Facts in "Plants" Category
#2659 - Plants Fact     1  American colonists discovered that superior candles could be made from the fruit of a squat bush growing in the sand dunes along the New England seashore. The small, grayish bayberry was picked, crushed, and boiled. It had to be skimmed several times before the pale, nearly transparent, green fat was sufficiently refined. Bayberry candles were highly prized, because so much labor and so many berries were needed to make just one candle. |
| #2660 - Plants Fact 3 Oak trees do not have acorns until they are fifty years old or older. |
| #2661 - Plants Fact 2 A person standing under an oak tree is 16 more times liable 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. |
| #2662 - Plants Fact -1 The partridge berry is a botanical Siamese twin. Each berry develops from 2 flowers. |
| #2663 - Plants Fact 4 The giant sequoia, which produces millions of seeds, can take 175 to 200 years to flower. No other organism takes this long to mature sexually. |
| #2664 - Plants Fact -1 There are an estimated 285,000 species of flowering plants on Earth compared to 148,000 for all other plants. Flowering plants are very important because they provide food for herbivores - plant-eating animals - and for humans. |
| #2665 - Plants Fact -3 Leaves of the Sumatra breadfruit tree are notched when they first form, yet have no indentations when the leaves mature. |
| #2666 - Plants Fact 1 The squirting cucumber (Ecballium elaterium), when brushed by a passerby, ejects its seeds and a stream of poisonous juice that stings the skin. |
| #2667 - Plants Fact 6 Lightning keeps plants alive. The intense heat of lightning forces nitrogen in the air to mix with oxygen, forming nitrogen oxides that are soluble in water and fall to the ground in rain. Plants need nitrates to survive, so without lightning, plants could not live. |
| #2668 - Plants Fact 2 Pine, spruce, or other evergreen wood should never be used for barbecuing. These woods, when burning or smoking, can add harmful tar and resins to the food. Only hardwoods should be used for smoking and grilling, such as oak, pecan, hickory, maple, cherry, alder, apple, or mesquite, depending on the type of meat being cooked. |
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