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Bristle-cone Pine
The oldest tree in the world is a bristle-cone pine. One in Arizona, United states is 4,600 years old. It was just a sapling when the pyramids were being built, a tall tree when the ancient Greeks and Persians were battling in the Mediterranean, and was already old when Jesus was born.
Bamboo
Bamboo grows faster than any other plant. It can grow nearly a metre (39.4 in) in one day - about the same as you grew in the ten years after you were born.
Cactus
Cactus grow in hot, dry palces. They have no leaves at all. They have spikes on them to stop animals eating them and have thick stems which store water.
Lichens
Arizona's Bristle cone pine is younger if compared with some lichens. It is estimated that some lichens in the Antarctic may be 10,000 years old. If it is right then these lichens started growing during the Ice Age.
A fairy Ring
Sometimes the toadstools grow in a ring. This is because the plant has used up all the nutrients under the centre of the circle and puts up fruiting bodies at the edge in a ring.
Rings yellowed and burnt looking grass have led some people to believe that a flying saucer has landed and taken off again, burning the grass with its exhaust. Actually it is caused by fungi.
Mushrooms
Mushrooms are friut - it carries spores that blow away in the wind to grow into new plants. The rest of the plant is underground. Mushrooms are fungi and they have no flowers. It feeds on nutrients of rotting plants and animals.
Rafflesia
The world's biggest flower is Rafflesia flower, which grows up to a metre across. But it is not at all pretty. It smells like rotting meat. The foul smell attracts flies which pollinate the palnt.
Victorian Water Lily
The leaves of Victorian water lily can be more than 2m (7ft) across, about the same area as a table tennis table. They are strong enough for a child to sit upon it without sinking.
Birds of Prey
Birds of prey have very good eyesight. As they hover many metres above the ground they can detect the slightest movement of a mouse in the grass below. It is thought that a peregrine falcon can see a pigeon up to 8 km (5 miles) away.
When owl, eagle or other bird of prey has spotted its target, it swoops down and grasps its prey in its claws. Eagles can even carry off young lambs and other animals weighing as much as 9kg (20lb). Birds have no teeth so they swallow their food whole. Owls cannot digest the bones and furof their prey, so they regurgitate them in the form of a pellet with other undigested bits of food. Hens swallo grit and small stones. The stones help to grind up the food in their stomachs.
Cuckoo clever enough
Cuckoo pass on the difficult business of hatching eggs and feeding the young to other birds. The female looks for a nest full of eggs and pushes one of them out. She then lay her eggs in its place. When the baby cuckoo is born, it too pushes out its rivals. Eventually the baby cuckoo is the only one in the nest and the foster parent continue to work hard to feed it, even though it may grow to be many times bigger than themselves. |
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