What differs Monotropa uniflora from other plants is the fact that it doesn’t contain chlorophyll at all. While all the other plants generate their energy from sunlight, this ‘corpse plant’ is parasitic (myco-heterotroph, to be exact), and since it doesn’t depend on Sun, it can grow in extremely dark surroundings.
Also known as ghost plant, Monotropa uniflora is native to parts of European Russia, Asia and parts of North and South America. It grows from 10-30 cm of height, and usually isn’t totally white, but has black spots and a pale pink color.(source)
12 A cat has a certain parasite in its gut. It deposits it’s offspring in cat’s droppings, which gets eaten by a rat, messing with their behaviour and causing the rats to feel sexual arousal when they are around cats, with the goal of getting back to the guts
Image credits: pixabay
This part is only to be read by the ones with guts, as it gets a bit creepy. A natural reaction that a rat has when it senses a cat or even her urine, is getting anxious. However, there is a specific parasite located inside the cat’s gut, which deposits its offspring in the cat’s droppings, that can be eaten by a rat. This is where it gets weird.
The parasite then plays with the behaviour of a rat, making him scared of other bigger animals, but not scared of the cat any more. Furthermore, rats that are infected with this parasite feel sexual arousal, when around cats. The reason? Returning to the cat guts, of course.(source)
13 There’s an island in the Pacific where many of the residents are suffering from color blindness. They can only see black and white colors, but they often take a psychedelic drug which gives them colourful hallucinations
Meet Pingellap, a small atoll in the Pacific, famous for the fact that achromatopsia or complete blindness for colors is much more common than in any other place in the world.
Genetics is the reason for this, and while the locals might not have found the cure, they have found a way to see colors in a psychedelic drug that they can access on the island, which gives them hallucinations of colors.(source)
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14 Meet a Brinicle – an underwater icicle of death that kills everything it touches
People have been familiar with the existence of brinicles for over 50 years ago, but only recently it has been caught on camera for the first time, providing some interesting insights. This icicle of death forms underwater, destroying everything it gets in contact with, until it finally hits the seabed, spreading a web of ice that is lethal to starfish and urchins.
This phenomenon is a characteristic of Antarctica, and usually forms once saline water enters the ocean.(source)
15 In 1997 at Mexico, it rained frogs from the sky
Image Credits: pixabay
It’s raining frogs, hallelujah! This is exactly what happened in Culiacan, Mexico, in 1997, when a small tornado caused toads to fall from the sky.
What actually happened? A wind storm passed over a local pond picking up frogs that were in it and dumped them over the town of Sinaloa. In 2005 a similar thing happened in Serbia, which according to the experts is nothing unusual.
Basically, a wind is capable of picking up everything within its power, and while it’s usually only dust, apparently it can move away other things, such as frogs as well.(source)
