What Will Plants Be Like on Alien Worlds?

Consider the possibility of alien plants. After all, plenty of exoplanets likely have conditions friendly to the development of plants, even if evolution there never makes it as far as complex organisms and animals. But if moss, algae, and lichen envelop lush exoplanets in the faraway realms of the Milky Way, those worlds and the stars they circle could be completely different than our own. Extraterrestrial flora could be nothing like we’ve ever seen before.

Most of the rocky exoplanets discovered so far orbit red dwarf stars, the most abundant type of star in the galaxy. They give off fainter, redder light than the sun. “It’s natural to ask, if

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