Plants

Saturday, 4 July 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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Birch
In northern India, birch has great historical and cultural significance.
The thin bark that fell off the trunk in winter was widely used as writing paper. Birch paper is extremely durable and was the material from which many ancient Indian texts were made.
Mayflower
It is claimed the Pilgrims came on a ship called the Mayflower, thus the flower’s name.
Coconut tree
Cocos nucifera is a tall palm growing up to 30 meters.
It has feathery leaves 4-6 meters long, which are clustered in a crown at the top of the trunk. They ...
Chia seeds
The plant was cultivated by the Aztecs in pre-Columbian times and was a staple food of Mesoamerican cultures.
Evidence of this is provided by the 16th century Codex Mendoza, an Aztec codex written around 1541, ...
Baobab tree
All baobab tree species are widely used by local people.
Most species have edible leaves and fruits, which are the basis for making herbal medicine mixtures. Baobab leaves are rich in vitamin C and calcium.
Cinnamon
In ancient Egypt, cinnamon was used to embalm corpses.
It was also used to produce kyphi, i.e. incense used during religious ceremonies and for medical purposes.
Cornflower
It can reach a height of 30 to 90 cm (12 to 35.5 in).
The leaves are 1 to 4 cm (0.4 to 1.6 in) long and the inflorescences are 1.5 to 3 cm (0.6 to 1.2 in) in diameter.
Stinging nettle
For medicinal purposes, nettle leaves are harvested before flowering, roots are dug up in fall or early spring, and the whole plant is used.
Juice squeezed from fresh nettle stalks is also often used, and folk medicine recommends drinking it daily to strengthen during spring fatigue.
Sycamore maple tree
The sycamore fruit is a double samara with a spherical nut and wings set at a slightly acute angle.
The wings are 3 - 5 cm (1,18 - 1,96 in) long and fall apart when ripe. The sycamore bears fruit abundantly every other year, with the fruit ripening between September and October.
Parsley
In parsley root, we can find two psychoactive substances: apiol and myristicin.