Stats to go with this one...

Discussion in 'Plants and Biodiversity Stumpers' started by Daniel Mosquin, Jan 3, 2006.

  1. Daniel Mosquin

    Daniel Mosquin Paragon of Plants UBC Botanical Garden Forums Administrator Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    Found in no more than 47% of households in NZ and 10.7% of households in Japan.
     

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  2. pierrot

    pierrot Active Member 10 Years

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    Sophora of some sort?

    Pierrot
     
  3. Daniel Mosquin

    Daniel Mosquin Paragon of Plants UBC Botanical Garden Forums Administrator Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    Nope, not a leguminous plant.
     
  4. Joe Keller

    Joe Keller Active Member 10 Years

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    I am reminded of Styrax seeds. Joe
     
  5. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    Coffee.
     
  6. jimweed

    jimweed Active Member 10 Years

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    I'm with the coffee guy
     
  7. Daniel Mosquin

    Daniel Mosquin Paragon of Plants UBC Botanical Garden Forums Administrator Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    Nope. Neither coffee nor Styrax. Two more hints:

    1) Found in no more than 25% of Canadian households.

    2) Not the part of the plant that would be used.
     
  8. Margaret

    Margaret Active Member 10 Years

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    This may be cheating but could you tell, is it a food or is it used to clean etc?
    Margaret
     
  9. Daniel Mosquin

    Daniel Mosquin Paragon of Plants UBC Botanical Garden Forums Administrator Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    I think another couple hints would be fair.

    1) It's something you generally purchase or grow for another.

    2) the oil extracted from the plant contains a chemical (the active ingredient, actually), which has been found to be roughly 10 times more effective than DEET at repelling mosquitos, but as far as I know, has not been used this way commercially to date. It would likely attract other critters, though.
     
  10. wrygrass2

    wrygrass2 Active Member 10 Years

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    Would that be a kitty that you'd attract? Harry
     
  11. Daniel Mosquin

    Daniel Mosquin Paragon of Plants UBC Botanical Garden Forums Administrator Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    Bah! Gave too many hints!
     
  12. wrygrass2

    wrygrass2 Active Member 10 Years

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    I had never heard that it was an anathema to mosquitoes. Don't know which would be worse, though, Deet or it's odor. :) When you said it was in a lot of tropical households, was that the reason, to repel mosquitoes?

    het
     
  13. Daniel Mosquin

    Daniel Mosquin Paragon of Plants UBC Botanical Garden Forums Administrator Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    Nepeta cataria, catnip or catmint

    Catnip buds research (includes an image of the seeds - not easy to find online!)

    Catnip via Wikipedia: "Research from the Iowa State University has found that the oil extracted from Nepeta cataria contains nepetalactone, which has been found to be nearly 10 times more effective at repelling mosquitos than DEET."

    Google Answers thread with stats for households with cats.

    I'm embarrassed to admit that I gave the wrong percentage for Canadian households - I was repeating from what I remembered, which was wrong (the 25% figure came from the number above in the table, which is 25% for the UK. Canada actually has 38%). So, you can blame me if you thought it might be catnip, but then knew that the number of cat-owning households was much higher in Canada.
     
  14. Daniel Mosquin

    Daniel Mosquin Paragon of Plants UBC Botanical Garden Forums Administrator Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    Harry, didn't see your reply before I finished writing mine. As you can guess from what I linked to, my percentages were strictly based off of the number of cat-owning households.
     
  15. wrygrass2

    wrygrass2 Active Member 10 Years

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    I guess I overlooked the "no more than". :) Great clue. het
     

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