Archive for the ‘Interesting Facts’ Category

Also called air plants, Epiphyte plants are those that do not root in the soil but grow on other plants (mainly trees). Depending on their habitat, they may also grow on buildings and cables or wire. They depend on the things they grow on for support but epiphytes are not parasitic since they do not rely on them for nourishment. Since they do not grow in the soil they rely on the rain and air around them for nutrients, on some occasions they may even extract nutrients from debris that is accumulated around them.

Moisture is taken from the rain, air and sometimes the excess moisture (found mainly in pockets) on the plant they are growing on. However, epiphytes do make their own food in the normal way most plants do; using photosynthesis which is a process in which sunlight is used to make food and produce oxygen.

All major plant groups have epiphyte plants. The Temperate Zone houses many algae, lichens, liverworts and mosses while cacti, orchids, ferns and bromeliads like Spanish moss thrive in the Tropics. There is an estimated 30,000 species of epiphytic plants worldwide and more than half supposedly live in the rainforest. Most grow at very high altitudes however, epiphytic fungi, lichens, ferns, mosses and bacteria are exceptions to the rule. So too are aquatic algae like seaweed since they grow in the water and not in the air.

Epiphytes are highly adaptive, growing parts necessary and situating themselves in environments most susceptible to growth regardless of their habitat. Some will grow roots to help them attach to their hosts as well as structures that specialize in the collection and storage of moisture like scales and cups. And some, for example in Europe along the coastal fringes of the West may grow in the soil suspended in areas on trees. Epiphytic grass, small trees and small bushes are known to do this on rare occasions.

Epiphytes that grow in canopies (clusters of mature tree tops or crowns) benefit greatly from the excess sunlight and gain protection from many herbivores. Those in aquatic habitats form an important part of the ecosystem, serving as homes to anthropods, frogs and microorganisms that also serve as food for larger life forms.

The main problem with epiphytic plants is that they can be thick enough to overcrowd the plants they grow on hence causing damage. They have the ability to evade and take over the spaces of other trees. This is done mainly by large trees that start in canopies then gradually grow roots that travel down the trunks of the hosts until they overpower and replace the host. This process can take decades and once epiphytes become “free standing” trees they are classified as ‘hemiepiphytes’. New Zealand’s Northern rātā and the strangler fig are examples.

They also have the ability to remove the tree bark of the host (which is a protective structure) while growing roots. Since they grow in canopies, they can also lead to starvation of the host by blocking sunlight from its leaves prohibiting or hampering photosynthesis. Epiphytes due to their location can attract insects that can damage the host trees as well as increase the tree’s resistance to wind which can be detrimental in windy areas.

Despite these however, many species have adapted to their environment well enough to live symbiotically with their hosts causing no harm.

• The September 11, 2001 attacks, coordinated by 19 terrorists, were all suicide attacks. Each of the terrorists attempted to kill themselves in attempt to kill others.
• 2,973 victims and all 19 of the terrorists died on September 11. The terrorists lead a couple of planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in NY, one plane into Pentagon in VA and yet another into a field in PA.
• These commercial planes, run by American Airlines and United Airlines, were hijacked by al-Qaeda. 246 passengers were lead to an unexpected destination, death. Passengers and flight crew attempted to take control of the fourth plane, battling with the al-Qaeda terrorists, and crashed as a result. It is said that this plane was en route to either Capitol or the White House
• Aside from 55 military personnel killed in VA, all of those who died were innocent civilians. As a result of the attacks to the World Trade Center, civilians from more than 90 countries died.
• 658, investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald L.P., employees were lost, significantly higher than the 335 (2nd highest, for a single employer) death toll of Marsh Inc.
• The low death toll of less than 3,000 is something to be thankful for. Had al-Qaeda not have been early risers (the first attack took place at 8.46am and the last attack at 10.03am), the death toll would have been significantly higher, al-Qaeda’s attacks would have been considered much more successful and many, many more people would have been impacted today.
• At 5.20pm on September 11, 2001, World Trade Center building number 7 also collapsed. A plane crash, however, did not cause this collapse.

Related Reading to 9/11 Facts

• 9/11 Facts

• Humans are one of very few land mammals to have almost bare skin. But even humans have soft, downy hair all over, with thicker hair in places.
• Lanugo is the very fine hair babies are covered in when they are inside the womb, from the fourth month of pregnancy onwards.
• Vellus hair is fine, downy hair that grows all over your body until you reach puberty.
• Terminal hair is the coarser hair on your head, as well as the hair that grows on men’s chins and around an adult’s genitals.
• The color of your hair depends on how much there are of pigments called melanin and carotene in the hairs.
• Hair is red or auburn if it contains carotene.
• Black, brown and blonde hair get its color from black melanin.
• Each hair is rooted in a pit called the hair follicle. The hair is held in place by its club-shaped tip, the bulb.
• Hair grows as cells fill with a material called keratin and die, and pile up inside the follicle.
• The average person has 120,000 head hairs and each grows about 3 millimeters per week.

• A zebra’s stripes are as individual as human fingerprints – no two zebras are exactly the same.
• The quagga was a South African zebra that only had stripes on the front part of its body.
• The home range of Grevy’s zebra, which roams desert and savannah terrains in northeastern Kenya, sometimes exceeds 10,000 sq km.
• The zebra can be a formidable foe, driving off lions, and even killing humans lo defend its foals.
• Grevy’s zebra is a large species with narrowly spaced stripes and very large, mule-like ears.
• A plains zebra herd’s stallion will challenge any potential rival coming within 100 m of his herd.
• The quagga once existed in very large herds, but became extinct through overhunting in the 1870s.
• Mountain zebras follow ancient trails to mountain springs and pools in the dry season, and dig for subsurface water in stream beds.
• Chapman’s zebra has shadow stripes – light, greyish stripes that alternate with the dark main stripes.

• Yellowstone is the oldest and best-known national park in the USA. It was established by Act of Congress on March 1, 1872.
• It is one of the world’s largest parks covering 8987 sq km of rugged mountains and spectacular deep valleys.
• It is situated across Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
• Yellowstone is famous for its lakes and rivers such as Yellowstone Lake and Snake River.
• Most of Yellowstone is forested in lodge pole pines, along with other conifers, cottonwoods and aspens. It also has a wealth of wild flowers.
• Yellowstone’s wild animals include bison, bighorn sheep, moose, grizzly bears and wolves.
• Yellowstone has 10,000 hot springs and 300 geysers, as well as steam vents, mud cauldrons, fumaroles and paint pots.
• The most famous geyser is Old Faithful, which spouts every hour or so. The biggest is the 115 m Steamboat.
• One of the biggest volcanic eruptions ever occurred in Yellowstone Park two million years ago. Enough lava poured out in one goes to build six Mt Fujiyamas.
• There are signs that Yellowstone may soon erupt as a super volcano — an eruption on an unimaginable scale.

• A calendar year is roughly the time the Earth takes to travel once around the Sun — 365 days.
• The Earth actually takes 365.24219 days to orbit the Sun. This is called a solar year.
• To compensate for the missing 0.242 days, the western calendar adds an extra day in February every fourth (leap) year, but misses out three leap years every four centuries (century years).
• Measured by the stars not the Sun, Earth takes 365.25636 days to go round the Sun, because the Sun also moves a little relative to the stars. This is called the sidereal year.
• Earth’s perihelion is the day its orbit brings it closest to the Sun, 3 January.
• Earth’s aphelion is the day it is furthest from the Sun, 4 July.
• The planet with the shortest year is Mercury, which whizzes around the Sun in just 88 days.
• The planet with the longest year is Pluto, which takes 249 years to orbit the Sun.
• The planet with the year closest to Earth’s in length is Venus, whose year lasts 225 days.
• We get our year from the time the Sun takes to return to the same height in the sky at noon.
• Our years come from the time the Earth takes to go once round the Sun, so that the Sun appears at the same height in the sky again. But this journey actually takes not an exact number of days but 365 and a fraction. So the calendar gives a year as 365 days, and compensates with leap years and century years.

• X-rays are a form of electromagnetic radiation, as are radio waves, microwaves, visible light and ultraviolet. They all travel as waves, but have different wavelengths.
• X-ray waves are much shorter and more energetic than visible light waves. X-rays are invisible because their waves are too short for our eyes to see.
• X-rays are made when negatively charged particles called electrons are fired at a heavy plate made of the metal tungsten. The plate bounces back X-rays.
• Even though they are invisible to our eyes, X-rays register on photographic film.
• X-rays are so energetic that they pass through some body tissues like a light through a net curtain.
• To make an X-ray photograph, X-rays are shone through the body. The X-rays pass through some tissues and turn the film black, but are blocked by others, leaving white shadows on the film.
• Each kind of tissue lets X-rays through differently. Bones are dense and contain calcium, so they block X-rays and show up white on film. Skin, fat, muscle and blood let X-rays through and show up black on film.
• X-ray radiation is dangerous in high doses, so the beam is encased in lead, and the radiographer who takes the X-ray picture stands behind a screen.
• X-rays are very good at showing up bone defects. So if you break a bone, it will probably be X-rayed.
• X-rays also reveal chest and heart problems.
• X-rays are electromagnetic rays whose waves are shorter than ultraviolet rays and longer than gamma rays.
• X-rays in space may be produced by very hot gases well over 1 million °C.
• X-rays are also made when electrons interact with a magnetic field in synchrotron radiation.
• X-rays cannot get through Earth’s atmosphere, so astronomers can only detect them using space telescopes such as ROSAT.
• X-ray sources are stars and galaxies that give out X-rays.
• The first and brightest X-ray source found (apart from the Sun) was the star Scorpius X-1, in 1962. Now tens of thousands are known, although most are weak.
• The remnants of supernovae such as the Crab nebula are strong sources of X-rays.
• The strongest sources of X-rays in our galaxy are X-ray binaries like Scorpius X-1 and Cygnus X-1. Some are thought to contain black holes.
• X-ray binaries pump out 1000 times as much X-ray radiation as the Sun does.
• X-ray galaxies harboring big black holes are powerful X-ray sources outside our galaxy.

• Worms are long, wriggling, tube-like animals. Annelids are worms such as the earthworm whose bodies are divided into segments.
• There are 15,000 species of annelid. Most live underground in tunnels, or in the sea.
• The world’s largest earthworm is the giant earthworm of South Africa, which can grow to as long as 6.5 m when fully extended.
• Earthworms spend their lives burrowing through soil. Soil goes in the mouth end, passes through the gut and comes out at the tail end.
• An earthworm is both male and female (hermaphrodite), and after two earthworms mate, both develop eggs.
• Plants would not grow half as well without earthworms to aerate the soil as they burrow in it, mix up the layers and make it more fertile with their droppings.
• Over half the annelid species are marine (sea) bristleworms, such as ragworms and lugworms. They are named because they are covered in bristles, which they use to paddle over the seabed or dig into the mud.
• The sea mouse is a mouse-shaped bristleworm with furry hairs.
• Flatworms look like ribbons or as though an annelid worm has been ironed flat. Their bodies do not have proper segments. Of the thousands of flatworm species, many live in the sea or in pond algae.
• Flukes are flatworms that live as parasites inside other animals. Diseases like bilharzia are caused by flukes.
• Tapeworms are parasitic flatworms that live inside their host’s gut and eat their food.

• The black-headed woodpecker is a noisy bird with a loud, squawking call in flight, when its bright red rump contrasts with the green body and red-capped black head.
• Woodpeckers are closely related to the colorful toucans and jacamars that live in tropical rainforests.
• Woodpeckers, toucans, barbets, jacamars and honeyguides all have two toes on each foot pointing forwards and two pointing backwards. Their toes help them cling to trees and branches.
• Woodpeckers use their powerful bills to bore into tree trunks to get at insects. They spear the insects with their incredibly long tongues.
• Gila woodpeckers escape the desert heat by nesting inside giant saguaro cacti (where it can be 30°C cooler).
• Redhead woodpeckers drill holes in trees and use them to store acorns for winter — wedging them in very tightly so that squirrels cannot steal them.
• Woodpeckers claim their territory not by singing, but by hammering their bills against trees.
• Honeyguides lead honey badgers to bees’ nests. The badger opens them to get the honey and the bird gets beeswax.
• When toucans sleep, they turn their heads around and lay their bills down their backs
• At 23 cm, the toucan’s bill is much longer than its body.

• Woodlands in temperate zones between the tropics and the poles are home to many creatures.
• Deciduous trees lose their leaves in autumn. Evergreens keep theirs through cold winters.
• In the leaf litter under the trees live tiny creatures such as worms, millipedes, and ants and other insects.
• Spiders, shrews, salamanders and mice feed on the small creatures living in the leaf litter.
• Some birds, such as woodcocks, nest on the woodland floor and have mottled plumage to hide themselves.
• Birds such as owls, nuthatches, treecreepers, tits, woodpeckers and warblers live on and in trees, as well as insects such as beetles, moths and butterflies, and small mammals such as squirrels and raccoons.
• Other woodland mammals include badgers, chipmunks, opossums, stoats, weasels, polecats, pine martens and foxes.
• Beavers, frogs, muskrats and otters live near woodland streams.
• The few large woodland mammals include bears, deer, wolves and wild boar. Many of these have become rare because woods have been cleared away.
• In winter, many birds of deciduous woods migrate south, while small mammals like dormice hibernate.
• The long flight feathers of an owl’s wings are tipped down which muffles the noise of the wing beats. Silent flying allows the owl a much better chance of catching prey.