Plants: The Other Life Form

[Sir Creep 7,070]

This is more of Plant Antics than anything.

A man bit off more than he could chew when he tackled the world's hottest chili, the so-called “Carolina Reaper,” and was left with excruciating headaches.  

In the first ever recorded such case, the next few days after eating the veggie the man experienced short splitting pains lasting seconds at a time.

The 34-year-old, who was not identified, had eaten just one of the chilies at a chili eating contest in upstate New York.

Immediately after the competition, he began dry heaving and developed intense neck and head pain starting at the back, which later spread across the whole head.

He then developed crushingly painful headaches and at one point he decided to go to the emergency room.

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[Sir Creep 7,070]

A tree removal worker died after a fall from a tree on Saturday morning.

Police said the 28-year-old man was working when the tree he was working on broke at its base, resulting in his fall.

Police said the man was wearing a harness as he climbed 45ft to begin removing the top portion of the tree.

The tree, with the worker still attached, fell directly to the ground.
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[Sir Creep 7,070]

Authorities say a woman has died after apparently being struck by a falling tree branch while jogging at a park in Indianapolis.

WXIN-TV reports 42-year-old Kathryne McCammon was found dead Thursday of multiple blunt force trauma in Eagle Creek Park and no foul play is suspected. Severe thunderstorms were moving through Indiana around the time when the Greenwood woman was found dead.

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[time 8,599]

The Agatha Christie Oak has succumbed to disease and will be removed.

 

Its at Barton cricket club, Torquay, where she used to watch and score cricket.

[Lord Fellatio Nelson 6,218]

7 hours ago, time said:

The Agatha Christie Oak has succumbed to disease and will be removed.

 

Its at Barton cricket club, Torquay, where she used to watch and score cricket.

Well, I have looked....and looked.......and looked.

I cannot find one single picture of her sitting under THAT tree.

This may well be another folklore hairy old bollocks story.

Unless, of course, somebody knows for a fact otherwise.

 

[Toast 16,137]

There is an old apple tree in my garden.  It was old when I was a child.  I think it is a Bramley;  cooking apples, anyway.

Several years ago I cleared all the ivy that was smothering it as people told me it was no good for the tree. 

There turned out to be not much actual tree left under the ivy.  It's hollow, and since then more of the trunk has disintegrated, so it's just a horseshoe of bark.

The ivy has taken over again, and is probably holding it together.

 

 

Still produces apples, and this year has been ridiculous.  I've given loads away to neighbours, taken two big binfuls to a local cider producer, and there are still lots at the top out of reach.  Remarkable.

[DevonDeathTrip 2,358]

First ever leaf grown on the moon fails to survive the cold of the lunar night. 

[Sir Creep 7,070]

A Chillicothe (Ohio) woman’s death Monday at Hocking Hills State Park, reportedly caused by a falling tree branch, might not have been accidental, according to reports.

Schaad Johnson, a supervisor with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, says investigators have information indicating the section of tree that hit Victoria Schafer, 44, “did not fall by natural means.”

Few additional details were released. Schafer reportedly was taking senior photos of six high school seniors when the incident occurred at about 5:30 p.m.

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[time 8,599]

One of two 400 year old elms, known as the Preston Park Twins, and considered to be the oldest Elms in the world/Europe (take your pick), was felled yesterday after succumbing to Dutch Elm Disease.

[Toast 16,137]

38 minutes ago, time said:

One of two 400 year old elms, known as the Preston Park Twins, and considered to be the oldest Elms in the world/Europe (take your pick), was felled yesterday after succumbing to Dutch Elm Disease.

 

"There are more than 17,000 elm trees in Brighton and Hove."

I'm amazed to read that.  I thought DED got all our elms years ago.

[time 8,599]

2 hours ago, Toast said:

 

"There are more than 17,000 elm trees in Brighton and Hove."

I'm amazed to read that.  I thought DED got all our elms years ago.

Elms are particularly suited to Brighton & Hove, being tolerant of the salt-laden air and the chalky soil, so were favourites to be planted when the Victorians wanted to green the area.

 

It's about the only place in England with any sort of sizeable elm population.

[gcreptile 10,967]

Whenever I see this thread I think about creating "famous fungi".

[Toast 16,137]

1 hour ago, gcreptile said:

Whenever I see this thread I think about creating "famous fungi".

 

There's a joke in there somewhere, but I'm not going there.

[Sir Creep 7,070]

The Hinkle Tree at the Inverness Club in Toledo (OH) was a notorious historical golf landmark for more than 40 years until its demise earlier this week when it was cut down after winds partially uprooted it.  “I was somewhat surprised it lasted that long,” former USGA executive director David Fay said on Saturday, recalling the tree’s appearance overnight at the 1979 U.S. Open.

The tree had stood sentry by the eighth tee at Inverness since the second round of the ’79 U.S. Open. The eighth was a dogleg par-5, and in the first round, Lon Hinkle played a 1-iron tee shot through a gap in the trees and down the adjacent 17th fairway, leaving him a 2-iron to the green.

The fact that Hinkle was co-leading the tournament helped thrust his shortcut into the news. But by the start of play in the second round, in an effort to block the gap in the trees down the 17th fairway, a 20-foot Black Hills spruce was planted there.

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[Cat O'Falk 3,290]

Millions of garden plants are set to be binned as a result of Covid-19.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52098436

 

Quote

• The closure of 2,000 garden centres and nurseries mean makers of what's called "ornamental horticulture" have no outlet for their plants.
• The Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) is asking the government for financial assistance of up to £250m to help the industry avoid collapse.
• It warned that up to a third of producers could go bust.

 

[Sir Creep 7,070]

12 hours ago, Cat O'Falk said:

Millions of garden plants are set to be binned as a result of Covid-19.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52098436

 

 

 

Why can't people buy and plant flowers etc?  Seems like a very reasonable way to pass the time doing nothing stuck at home.  FTR (and nipping your next comment in the bud before you make it -- see what I did there?) yes here in Lafayette, LA the roadside flower gardens that pop up seasonally are well and fine and I saw a few folks stopping to purchase whatever.   
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[Toast 16,137]

3 hours ago, Sir Creep said:

 

Why can't people buy and plant flowers etc?  Seems like a very reasonable way to pass the time doing nothing stuck at home. 

 

I agree, I can't see that there was much harm in letting the garden centres stay open.  A lot of people are turning to growing their own vegetables which will reduce shopping trips later on.  The mail order seed companies can't keep up with the demand.

 

Fortunately we do have a small veg patch and I've got most of what I need, including flower seeds from the end-of-season bargain bin.  I can see a lot of plant-swapping going on in a couple of months time.

[Cat O'Falk 3,290]

4 hours ago, Sir Creep said:

 

Why can't people buy and plant flowers etc?  Seems like a very reasonable way to pass the time doing nothing stuck at home.  FTR (and nipping your next comment in the bud before you make it -- see what I did there?) yes here in Lafayette, LA the roadside flower gardens that pop up seasonally are well and fine and I saw a few folks stopping to purchase whatever.   
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We've always had stupid rules. You can't go to the garden centres but you can go to the off licence to buy a bottle of gin.

Before they changed the Sunday trading laws in 1994, you could: 

• buy a newspaper and a porn magazine but you couldn't buy a Bible.
• buy fresh carrots but not tinned or frozen ones.
• buy booze for the dad but not formula milk for his baby.
• buy sausage and chips but not fish and chips. That's why fish and chip shops didn't open on Sundays.

One hardware shop owner flouted the rules by selling customers a single shallot at an inflated price and throwing in something such as a watering can as a free gift. He was successfully prosecuted under Sunday trading laws. 

[Toast 16,137]

35 minutes ago, Cat O'Falk said:

We've always had stupid rules. You can't go to the garden centres but you can go to the off licence to buy a bottle of gin.

 

 

Exactly.   Which is healthier while we're sequestered - gardening or boozing?  Ridiculous.

People can buy alcoholic drinks from the supermarkets anyway.

[the_engineer 1,415]

Oldest living trees the quaking Aspens are all connected through subterranean root systems.They're the largest organism on earth , the oldest living organism and the heaviest known organism.

 

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populus_tremuloides

[Bentrovato 1,087]

They were not all massacred because of the virus after all. They are just waiting to be let loose on the general public. From the BBC:

Garden centres across the UK say they still have plants waiting to be sold, despite the impact of the coronavirus lockdown.

The industry warned last month that millions of plants may have to be thrown away after centres were forced to close.

But Matthew Bailey, general manager of Mortonhall Garden Centre in Edinburgh, said it was "ready to go" if the rules were relaxed.

And he stressed they had not been forced to destroy all their stock.

"We did give hundreds of flowering house plants away when the lockdown was announced to hospitals because we wanted them to be seen while they were flowering - but we still have thousands more high quality plants left," he said. Staff had continued to water, feed and tend to their plants.

[time 8,599]

The Old Apple Tree of Vancouver Washington has died at the age of 194. It was reportedly grown from seeds transported from England by a Royal Navy officer heading to the Hudson Bay trading company post in the Northwest.

 

A DNA analysis performed by experts at Washington State University's Apple Genome Project revealed that the Old Apple Tree is genetically unique.

[Sir Creep 7,070]

The 45-year-old Jerome (Michigan) man was using a chainsaw to cut a tree into pieces around 6:50 p.m., Dec. 14 dl  when part of the trunk fell on him, Michigan State Police said.  The man was trapped and was fatally injured, police said. An investigation shows the tree likely had blown over before the man started cutting it and part of the trunk rotated backwards and fell on him.

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[CoffinLodger 1,248]

Happy Man is not so happy today ...https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/police-clear-last-stand-to-save-happy-man-tree-xqv55rnlx 

[Paul Bearer 6,101]

Got bonsai seeds for Xmas.  Decided to start growing them.  They're soaking in water just now and I'll 'plant' them tomorrow.   Has anybody else on here got any experience with them?