New research is showing just how much plants and crops rely on a host of darkness-dwelling creepy crawlies. Think pollination, and you will likely picture a butterfly or bee flitting between flowers.

Spring flowers have co-evolved with insect pollinators for a long time. The flowers require pollen delivery to set seed. To ...

If pollen from a hot pepper fertilizes the flower of a sweet pepper, all the hot pepper genes from the father plant go into the embryo in the seed. The genes from the male parent do not play a part in ...

Have you ever walked through a garden on a warm night, unaware that tiny, winged mammals are silently working above your head ...

Many plants need to be pollinated to produce fruits or seeds to make more plants. But if pollinators are scarce in your area or you're growing fruit-bearing plants indoors, hand-pollinating is ...

From gherkins to slicers, cucumbers are among the most widely planted garden crops. Cucumbers are relatively easy to grow but ...

While it is certainly possible for cross-pollination to take place between these plants, it does not affect the type of fruit a plant produces. The type of fruit a plant produces depends entirely ...