), Duckweed Illustrations (numerous color images of duckweed), Experiments & Projects (check out the several interesting laboratory experiments), and Practical Duckweed (using duckweed to clean polluted water via...

The watchword of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is "protection". The APHIS is primarily considered with improving agricultural productivity and also ensuring the health and care of animals and plants. First-time visitors may wish to click on the "Hot Issues" section to learn more about some of the most pressing issues that the APHIS...

The Wisconsin Fast Plants Program was designed to build open education resources and professional learning communities that inspire and support its stated mission: "working with educators and scientists in support of conceptual understanding through science teaching, learning, and research." It's an ambitious goal and this site provides users with a range of information from how to grow fast...