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Missed out on our educational series when they launched?
Read them again here!
Cranberry fruit have little pockets of air that help them stay afloat
Have you ever tried craisins? Dried cranberries are brightly coloured, tart, and sweet and make a delicious addition to cereal or baked goods. Equip yourself with our trivia, so your guests will be even more impressed!
Coffee, along with tea and tobacco, was once believed essential for a sober and moral society
Ah, coffee, our daily pick-me-up! But did you know that coffee makes for a more moral society? Sounds like free coffee is a public service!
Aloe ferox is named for its fierce spiny appearance - even its babies are spiky
We are a little nuts about aloe here at SmartHerbals, but can you blame us? This gorgeous plant adorns our gardens and heals inside and out.
Male mulberry flowers catapult pollen at half the speed of sound
As someone with seasonal allergies it is a little alarming how vigorously male mulberry send their pollen out into the world!
Tortoises, goats, and elephants love to munch on spekboom leaves
Spekbook are famous for their carbon capturing ability, but in your garden their main function is to make you smile - it’s only the thickets that capture all that carbon!
Plants typically associated with Christmas all have one thing in common - in the deep dark northern winters, they brought a bit of colour to the festivities
Whether it’s a Christmas tree or mistletoe, Christmas features plants. In the northern hemisphere, Christmas falls in the darkest week of the year and only a few types of plants are green. Here in South Africa, that’s usually not a problem, but we still love decorating our homes with poinsettia and Christmas trees.
Many citrus plants make seeds that are actually clones of the mother plant
The world eats a lot of citrus! This family of brightly-coloured, juicy fruit have been cultivated for 4000 years.
The flowers of Holiday Cacti are pollinated by hummingbirds
Did you know there are succulents in rainforests? The showy holiday cactuses are pollinated by hummingbirds, hence the upside down flowers.
Tulip bulbs can be used instead of onions in cooking
Tulips, the flower that made the Netherlands famous, not just for the beautiful fields of blooming bulbs, but for the tulip mania of the 1630s, are actually edible!
Onions are part of the same family as daffodils and agapanthus
Onions are cultivated in their millions, but did you know they were used by the Egyptians in the process of preparing mummies?
Coconut palms have grass-type roots - fibrous without a tap root
Did you know, coconuts are actually smooth-skinned and brightly coloured? We normally see them peeled, but the part we eat is like the inside of a cherry pit!
In ancient Greece, people would use cabbage to prevent hangovers
Brassica, or the cabbage family, take up a lot of space on the grocery section. Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and more all belong to this rather unusual species which looks completely different from one cultivar to the next!
King Tutankhamen was buried with watermelon seeds
Watermelons have been around for a long time! Besides the seeds found in King Tut’s tomb, paintings of this unmistakeable fruit have also been found in ancient Egyptian ruins.