NEW YORK TIMES
FLORA INCOGNITA BY EMILY ANTHES
More information here
Science & Climat, photo editor, Matt McCann
online 20/04/25 — print 21/04/25
Excerpt from the article by Emily Anthes:
It’s Springtime on Polaris-9b and the Exoflowers Are Blooming.
Imagine setting out for a springtime stroll. Not here on Earth but on some distant planet — call it Novathis-458b — orbiting a distant star. Even light-years from home you recognize some familiar pleasures: The sun (albeit a different sun) is shining. The roses are in bloom. A breeze is blowing. But these are no ordinary roses and it is no everyday breeze. The wind clocks in at more than 15000 miles per hour and the flowers Rosa aetherialis have evolved to harness it. Their strong pink petals curl around a spiral interior that holds the plant’s reproductive organs. The spiral shape directs the supersonic wind through the center of the flower to flush out its pollen and carry it across the planet. […]




