Mention fennel pollen, the potent granules harvested from the buds of flowering fennel plants, and they may make an exception.

WSJ: Fennel Pollen: Culinary Fairy Dust

What caused this diversification is not known for certain, but it coincides with the rise of the flowering plants, which is suggestive.

ECONOMIST: Rewriting the history of the mammals

That history reveals patterns, some of which, the domination of terrestrial flora by the flowering plants, for example, are vast in space and time.

ECONOMIST: A master of evolution takes a last long look at Darwin

The federal project joins efforts by groups such as Project Budburst, which has collected seasonal data from more than 15, 000 volunteers across the country, and an educational project called Journey North, funded by the Annenberg Foundation, which every year mobilizes students in some 6, 000 schools to report sightings of migrating birds, butterflies and flowering plants.

WSJ: A Science of Signs of Spring

Then they move the plants to a darker environment to encourage flowering and the formation on the surface of its buds, leaves and stems of trichomes, tiny resin-filled glands resembling sea anemone.

WSJ: The Pot Business Suffers Growing Pains