Thingology Specialties – Plants

Thingology is a little-known science. I got my degree in it, but at a little school in the woods and mountains of rural Vermont (just kidding, of course). Very few universities even have it as a class, and even fewer have specialties.

In the field of medicine, everyone knows you can have a specialty. It's the same in thingology. So, because thingology itself isn't well-known, I thought I should teach y'all about thingology itself, specifically specialties.

Today, I'm featuring plant specialties.

We live in an amazingly biodiverse world. If you don't believe me, or think I'll just be ranting about something boring, just look at this.

Photo by Michael Melford for National Geographic

Photo found through ReverseHomesickness.com

Also ReverseHomesickness.com

All of these trees are completely natural and from the same place, an isolated island off of Yemen called Socotra. Because it's so isolated, a lot of plants there are entirely unique to the island.

Socotra also has an amazing history and culture you can read about at that link (a National Geographic website article).

Hey, let's take a moment to talk about buttercups. Cute little flowers. The name of one of the Powerpuff girls. Makes me think of buttery caramels and freshly mown grass.

I never saw any buttercup flowers when I was growing up, except in pictures, so I've never heard of the game Listverse talks about where children try to make temporary red marks on their skin from touching buttercups. Just by handling it, you can get temporary rashes. And eating it is far worse. Grazing animals that eat it experience severe gastrointestinal sickness, and if eaten by a human it can cause death. According to Wikipedia, symptoms include bloody diarrhea, salivation, colic, and blisters basically everywhere the buttercup touched you when you ate it – including the mouth and digestive tract. Basically, you don't want to tangle with buttercups, pretty as they are.

Anyways, I just wanted to give you a taste of this field of thingology. It's a vast and interesting field, so I suggest you further research it. Anyway, have a wonderful day. Thanks for listening, thingologists!