Belize's National Flower is the Striking Black Orchid

In Utah's Fishlake National Forest, a clonal grove of quaking aspen trees named 'Pando' (Latin: 'I spread') consists of about 47,000 individual stems that are genetically identical, sharing a single root system. Weighing approximately 6,000 metric tons and covering 43 hectares, it is estimated to be 80,000 years old.

In the Malheur National Forest, Oregon, a single Armillaria ostoyae (honey fungus) spreads across 965 hectares (2,385 acres) — roughly 1,350 football fields. Estimated to be about 8,000 years old, it grows mostly underground as mycelium. Discovered in 1998, it broke the previous record held by a similar fungus in Michigan.

Try it right now: pinch your nose and attempt to hum. It's physically impossible. Humming requires the mouth to be closed, so sound resonates through the nasal cavity and exits through the nostrils. Block the nostrils and there is nowhere for the airflow to go, preventing the vocal cords from vibrating.

In 1964, Australian scientists Isabel Joy Bear and Richard Thomas named the distinctive smell of rain on dry earth 'petrichor', from the Greek 'petra' (stone) and 'ichor' (the fluid of the gods). The scent comes primarily from geosmin, produced by Streptomyces bacteria, and plant oils released by rainfall.