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I've become something of a 'quite interesting' fact fiend as a result of watching 2 series of QI practically back-to-back.
Having read about Sir Francis Galton's 'wisdom of crowds' I wondered what quiet interesting (but probably totally useless) knowledge the vine has to offer.
This is your opportunity to dispense that piece of knowledge you've been lugging around since school and wondering "when on earth am I going to use that".
My piece:
You possibly already know that bananas don't grow on trees, the 'palm' that they grow on is infact a herb (or herbaceous plant).
What you may not know is that the plant is said to 'walk' up to 40cm a year. That is, each year the plant can be up to 40cm away from where it was the previous year.
Although the 'walking' theory is in fact a misconception in itself. The plant has a root (or corm) underground, sort of like ginger. Each year it sends up a pseudostem which is the palm-like structure which bears fruit. That then dies off and the following year it sends up another from the corm up to 40cm further along. People just assume that the new stem is the regrowing old one, when in actual fact it's completely new.
So, what-d'ya-know?
Having read about Sir Francis Galton's 'wisdom of crowds' I wondered what quiet interesting (but probably totally useless) knowledge the vine has to offer.
This is your opportunity to dispense that piece of knowledge you've been lugging around since school and wondering "when on earth am I going to use that".
My piece:
You possibly already know that bananas don't grow on trees, the 'palm' that they grow on is infact a herb (or herbaceous plant).
What you may not know is that the plant is said to 'walk' up to 40cm a year. That is, each year the plant can be up to 40cm away from where it was the previous year.
Although the 'walking' theory is in fact a misconception in itself. The plant has a root (or corm) underground, sort of like ginger. Each year it sends up a pseudostem which is the palm-like structure which bears fruit. That then dies off and the following year it sends up another from the corm up to 40cm further along. People just assume that the new stem is the regrowing old one, when in actual fact it's completely new.
So, what-d'ya-know?
. You Cheeky lad 
.
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