WHY DON'T SOME PLANTS HAVE FLOWERS?

Although many plants use flowers to reproduce, some do not. There are more than 30,000 types of these non-flowering plants. Mosses, for example, release tiny spores that are spread by the wind. Conifers make seeds inside scaly cones. Both spores and seeds grow into new plants.

Bristlecone pines are oldest trees on the planet. Growing slowly on cold, windswept mountain sides in western USA, they can live for thousands of years. The oldest specimen is known as Methuselah, and is about 4,800 years old.

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WHY IS BLOOD RED?

Blood is red because most of its cells are packed with a red-substance called haemoglobin. Using this, the red blood cells pick up vital oxygen and deliver it to the body's cells. To achieve this and other roles, such as removing waste, blood is pumped along blood vessels by the heart.

How dry is a desert?

The dry conditions in the deserts occur due to the lack of rain and snow, which is usually less than 25cm (9.8 in) in a year. The driest desert on Earth is the Atacama, Chile, where in many parts there has not been any rainfall in living memory. Hot desert are found close to the tropics, where the Sun's rays are strongest. Hot desert are freezing at night because there are no clouds to trap the Earth's heat.

HOW DO MOUNTAINS GROW?

Where the plates of Earth's crust crash into each other, land is pushed upward, forming mountains. The Himalayas are the tallest mountains on Earth, and the youngest. They formed over the last 145 millions years, as India crashed into Asia. Mountains are also formed when volcanoes erupt and molten rock builds up into steep mounds.

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