Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Fun Facts

Ladybugs (technically ladybird beetles) are good guys because they eat insects that feast on our plants, especially aphids. A female ladybug can chow down about 70 aphids in a day -- 5,000 in her lifetime. They can also eat bean thrips, beetle grubs, scales, spider mites, whiteflies and most soft body larvae. Basically, they are good guys that eat the bad guys. Invite them into your yards with welcome arms! Ladybug larvae have the biggest appetites, which is why it's important to recognize these babies so we don't mistakenly squish them. They look like tiny black humpback alligators.

The beautiful color-swirling appearance of these tulips is referred to as a 'break'. It's caused by a virus :The word 'tulip' comes from the turkish word for 'turban'.
In a wildlife phenomenon still not fully understood by scientists, hundreds of millions of North American monarchs migrate each year - up to 3,000 miles - to Mexico. In their winter colonies, they mass together in clusters on fir trees. The butterfly sanctuaries and the spectacle, which is considered an endangered migratory phenomenon, have become a popular ecotourism destination. The expression "You Are What You Eat" is certainly true for Monarch caterpillars. They eat only milkweed, which contains chemicals that make the Monarchs taste bad to predators.
The ancient Greeks believed mushrooms came from Zeus's lightning because they appeared after rains and reproduced and grew inexplicably. Although we understand more about mushrooms and where they come from now, much remains to be learned. While some species are edible, others contain dangerous toxins.
Saffron is the most precious and expensive spice in the world. It comes from the dried stigmas of the saffron flower, Crocus sativus Linneaus. Each flower contains only three stigmas. These filaments must be picked from each flower by hand, and more than 75,000 of these flowers are needed to produce just 1 pound of Saffron.
Holly plants are dioecious, which means 'two houses'. Essentially this means there are boy hollies and girl hollies. The girl holly will not bear the beautiful red berries unless there is a boy holly within a reasonable distance that can provide pollen. Other plants are monoecious, 'one house', ie. corn, in which both the female and male reproductive parts are on the same plant.

• How cold is it outside? Ask your rhododendron. Rhododendron leaves begin to cup and curl when temps drop below 35 degrees. At 25 degrees, the curled leaves are so tight that half the leaf surface has disappeared and the leaves begin to droop. When temps drop into the teens, leaves shrivel even tighter, become brownish-green and dangle in the cold air. They curl their leaves to reduce moisture loss through their leaves.

• New research has turned a long-held belief on its side. Seeds were always thought to have needed to come in contact with liquid water in order to germinate. It has now been discovered that the presence of water vapor, not necessarily liquid water, is required for germination.

• Jack-in-the-pulpits , a bulb, actually change their sex, an ability botanists call paradioecious. All the flowers are pollen-producing males, until the tuber is mature and then the flowering stalk produces female flowers and bears seeds. If growing conditions deteriorate, the plant reverts to producing only male flowers.

• Ever eaten tree bark? I bet you have! Cinnamon is from the bark of the Cinnamomum zeylandicum tree. The bark is peeled from the sprouts of these trees, then set out to dry and rolled up into quills. The remaining peeled sticks and twigs are the preferred mulch for the gardens of the folks in Seychelles. What a wonderful smelling mulch that must be! And for those who aren't up on their world geography (which definitely includes me! I had to look this stuff up) this is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean, in Eastern Africa, northeast of Madagascar (another island off of Africa). So, they are really out in the middle of a lot of water!

• Roughly 25% of all prescription medicines in the US are derived from plants.

• A standard garden hose puts out 20 G./minute. A hose left on by mistake can waste as much as 28,000 gallons in just 24 hours.

• A mystery solved... DNA studies have finally solved a long-standing horticultural puzzle -- where do orchids come from? It turns out that orchids are a member of the asparagus family, which, beyond the title vegetable, includes vanilla, agave and daffodils. Until now, scientists believed orchids were relatively new plants, evolutionarily speaking. The DNA tells a different story. It looks like it is actually the oldest member of the Asparagales family. Source: NY Times. P.S. It takes 1.25 million orchid seeds to weigh 1 gram. Orchids have the smallest known seeds.

• Glow worms, lightningbugs and foxfire are examples of biological light production, called bioluminescence (for short, believe it or not!) The light comes from a chemical called luciferin being oxidized. The insects control the light by controlling the air supply. As soon as they let the air in, the chemical flashes. Most of us have seen the lightningbugs twinkling around in our summer lawns, but you may not have seen the glow worms, which are the larva stage of the lightningbug beetles, or foxfire, which is a glow in the dark fungus which grows on dead wood, preferably oak. Keep your eyes peeled for these amazing things!

• In the story of the three wise men, they came to Jerusalem bearing gold, frankincense and myrrh. We all know about gold, but what of the other two? Frankincense and myrrh are both resins, the dried sap from trees. Frankincense comes from the Boswellia genus of trees while myrrh come from the Commiphora genus. Myrrh was once used to soothe sore throats and was an embalming agent. Frankincense was a vital part of Hebrew worship and was used as incense in the temple.

• Apple seeds contain a small quantity of cyanide which renders the seeds quite bitter tasting.

• Every plant in Tomorrowland at Disneyland in Anaheim, CA is edible.

• Kiwifruit contains 600-1000 tiny edible seeds inside each fruit. It contains 2 x the amount of vitamin C that oranges have and can be stored up to 8 months.

Labels: plant facts

Posted by kev :: 10:11 PM ::