Skeptics Stack Exchange
Skeptics Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [plants]

For questions pertaining to plant life (trees, flowers), not industrial plants (which may fall under e.g. [economics] or [technology])

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Are the ingredients listed in "Macbeth" common plants?

It is easy to find dozens of sites claiming, generally without attribution, that the ingredients in the famously gruesome witches' brew from Shakespeare's play Macbeth are herbalist jargon for common plants. For instance, according to Aldersbrook…
Obie 2.0
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Is rice water a good fertilizer?

When rice is washed, the wash water becomes whitish due to the starchy powder in the skin of unwashed rice. I've often heard or read, usually in water-saving, money-saving, or gardening tips, that the water used to wash rice is beneficial for plants…
Lie Ryan
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Have there been documented cases of "blood pumping from the trunks of trees"?

Several British news reports (including the BBC "Bleeding trees") describe trees issuing red blood-like liquid when cut. Once the stuff of myth and legend, modern day eye-witnesses now catch on camera blood pumping from the trunks of trees. This…
user3150
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Is the flavor of artificial banana flavoring based on the "Gros Michel" banana?

I've heard the claim that artificial banana flavoring doesn't taste like bananas since it was based on a different cultivar than the one we know today. Until the 1950's the main banana cultivar commercially grown and sold was the Gros Michel or Big…
SQB
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Does celery have an effect on male sexual performance?

There's a popular belief that celery increases male sexual performance (some claim that it influences penis size, others that it increases semen count, or that it helps men maintain an erection for a longer time). Is there any truth to this? Have…
luvieere
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Does the E-Kaia device harvest electrical power from small plants?

The E-Kaia device claims to be able to harvest electricity released into soil by small plants. Here's a Daily Mail article describing it. And because not all of the electrons are needed, harvesting them doesn't impact the plant. According to…
Matt Lyons-Wood
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Can plants sense human intentions?

Cleve Backster's experiments on the ability of plants (and even microbes) to react to human thought have been popularized by the book The Secret Life of Plants. There's a very interesting interview with Backster in The Sun Magazine: I thought that…
Dheeraj Vepakomma
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Did humans kill 50% of the world's trees in the last 100 years?

In "Dear Future Generations: Sorry", Prince Ea, American rapper and activist, expresses an emotional message to the upcoming generation in a 6 minutes video. In his video, he apologizes to the future generations for numerous problems we have today…
George Chalhoub
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Do bananas last 3 to 5 days longer if you wrap plastic around their stem?

SweetFunnyCool : Here is a simple and easy way to make your bananas last longer. All you have to do is wrap plastic around the stem. Banana stems release ethylene which causes ripening and by blocking the gases from being released the banas could…
Christian
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Do people become resistant to stinging nettles?

The WikiHow page How to Touch Nettles Without Stinging Yourself claims: Although experienced nettle harvesters often go bare-handed, this isn't just because they know how to avoid stings. Many of them have become resistant to the stings over years…
Thomas
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Does natural corn grow giant?

I was reading the Wikipedia article on corn today, and I noticed this interesting quote in the second paragraph: While natural maize varieties grow to 12 metres (39 ft) tall, most commercially grown maize has been bred for a standardized height of…
Ullallulloo
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Does the Yulan Magnolia flower bud look like a bird?

This GreaterGood article, Yulan Magnolia Flowers Look Like Beautiful Birds, shows pictures of flowers that look like birds, including these images from the planetsavioursuk Instagram account. They claim: when their blossoms appear, they have an…
Ponder Stibbons
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To what extent do needle trees contribute to fine dust pollution?

Today I ran into an article concerning cars and their effect on the existence of particulate matter. Especially the last paragraph caught my attention where it is claimed that coniferous also contribute highly to the formation of particulate matter.…
NashVio
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When is the origin of Datura in India?

The abstract for this paper on PubMed, Historical evidence for a pre-Columbian presence of Datura in the Old World and implications for a first millennium transfer from the New World says, Datura (Solanaceae)is a small genus of plants that,for…
ChrisW
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Does the coffee plant use caffeine to kill bugs and surrounding plants?

The HUmans are Free article The Coffee Deception: 13 Little Known Facts About Coffee makes the claim that caffeine in the plant is used to kill bugs and surrounding plants. 1. Caffeine is an alkaloid that the coffee plant uses to kill bugs, which…
user1605665
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