Category: Plants & Animals
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How do we get cedar oil?
Oil of cedar is a precious substance which the ancient peoples used to, embalm dead bodies. It was also once used to coat books to preserve them from insects and damp. The oil is obtained by distilling it from the African cedar and is essential oil, that one that gives a plant, flower or fruit…
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How holly bush defends itself from animals?
The holly bush can often look like a tree and grow to a height of more than 7 metres. Usually it is a shrub which in winter stands out in contrast with its glossy, green leaves against the dead, brown foliage all around it. The leaves of holly are intended to keep animals away. The…
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How do you find out the age of a tree?
If we examine the trunk of a tree that has been chopped down, we will see first of all the outer ring of the bark which acts as a sort of waterproof coat for the tree. Inside the outer covering come a number of concentric rings. Each one of these rings represents a year in…
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The leaves of the prickly pear are made not born?
The prickly pear grows wild in warm Mediterranean regions. It anchors itself to rocky, barren slopes and forms large areas of scrub that grow to about 3 meters high. On cultivated land the prickly pear is often cultivated as a hedge. It is enough to plant just one leaf for a whole bushy shrub to…
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Do you know that plants produce organic substances?
By using water, air and some mineral substances obtained from the soil, plants produce sugar and starch which are the basis of all organic matter. This transformation is made possible by chlorophyll which takes the energy of sunlight. Chlorophyll then uses this energy to separate the atoms of oxygen, hydrogen and carbon which make up…
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How plants absorb water?
Every plant has to feed itself in order to carry out its vital functions. Usually the raw materials are extracted from the surrounding soil through the roots. In this way the roots supply the leaves of the plant, which are really small chemistry laboratories, with water and the necessary minerals to produce organic substances. There…
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Describe cross-pollination of plants?
Everything inside a flower is arranged to make pollination possible. This operation involves the transfer of pollen from the anthers of the stamens to the pistil. It is very rare, however, that the pollen produced by one flower is used to fertilize the pistil in the same flower. Instead, flowers are designed to obtain pollen…
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Do you know the making of flower?
A flower consists, first of all, of a pedicle, or stem, that joins it to the plant. The stem broadens out into a hollow cup known as the receptacle. This is surrounded by green sepals which form the calyx. The flower’s petals grow from the calyx in all kinds of shapes and colours. At the…
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How Plants get ill?
Bacteria are tiny organisms that can be seen only through a microscope. They live alone as solitary individuals or in groups that are linked like chains. They vary in shape according to their species. Bacteria are responsible for many diseases in people, plants and animals. These diseases are infectious because they can be passed on…
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How plants protect themselves from frost?
Some plants are killed by the frost when winter arrives but the seeds they dropped on the ground in the autumn ensure that new plants grow to replace them in the spring. Other plants spread out their leaves and flatten them against the ground in order to obtain whatever warmth is left in the soil.…