Portal:Plants/DYK Archive

Previous Plants Portal Did you know hooks, in order from oldest to newest.


 * ...that one variety of baby blue eyes, a common California wildflower, is white?
 * ...that some plants have tentacles, but octopuses have none? (they have arms instead)
 * ...that the Antarctica ecozone cannot support vascular plants?
 * ...that all deathcamas species are unpalatable or even toxic to livestock because of the presence of alkaloids?
 * ...that most garden flowers and herbs are forbs?
 * ...that Linum bienne (pale flax) may be an evolutionary predecessor to modern common flax, from which the fiber is derived?
 * ...that the California Manroot (Marah fabaceus) produces 5-cm round fruits covered in 1-cm spines and a bitter taste?
 * ...that the Siam Tulip (pictured) is not a tulip, but is related to ginger?
 * ...that the root of the Purple Salsify (Tragopogon porrifolius) tastes of oysters?
 * ...that the Sitka is the largest species of spruce tree?
 * ...that Jacaranda grows almost everywhere in the world that does not have frost?
 * ...that the Royal Poinciana has been called the most colorful tree in the world?
 * ...that a member of the Gelechiidae family of moths is used to control spotted knapweed?
 * ...that the indigenous peoples of Brazil domesticated cassava?
 * ...that the caterpillars of the Anise Swallowtail butterfly like to eat fennel?
 * ...that an oast house is a traditional Kentish structure for drying hops before brewing?
 * ...that Long Ashton Research Station closed in 2003 after having served agriculture and horticulture for exactly 100 years?
 * ...that the bulb of the Chlorogalum pomeridianum (wavy-leafed soap plant) reportedly can be used to stun fish and to treat rheumatism?
 * ...that the larvae of the horse-chestnut leaf miner moth destroy the leaves of the horse-chestnut tree?
 * ...that the Australian Myrtaceae Kunzea ambigua (White Kunzea, pictured) is used in windbreaks and dune stabilization as well as natural landscaping gardens?
 * ...that the four volumes of Henry Frederick Conrad Sander's magnum opus were dedicated to the respective queens or empresses of England, the Germany and Prussia, the Russia, and the Belgians?
 * ...that mosses of the genus Polytrichum (haircap moss) have adapted to trap moist air between rows of lamellae?
 * ...that 19th-century orchid-lover John Day painted over 3,000 illustrations of these flowers?
 * ...that the range of the Californian threatened Ferocactus viridescens (San Diego barrel cactus) is mostly located within San Diego County?
 * ... that Douglas Barton Osborne Savile showed that the coevolution of rust fungi and their host plants could be used as an aid to plant taxonomy and vice-versa?
 * ... that the orchid Masdevallia veitchiana, which can be found around Machu Picchu, was named after the founder of the Chelsea Flower Show, Sir Harry Veitch?
 * ... that Victorian plant collector Charles Maries introduced over 500 species of plants to England, including Viburnum plicatum "Mariesii" which was named after him?
 * ... that the insectivorous plant Heliamphora nutans (pictured) was re-discovered in British Guiana in 1881 and successfully introduced to England by David Burke?
 * ... that the East African plant Commelina lukei (pictured) has been informally recognised as a separate species since 1969, but was only formally described in 2008?
 * ... that plant collector Charles Curtis, who first introduced the Nepenthes northiana variety of pitcher plant to England, went on to become the first superintendent of the Penang Botanic Gardens?
 * ... that Begonia boliviensis, one of the species used in the production of the first hybrid tuberous begonia raised in England, was introduced from Bolivia by the Victorian plant collector Richard Pearce?
 * ... that the epiphytic orchid Miltoniopsis vexillaria was discovered in 1867 by plant collector David Bowman and introduced from Colombia to England in 1873 by a fellow Veitch employee, Henry Chesterton?
 * ... that the orchid Odontoglossum crispum, first discovered in the Andes Mountains in 1841, was highly sought after in Victorian England, when varieties sold at auction for more than 150 guineas?
 * ... that the stilt roots of Socratea exorrhiza (pictured) allow it to re-root in a different location from where it germinated if a tree falls on it?
 * ... that the 1974 floods along the Finke River in Australia's Northern Territory resulted in the dramatic spread of the introduced Tamarix aphylla through the desert?
 * ... that besides famine food, various parts of the tree Balanites aegyptiaca can be used to prepare furniture, cooking oil, snail repellent, glue, and raw materials to synthesize birth control pills?
 * ... that the Bonny Doon Ecological Reserve in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California is home to a number of endemic plant species?
 * ... that Phlox hirsuta, an endangered flowering plant that grows in serpentine soil, is the official city flower of Yreka, California?
 * ... that growth rates for broadleaved trees on the British Isles exceed those of mainland Europe?
 * ...that Scottish botanist George Forrest was buried in Yunnan?
 * ... that there are 1,000 species and subspecies of eucalypts at South Australia’s 32 ha (79 acres) Currency Creek Arboretum?
 * ... that after the two endangered varieties of Erigeron maguirei (Maguire daisy or Maguire's fleabane) were combined into the one species due to genetic indistinction, it was no longer considered endangered?
 * ... that the foliage of the Acacia binervia (coast myall) can produce cyanide when cut?
 * ... that the Mimulus gemmiparus (Rocky Mountain monkeyflower) rarely produces flowers outside of a greenhouse?
 * ... that a field study conducted in Beaconsfield Upper found that the Ranunculus lappaceus (Australian buttercup) had flowered 78 days earlier in 2006 than it had in 1983?
 * ... that Castilleja christii (Christ's Indian paintbrush) is one of Idaho's rarest plants?
 * ... that the tallest specimens of Eucalyptus deanei (pictured) are over 70 m high?
 * ... that the Lamiaceae species Conradina grandiflora has the largest flowers of the genus Conradina?
 * ... that patches of Corema conradii in New Jersey began to sprout seedlings again after an F-16 set them on fire?
 * ... that Salix glauca is a rich source of calcium and phosphorus for its browsers?
 * ... that the name Ginkgo dissecta was first coined in 1974 but not formalized until 2002?
 * ... that the berries of the Gaultheria depressa are eaten by lizards and ground weta?
 * ... that the larger of two varieties of Banksia oblongifolia (pictured) described in 1987 was called minor?
 * ... that the daisy Coronidium elatum (pictured) can grow to 2 m 7 ft) high?
 * ... that Eskimos harvested the leaves of Salix pulchra in the spring and stored them in seal oil for later eating?
 * ... that low-growing willows, such as Salix hastata (pictured) and S. brachycarpa, were found to have recolonized riparian habitats destroyed during the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline within four years?