Plants facts

The hurricane plant has holes in its leaves, which keep it from being destroyed by wind.

The canopy of a rainforest is so thick, only one percent of sunlight reaches the ground.

A living tree never stops growing.

40% of prescripition drugs dispensed in the U.S. have active ingredients derived from plants, animals or microorganisms, many of them from forests.

A banana is about 75 percent water.

The world’s fastest-growing plant is the giant water lily, which grows almost a foot a day.

Researchers recently sprouted a lotus seed known to be 1,288 years old, making it the oldest seed ever germinated.

The Venus flytrap takes less than half a second to slam shut on an insect.

A single large tree can release up to 400 gallons of water into the atmosphere each day.

Rafflesia flowers attract pollinating flies by looking and smelling like rotten meat.

One acre of trees absorbs enough carbon dioxide per year to match that emitted by driving a car 26,000 miles.

The world’s largest flower is the Rafflesia arnoldi. It can grow to the size of an umbrella.

The saguaro cactus of the Arizona Desert grows less than one inch in it’s first 10 years.

In the 1800’s an Eggplant was known as a “mad apple” and believed to be poisonous.

One cord of wood can make 7 and a half million toothpicks.