Happy Friday, and happy Earth Day! 🌎
Here are some cool facts and stories about our earth and things within it…
– From Sam M: “My favorite nature fact is about trees. They serve an incredibly important function called “carbon sequestration”. Trees literally pull carbon out of the air and bury it in their roots. I just think it’s the coolest thing… as we pollute our planet and consume things that emit carbon, the trees just naturally try to pull that carbon out of the air and help heal our planet. Trees help with so much, but I think that fact is the coolest!” 🌳
– From Roberta F: “When I was a young girl, my mother told me that pine trees help the other trees around them grow straighter. I haven’t scientifically sourced this, but I’ve always been on the lookout and it seems to me that deciduous trees around pines do grow quite tall and straight. Whether it’s true or not, it makes me happy to think of the pines providing support to their deciduous friends who are able to stand straighter because of them.” 🌲
– From Gloria: “On our walk yesterday we discovered these blooms….only every hundred years! We are the lucky ones…” 💯
(I think they’re called “century plants”, blooming a couple times each century!)
– From Kyla B: “We have a special flower we go hunting for in the woods every year. It’s the Pasque flower, but sometimes it’s called the Easter flower because it comes up around Easter… I guess some places they are more dense, but we only get a few so they are fun to hunt around for” 👇👇
– From Alex in LA: “Mesquite trees in dry areas can spend up to a couple of years developing expansive root networks to find water, before exploding upward with growth. Probably a cool metaphor in there for laying the groundwork for success! Mesquites have taproots. This means they can reach down incredibly far to find water/nutrients. The deepest one ever found was about 160′ deep and was exposed in a copper mine. They also have a long history of providing food. During the civil war, soldiers used mesquite pods to make coffee when the coffee beans ran out. Today people still make mesquite coffee in the desert southwest, as well as all kinds of baked goods with mesquite flour. It’s delicious and supports local foraging!” 🏕
– From Shawnell: “Here are some facts I’d like to share about moss:
- Moss is one of the oldest plants on Earth. Scientists have found moss fossilized as far back as 450 million years ago! 🦖🤯
- Moss typically grow in moist places, but some species are drought and cold resistant. Moss can be found all over the world in the most extreme weather conditions! 🌎
- Mosses collectively provide more carbon offset than all the trees in the world. 🌲
- Some mosses are luminous. 🤩”
– From Stacie (courtesy of her 10y/ daughter!): Butterflies taste with their feet! Their feet have taste sensors on them that help to locate food for their caterpillars. They stand on a leaf and give it a taste. If they determine the plant is something their caterpillars can eat, they’ll lay their eggs in this spot. 🦋
Spiders smell with their legs. Spiders, in fact, do taste, and also smell, through special sensory organs on their legs, as well as on their pedipalps. And they hear – or, more specifically, they sense vibrations – through hairs and tiny slits distributed over much of their body. 🕷
– From Rosie S: “Elephants are the only animals that can’t jump… And baby elephants suck their trunks to comfort themselves just as baby humans suck their thumbs for comfort.” 🐘
– From Steph T: “This is a sad nature fact: over 60% of honeybees in the Philadelphia area did not survive the winter. Not due to freezing but, it is thought by bee experts, to illness. A bee pandemic of sorts. My sis keeps bees and she lost both hives. We are sad BUT new bees are on the way and will be delivered this weekend. Be strong bees! The world needs you little guys! ” 🐝
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HAVE A GREAT DAY!! Take care of this planet, people!
Love, Joel