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91 comments to "Neatorama and mental_floss: Show off your smarts!"
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Leslie
December 7th, 2007 at
4:50 am
Bananas are considered the world’s largest herb. They are related to the lily and orchid family.
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Leslie
December 7th, 2007 at
4:55 am
During the War between the States, doctors in the Union army routinely used onion juice to clean gunshot wounds.
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Fitz
December 7th, 2007 at
5:09 am
The world’s largest carnivorous plants are of the genus Nepenthes. The Nepenthes rajah is particularly notorious. Found only in Sabah, a Malaysian state in northern Borneo, these giant pitchers have been reported to trap frogs and small rodents.
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Jefftexas
December 7th, 2007 at
5:14 am
When a Giraffe starts eating leaves on an acacia tree it immediately pumps alkoids into its leaves which make them taste nasty to the Giraffe so it only gets a few leaves from the tree. The acacia tree then releases a signal into the air and all the acacia trees around it begin pumping alkoids into their leaves.
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Sandman
December 7th, 2007 at
5:16 am
The Gympie Gympie, moonlighter or stinger is a large shrub native to rainforest areas in North Eastern Australia, the Moluccas and Indonesia. It is best known for stinging hairs which cover the whole plant and deliver a potent toxin when touched. It is the most virulent species of stinging tree. In fact, these silicon hairs are glass. This glass is not transparent like window glass, but it is still glass.
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Bryan
December 7th, 2007 at
5:22 am
The penis cactus’s German name is Frauenglück, which means “woman’s pleasure”.
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chris
December 7th, 2007 at
7:26 am
The petals of the orchid Tricoceros parviflorus imitates a certain female fly so perfectly that the male fly of the species will attempt to mate with it. In so doing, it pollinates the orchid.
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chris
December 7th, 2007 at
7:29 am
In 2001, there were more than 300 banana-related accidents in Britain, most involving people slipping on skins
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chris
December 7th, 2007 at
7:32 am
Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously
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chris
December 7th, 2007 at
7:36 am
The Longest Carrot recorded in 1996 was 16 feet 10 ½ inches
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k
December 7th, 2007 at
7:36 am
One ragweed plant can release as many as one billion grains of pollen.
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k
December 7th, 2007 at
7:37 am
A notch in a tree will remain the same distance from the ground as the tree grows.
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k
December 7th, 2007 at
7:38 am
Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew cannabis sativa (marijuana) on their plantations.
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felix
December 7th, 2007 at
7:46 am
the fastest growing plant is a bamboo (which is actually a grass) that grows at 3 feet a day, which has been clocked at growing at 0.0002mph. it has been used as a torture device where the victim was tied to a scaffold over it and its sharpened end grew threw them.
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chris
December 7th, 2007 at
8:00 am
The woman’s tongue of Zanzibar is a plant with pods full of seeds which rattle continuously.
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henri
December 7th, 2007 at
8:03 am
The castor-oil plant produces the deadliest plant toxin in it’s seeds (6000 times deadlier than cyanide). A famous case of poisoning by ricin (the dangerous protein in the bean) was the murder of Georgi Markov in 1978. There is no known antidote to the toxin.
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henri
December 7th, 2007 at
8:08 am
Kings holly (Kings lomatia) is now extinct, but when it lived it was the world’s oldest clone. The plant is sterile and never pollinates. Instead, they regenerate by shooting out seeds from their roots. About 600 plants were believed to have once lives, all genetically identical clones.
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e6c
December 7th, 2007 at
8:09 am
The most expensive coffee in the world is called Kopi Luwak, the beans for this wonderful brew are harvested out of the excrement of a jungle cat known as the Asian Palm Civet. The Asian Palm Civet climbs the tree and eats only the ripest berries, then after digesting the berry only the bean remains and is harvested and sold for up to $600 per pound!
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_luwak
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Palm_Civet
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/k/kopiluwak.htm -
nick
December 7th, 2007 at
8:13 am
Lakes that have almost NO plant life are called crystalline lakes such as Lake Tahoe.
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nick
December 7th, 2007 at
8:16 am
The giant redwood tree develops from a seed that is only 1/16th inch long. just so you know…
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nick
December 7th, 2007 at
8:17 am
The largest seed weighs up to 50 pounds! It comes from the double coconut tree.
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MoonCake
December 7th, 2007 at
8:52 am
Hemp is one of the most versatile plants where products range from food to clothing. It could end world hunger, yet, the plant it comes from is illegal. And the plany it comes from (cannibis) is tasty and versatile in its own effects.
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MoonCake
December 7th, 2007 at
8:53 am
*plant… not plany.
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Tom
December 7th, 2007 at
9:00 am
In celebration of great trees I would like to remind people of “Pando”, generally considered the largest living organism in the world. “Pando” is a colony of Aspen trees that are genetically identical and share the same root system. The over mass of the colony weighs in around 6,000 tons and the root system is thought to be the oldest living organism, dating back some 80,000 years.
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jennyrobinson2
December 7th, 2007 at
9:02 am
The double coconut seed mentioned by nick is not actually a relative of the coconut. The first sightings of the seed were the empty shells floating in the ocean by sailors. Women were not permitted to look at them, since they resemble a toosh bobbing in the water.
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JoeD
December 7th, 2007 at
9:06 am
In honor of today’s prize-winning shirt:
There is more sugar in 1kg of lemons than in 1kg of strawberries.
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kimber
December 7th, 2007 at
9:09 am
Orchids are the only plant to appear on all seven continents.
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Tom
December 7th, 2007 at
9:14 am
In the past certain trees have protected families from the evils of the world. Junipers were planted as protection from thieves and witches. Mountain ash twigs were tied into knots to prevent witchcraft.
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Miss Cellania
December 7th, 2007 at
9:14 am
Yep, its hard for me to keep those pesky orchids out of my vegetable garden.
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Heather
December 7th, 2007 at
9:20 am
Actually, Rafflesia is thought by some to be a composite of interconnected smaller flowers, which taken as a whole appears to be a single flower (similar to how a coral reef is made up of thousands of tiny organisms). It’s also a parasite!
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lindygirl22
December 7th, 2007 at
9:43 am
The largest fungal colony in the world is found in the Malheur National Forest in the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon. The colony of Honey Mushroom or Shoestring Rot spans 2,200 acres, is 2,400 years old and weighs over 600 tons.
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patoot
December 7th, 2007 at
9:53 am
Dendrophiliacs are people who enjoy having intercourse with plants and/or trees.You do NOT want to go hiking in the woods with these people.
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Lauren lane
December 7th, 2007 at
10:37 am
When life gives you lemons, throw them back in life’s face and say, “I don’t want your damned lemons!” A lemon happens to be a person or thing that proves to be defective, imperfect, or unsatisfactory; a dud.
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Nick
December 7th, 2007 at
10:41 am
Carrion flowers or Stinking flowers are flowers that emit an odor that smells like rotting flesh.Carrion flowers attract mostly scavenging flies and beetles as pollinators. Some species may trap the insects temporarily to ensure the gathering and transfer of pollen.
It can grow to be 3 feet across and weigh up to 15 pounds
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Nate
December 7th, 2007 at
10:43 am
An average super-tanker ship gets about 31 feet to the gallon.
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Cory
December 7th, 2007 at
10:54 am
In 1901, Theodore Roosevelt tried to stop the practice of having Christmas trees out of concern about the destruction of forests. His two sons didn’t agree and enlisted the help of conservationist Gifford Pinchot to persuade the president that, done properly, the practice was not harmful to the forests.
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GoingLikeSixty
December 7th, 2007 at
10:58 am
For quality cleavage, transvestites wear two bras.
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Ian Schwartz
December 7th, 2007 at
11:07 am
It is believed that there are Welwitschia plants that are over 2000 years old.
From the wikipedia “The age of the plants is difficult to assess, but it is believed that they are very long-lived, possibly living 1000 years or more. Some individuals may be more than 2000 years old.”
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nick
December 7th, 2007 at
11:16 am
In responds to Kimber and Miss Cellania, Orchid seeds are so tiny that 800,000 seeds weigh less than a small candy bar. They must be every where.
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Street Attack
December 7th, 2007 at
11:32 am
Trees and plants receive about 90 percent of their nutrition from the atmosphere and only 10 percent from the soil.
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Jonathan S
December 7th, 2007 at
11:40 am
Babe Ruth used to wear a cabbage leaf under his hat during games to keep cool. He would switch out for a fresh leaf halfway through each game.
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Hilary
December 7th, 2007 at
11:44 am
An ear of corn will nearly always contain an even number of rows of kernels.
An ear with an odd number of rows is as rare as an albino is in most animal species.
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Lamar Latrell
December 7th, 2007 at
11:45 am
When first introduced to Europe, potatoes were blamed for causing syphilis. Both were indigenous to the New World
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Maggie
December 7th, 2007 at
12:19 pm
Common English Ivy (Hedera Helix), sold at most lawn and garden stores, is an incredibly invasive plant species which, unchecked, will destroy forests. The plant creates both a canopy and a groundcover and the indigenous groundcover and brush plants die, creating what is known as an “ivy desert.”
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Thomas
December 7th, 2007 at
12:28 pm
The vast majority of our breathable oxygen comes from oceanic plants and single celled plantlike protists. Only about 20 percent comes from terrestrial plants.
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Amander
December 7th, 2007 at
12:34 pm
The oldest living tree (at 4,862 year old at the time of its destruction), a bristlecone pine in Nevada, was simulatiously discovered and chopped down by a geology student collecting tree ring data. OOPS!!!?
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The other Don
December 7th, 2007 at
12:50 pm
Most “fresh cut” christmas trees sold in urban area are cut in October before the heavy snows block truck access to the places where they grow
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ElliotF
December 7th, 2007 at
12:54 pm
A White Cedar in the Great Lakes region of Canada, has only grown to about 4 inches tall in 155 years.
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pete
December 7th, 2007 at
1:26 pm
Welwitschia mirabilis consists of only two leaves and a stem with roots. Its two leaves continue to grow until they resemble an alien life form. The stem gets thicker rather than higher, although this plant can grow to be almost six feet high and twenty-four feet wide. Its estimated lifespan is 400 to 1500 years. Mirabilis grows in Namibia, and is thought to be a relic of the Jurassic period.
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cb
December 7th, 2007 at
1:33 pm
The durian fruit from South Asia smells so bad that it is prohibited on Singapore’s trains.
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pete
December 7th, 2007 at
1:35 pm
Wolffia angusta: the world’s smallest flower. A dozen plants would easily fit on the head of a pin and two plants in full bloom will fit inside a small printed letter “o.”
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ruby
December 7th, 2007 at
2:03 pm
I love lemons!
Lemons contain the natural source for Lithium!
Wow, man!
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Jon
December 7th, 2007 at
2:18 pm
The bladderwort is a unique aquatic plant for multiple reasons. First of all, it has a really fun name. It also is carnivorous - when the trap is sprung, a bladder grows, sucking in the water and prey around it. The bladder is considered one of the most sophisticated structures in the plant kingdom. Larger prey are caught by the tail and digested a bit at a time. The bladderwort also has no distinguishable roots, leaves, and stem.
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Jon
December 7th, 2007 at
2:23 pm
Another fact-
All of the bananas you have eaten are genetic clones of each other. The popular Cavendish banana has no seeds, so it reproduces through offshoots in the roots.
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Rosi
December 7th, 2007 at
3:09 pm
Some plants DO make noise. When certain plants are left without water for a long time, they emit an incredibly high pitched noise.
(I can’t certify that this is true… it seems pretty unbelievable… but I read it in a published book of general facts “the Book of Useless Information” so I assume so) -
Heather
December 7th, 2007 at
3:13 pm
A person standing under an oak tree is 16 times more likely to be hit by lightning than if he had taken refuge beneath a beech tree. The oak tree has vertical roots which provide a more direct route to ground water.
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Heather
December 7th, 2007 at
3:20 pm
Mimosa pudica (or “sensitive plant”) is one of many seismonastic plants, which react to touch. The sensitive plant’s leave will curl together and droop when touched. The leaves also curl and droop in the evening, and re-open at sunrise. It’s believed that these responses evolved to a.) make the plants less appealing to herbivores (droopy leaves = not good food) and b.) as a way to conserve nutrients (drooped leaves exchange less heat and water).
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Mandie
December 7th, 2007 at
3:32 pm
The largest berry is the eggplant.
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Fitz
December 7th, 2007 at
3:35 pm
“Cryptobotany” is the study of “hidden plants”, or plants that are rumoured to exist but whose existance lacks significant scientific evidence.
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Mandie
December 7th, 2007 at
3:36 pm
orchids “fake out” pollinators by tempting them with the smell of nectar, and even growing places where nectar can be stored. however, once the insect gets close enough to the “nectar” it’s grabbed the pollen, and finds an empty petal as a reward.
sucks for the bees out there.
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JoeD
December 7th, 2007 at
3:41 pm
Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny (among others) was allergic to carrots.
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PancakeMan
December 7th, 2007 at
4:00 pm
One of the largest colonies of Venus flytraps in North America, let alone the world, is outside of Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. The flytraps are protected, and will never be bothered - they grow very close to the dead zone, where the shells from artillery training land.
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PancakeMan
December 7th, 2007 at
4:06 pm
In Borneo, in the remote Mulu mountains, there are many monstrous caves, some just holes in the ground. Inside of one of them, until recently undiscovered, there are a species related to plam trees which have just one leaf.
Since the cave is a hole, and most of the time out of the sun, the leaf does the only thing possible to maximize light exposure, and therefore photosynthesis: it follows the sun across the small “sky” of the cave, tracing the path of it’s lifeblood each and every day. -
Jen
December 7th, 2007 at
4:28 pm
Each “head” of a Venus fly trap has three hairs; when either two hairs are touched at the same time, or one hair is touched in quick succession, the trap closes. Each head only has enough energy to close around three times before it dies.
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Bunk
December 7th, 2007 at
4:39 pm
Hillary Clinton uses them for “random” audience questions in town hall forums. Some are planted in GOP debate audiences as well.
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Mr. Picky
December 7th, 2007 at
4:51 pm
[quote]All of the bananas you have eaten are genetic clones of each other. The popular Cavendish banana has no seeds, so it reproduces through offshoots in the roots.[/quote]
You assume too much! I think it unlikely that I’m the only one who’s either a) Bought different types of bananas at the grocery store (fingerlings / standard Cavendish / other) or b) Been out of the US. I ate more types of bananas in Brazil that I can count.
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Aaron
December 7th, 2007 at
4:58 pm
When a caterpillar begins munching on a maize leaf, the leaf releases volatile compounds to attract parasitoid wasps. The wasp then attacks the caterpillar, providing food for the wasp and protection for the plant.
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monsewage
December 7th, 2007 at
5:03 pm
The peanut tree is neither a pea, nor a nut, and isn’t even a tree.
Its a legume.
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monsewage
December 7th, 2007 at
5:06 pm
Ok, a true one this time…
Some jack*ss is selling Dead New York Leaves for $7.99 a box online.
Other jack*sses are probably buying them.
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Meg
December 7th, 2007 at
5:48 pm
Old creosote bushes split into two cloned bushes that grow on either sides of the original plant. Eventually this forms a large ring (or, more rarely, a line) of bushes connected by the roots.
There’s a relatively famous example of the ring formation in the Mojave Desert (it’s usually called ‘King Clone’) which is almost 12,000 years old.
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Elizabeth Hazelwood
December 7th, 2007 at
5:52 pm
Some scholars believe that Adam and Eve did not take an apple from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and of Evil. They believe it was actually a pomegranate since apples were not known to that region at that time, and since pomegranates were mentioned in the bible multiple times.
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Pudifoot
December 7th, 2007 at
5:59 pm
“lemonade” is actually a palindrome. o.O
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Meg
December 7th, 2007 at
6:07 pm
Another factoid:
The scarlet gilia, a common wildflower in the west, normally produces bright red flowers (hence the name). However, scientists at the Hart Prairie nature preserve near Flagstaff noticed that the flowers there ranged from red to pink to white.
Normally the gilia is pollinated by hummingbirds, which are attracted to the red color. However, at Hart Prairie, hummingbirds migrate south midway through the gilia’s blooming season. So the flowers there have adapted to bloom red early in the season, when hummingbirds are abundant, and then bloom pink or white later in the season, in order to attract moths (which prefer lighter-colored flowers because they are easier to see at night).
Kind of a neat example of adaptation!
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Wilford
December 7th, 2007 at
6:08 pm
While the above ground part of the tree only lives for 40-150 years, the root system of the aspen tree grow in colonies that are extremely long lived. One such colony in Utah, nicknamed “Pando”, is estimated to be 80,000 years old. The incredible age of these colonies also allows the to grow extremely large. Pando covers 107 acres and has approximately 47,000 “offspring” stems emerging above ground.
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Meg
December 7th, 2007 at
6:29 pm
The Arizona Queen of the Night is a night-blooming cactus that looks exactly like a pile of dead sticks for most of the year. (good picture of it here: http://www.cas.vanderbilt.edu/bioimages/species/pegr3.htm)
In midsummer it produces huge white flowers, usually around 6-8 inches in diameter, that have an incredible scent somewhat similar to vanilla. However, they last only for the one night they bloom.
The roots consist of a giant tuber that can weigh up to 80 pounds, which is pretty amazing considering how unassuming the plant looks.
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Meg
December 7th, 2007 at
6:31 pm
And one of my favorite plants, which is the sensitive plant (Mimosa pudica). If you touch it, the leaves curl up. Which is fun to do, even if it does make me feel like I am torturing a kitten or something.
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Spumoni
December 7th, 2007 at
6:51 pm
Although the tallest living tree (about 380 feet) is a California Redwood, the tallest Australian Eucalyptus trees were probably taller than the Redwoods, until the biggest Eucapyptus trees were lost to logging in the 19th century. Some Eucalyptus trees were reported to be over 450 feet tall.
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Cori
December 7th, 2007 at
7:42 pm
The Tara Vine gives off a strong, cat-nip like smell, that often leads to cats rubbing against it, which often times breaks off new shoots and can prevent the plant from thriving.
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Cori
December 7th, 2007 at
7:48 pm
The effects of the plant catnip is hereditary, and about 2/3s of all cats are susceptible, except in Australia, where the gene pool is relatively small, and few cats are affected.
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tim cantlin
December 7th, 2007 at
9:41 pm
your house plant recgonize your voice and respond to your thoughts. They know of your arrival before you get home.
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tim cantlin
December 7th, 2007 at
9:45 pm
Your house plants recognize your voice and respond to your thoughts. They know when your arriving before you get there.
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hetal
December 7th, 2007 at
10:06 pm
cellulose, a main component of plants was used as an ingredient in bombs in WWII
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Jefftexas
December 8th, 2007 at
2:03 am
According to the Guiness Book of World Records, the oldest living tree is Methusaleh-a Bristlecone Pine located between 10,000 and 11,000 ft. in the White Mountains, east of the Sierra Nevada. It is 4,768 years old. It started growing at around the time when the Great Pyramid of Giza was completed (2600 BC)!
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MarkSanDiego
December 8th, 2007 at
5:10 am
Antiaris toxicaria (Upas or Ipoh) is a moraceous, evergreen tree native to SE Asia. Its sap is very poisonous, and is called “Upas” in Bahasa from the Javanese word for “poison”. The sap is used as an arrow poison.
The name of the upas tree became legendary from a fictional account of the tree published in the London Magazine, December 1783.
In the story, the tree was said to destroy all animal life within a radius of 15 miles or more.
The poisonous sap from the tree was collected by condemned prisoners as an alternative to immediate execution; the criminal had to wait till the wind was blowing upwind toward the tree, get the poison and get back before the wind changed.
It was reported that scarcely one out of ten men returned from their task alive!
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V. Vexworth
December 9th, 2007 at
3:32 pm
Carrots, until about the 16th century, were either black, green, red, or purple, until a Dutch horticulturist found some creepy mutated orange ones - which, apparently, tasted better.
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Justin
December 9th, 2007 at
6:33 pm
During the time of the dinosaurs, grass had not yet evolved. Different varieties of ferns covered the world as much as grass does today.
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Justin
December 9th, 2007 at
6:35 pm
Green plants “inhale” carbon dioxide and “exhale” oxygen via photosynthesis. Mushrooms “inhale” oxygen and “exhale” carbon dioxide, just like people and animals. This is because they live in the dark and don’t have the sunlight to power photosynthesis.
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Justin
December 9th, 2007 at
6:37 pm
Talking to your house plants really does help then grow. This isn’t because they like the company or the sound of your voice. It’s actually because as you speak, you exhale carbon dioxide which the plants use.
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Justin
December 9th, 2007 at
6:41 pm
Mistletoe is fatally poisonous if you eat it. (an extra point for the seasonally appropriate fact?);)
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Samantha
December 10th, 2007 at
12:53 am
You can’t just plant an apple seed and get a tree or one that will produce apples. Apple seeds, which have distinct genders, need to be crossed, or hybrid (hybred?) with each other to produce a seedling that is capable of growing into a tree and to produce edible fruit.
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Geoff
December 10th, 2007 at
3:19 pm
Ray Floret’s Foray: Bedding Your Plants I
Bonjour mes enfants, it’s Ray Floret again (rhymes with gourmet) to speak to the slightly curious sport of bedding plants. Bedding plants, you know, big pansies, dwarf marigolds and their ilk. One’s vision is of an orgiastic colour melee: Vast flocks of the vegetable equivalent of Pekinese and/or Schitzu-Poodle crosses (schit-poos) carpeting hallowed garden plots. Presently, our commercially available selection of plants for bedding consists of a short a la carte list of chubby little overfed seedlings. A verdant kindergarten of dwarf, goggle-eyed munchkins hiccoughing their first hideously over-bred rack of sterile genitalia at the proud height of 5cm.
“ Aw, Honey look: their first flowers!”, the consuming couples gush at their new, extremely temporary, vegetable pets.
By itself, an unfair view I agree. What about those bold, startling splashes of colour? What about armies of bedding plants spread, icing-like, over otherwise dun-coloured slopes of bare soil? Why not turn your yard into a stationary but flower-festooned parade float? Your house could become the smiling queen of something-or-another, waving and searching the crowd for her friends. If you’re lucky enough to live in a mobile home, you can grow bedding plants on your roof, cooling your narrow abode in summer and drawing envious stares from passing Shriners, clowns and marching bands. If you grow them in the bed of your truck, you can obtain insurance under parade float’s more economical category.
As sarcasm is the lowest form of humour, so bedding plants are the lowest form of horticulture. And who doesn’t like a little sarcasm, now and then? Just not all the time; it’s wearying and tends to make one edgy after a while, as do bedding plants for me. Useful in the hands of well-funded parks staff and landscapers with a reasonable budget, they can shock, enchant, brag wealth, and soften the eyes of even the most fastidiously obsessive-compulsive dickhead. Big bedding displays epitomize the tyranny of order; The Beauty-through-Repetition axiom taken to absurd new worlds. We can dominate the subtle, confusing and possibly dangerous natural world. We can bring order. We control the horizontal. We control the vertical… oh no, sarcasm again.
I like the astoundingly perverse idea of bedding a plant. What do you bring on a first date? Not flowers! Compost, perhaps. And just how sporting is it to stalk something that is rooted to the ground? The parents of most F1 hybrid bedding plant seeds are vastly inbred wrecks bearing little resemblance to their bastard offspring except in name, though I guess one can skip the step of meeting the folks.
Although bedding plants are mostly sterile, and there are some other small physical and genetic barriers, what vegehuman monstrosity would emerge from such an unholy union? One imagines a staggering, blind dwarf repeatedly producing grossly inflated testicles etc. in a kaleidoscope of vibrant hues until mercifully extinguished by disease, neglect or autumnal frosts. There aren’t even laws against this activity yet, unless you bypass the dating scene entirely and go straight to gene-splicing.
Bedding plants are so easy to poke fun at, defended only by cloth-hat wearing trowel-wielders. Such adherents are no match against a rake or long-handled shovel. All this aside, next time I shall only sing praises to the very lowly bedding plant. At least it’s gardening, sort of.
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