Nature — Page 5
Natural phenomena
102 facts
The coco de mer, a palm from the Seychelles, produces the largest seed in the plant kingdom, which can weigh more than 15 kilograms.
The Lodoicea maldivica palm grows naturally on just two islands in the Seychelles. The fruit takes six to seven years…
Some ginkgo trees survived the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and are still alive.
In 1945 about 170 trees less than two kilometres from the blast sprouted again. Among them are several ginkgos, a…
Raindrops are not tear-shaped: the larger ones look like hamburger buns.
Small drops are almost perfect spheres. Larger ones are flattened underneath by air resistance as they fall. Once…
The sting of the gympie-gympie, an Australian stinging tree, can cause pain for weeks or even months.
Its leaves and stems are covered with ultra-fine silica hairs that break off in the skin like needles and inject…
Sheltering from the rain under a manchineel tree can blister your skin.
The manchineel, from the Caribbean and Florida, has a milky sap so irritating that rainwater dripping from its leaves…
In the Bay of Fundy, in Canada, the difference between high and low tide can exceed 15 metres.
These are the highest tides in the world. The bay's shape and size make the water slosh at the same rhythm as the…
