STRANGE, SILLY,AND SOMEWHAT USELESS TRIVIA FOR OUTDOOR FANATICS
Wierd Plants:
The Strangler Fig actually chokes the tree that gave it life by wrapping around it, and preventing light from reaching the tree.
A flower in the Rafflesia Genus smells like decaying meat, which attracts files that spread its pollen from flower to flower.
Spanish moss receives no food from its perch, rather it lives on rainwater and minerals dripped off the leaves of trees. Early settlers used it for stuffing mattresses and furniture because it is so springy.
The Rain Forest:
Tropical rain forests receive as much as 320 inches of rain a year.
The plants of the rain forests are valuable to medicine:The rosy periwinkle, found only in the rain forests of Madagascar, is reputed to be an anti-cancer agent.
Tropical rain forests hold more kind of plants than any other kind of community.
Tribes of Humans who live in the rain forest rely on tropical plants and animals for food, fuel, building materials and medicines, but they do not damage the rain forests with their presence. Rather, they have become a part of the rain forest's community and ecosystem.
Cacao, the source of chocolate, originated in the rain forest.
We need rain forest for producing every day items such as furniture, cough drops, golf balls, perfume and running shoes.
Weather:
The highest rain fall recorded for one day was on reunion island in the Indian Ocean. On March 16, 1952 it rained 74.5 inches.
In May of 1950, a tornado is said to have plucked the feathers off several chickes in Bedfordshire, England. The naked birds survived.
On the average, due to weathering such as rain, wind and snow, a mountain loses about 3.5 inches of its height every 1,000 years.
Scientists can drop tiny particles into some types of clouds to make it rain. It's called cloud seeding, and they do it in the United States, France, Russia and Australia. Similar methods are used to disband fog at airports.
Weather disasters usually affect poorer countries more so than modern ones. Why? They cannot afford to take measures against the weather such as proper drainage and retaining walls.
Hail stones can reach the size of a grapefruit. These can easily kill humans and animals.
In parts of France,farmers keep green tree frogs under glass bells. Their croaking alerts farmers of coming rain.
Other Stuff That Matters:
If everybody jumped off a cliff.......
Every five years, when the lemming population gets too large, the mouse-like creatures voraciously seek out food, but in doing so they do not stop once the reach the sea. The Drown trying to swim across it.
Gang fights in the Wilderness:
The red deer stags have pushing contests with their antlers. These tiffs are supposed to impress the female deep.
Dung beetles are natural recyclers, but they spend most of their time hanging out in animal waste.
A cheetah can run for short distances at speeds up to 120 kilometers per hour. Figure for yourself what tha is in miles per hour.
The electris ray stuns its enemies with a current that is equal to twenty of more electric light bulbs.
Many plants and animals in cold climates have chemical that is very similar to the anti-freeze in car radiators.
we will ad more to this page on July 23,2001
