Plants

Friday, 9 January 2026
21 facts about olives
21 facts about olives
"Where the olive refuses to grow, there the Mediterranean world ends"
It is not known exactly when and where the first olive tree, characteristic of the Mediterranean region, grew. Paleobotanists claim that wild olives g ...

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Trees
The above-ground part of the tree is the trunk, which at some height is surrounded by a crown of leafy branches.
The trunk and older, thicker branches are woody, while the young branches become woody at the end of ...
Stinging nettle
In the Arabic countries, nettle seeds were added to the horse's feed to make the horse's coat shine.
Sesame seeds
Sesame is grown for its edible seeds.
In 2020, global sesame production was 7 million tons. The largest producers were Sudan, Myanmar and Tanzania.
Aloe vera
It has cooling properties similar to menthol.
It can be effectively used to ease pain from any kind of burn.
Rowan
It grows throughout Europe up to the Caucasus and Siberia.
Rowan can be found in the south of Spain, Greece, and on islands such as Sardinia, the Azores, the Balearic Islands, and in the north on the Faroe Islands and Iceland.
Cocoa bean
The cocoa industry has been accused of profiting from slavery and child trafficking.
The first allegation that child slavery was used to produce cocoa appeared in 1998. In 2017, approxi ...
Grapes
In the 19th century, European winemaking suffered greatly from fungal invasions.
Both fungi and aphids caused huge losses in crops. It was only by chance that it was discovered that copper compounds are excellent fungicides and the blight was brought under control.
Vanilla
Until the 19th century, Mexico was the homeland of vanilla, as it was the only place with varieties of stingless bees of the Melipona and Trigona genera that pollinated the plants.
It was not until Edmond Albius, a horticulturalist from Réunion (an island in the Indian Ocean about ...
Cocoa bean
The cocoa tree is an evergreen tree with a compact crown 10-15 meters high or a shrub growing up to 5 meters high.
Its bark is thin and cinnamon-brown. The cocoa tree has a strongly developed root system. The leaves ...
Vanilla
One kilogram of dried vanilla pods is obtained from 6 kilograms of green pods.
The vanilla is sorted for quality and length, then packed in bundles and stored in wooden boxes, where it develops its aroma.