Project ChemicalBlooms: Collaborating with citizen scientists to survey the chemical diversity and phylogenetic distribution of plant epicuticular wax blooms.

Plants use chemistry to overcome diverse challenges. A particularly striking chemical trait that some plants possess is the ability to synthesize massive amounts of epicuticular wax that accumulates on the plant's surfaces as a white coating visible to the naked eye. The ability to synthesize basic wax molecules appears to be shared among virtually all land plants, and our knowledge of ubiquitous wax compound synthesis is reasonably advanced.