Science Memes

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812

A shrubbery! (mander.xyz)

submitted 3 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 38 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

aren't herbs

What on Earth is that bird's definition of an "herb"? A pretty uncontroversial definition from Wikipedia:

Herbs generally refers to the leafy green or flowering parts of a plant (either fresh or dried), while spices are usually dried and produced from other parts of the plant, including seeds, bark, roots and fruits.

And what the goddamn hell is "true wood" supposed to distinguish? Do plants grow the faux wood that I can buy at Lowe's? Rosemary is a woody shrub and, like basil, is in the family Lamiaceae with a bunch of other herbs.

"Shrubs" and "herbs" are not mutually exclusive (and basil isn't a shrub – a woody perennial – anyway). wtaf is the logic here; there's pedantry, and then there's fucking nonsense pulled out of thin air.

Edit: Wait, is the comic talking about herbaceous plants (shortened in botany as “herbs”)? Because in that case, 1) that’s not news in botanical terms for rosemary, 2) basil is an herbaceous annual, 3) why did it single out rosemary and basil if it didn’t mean to imply a culinary sense, and 4) still what the hell did it mean by “true wood”? It’s simultaneously less and more confusing.

[–] waigl@lemmy.world 21 points 3 months ago (1 children)

And what the goddamn hell is “true wood” supposed to distinguish?

I suppose if it contains lignin, it's really wood, otherwise it just kinda looks like wood at best. If it's real wood, most animals, with a few exceptions here and there, cannot directly digest it.

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 21 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I suppose if it contains lignin, it’s really wood

I appreciate you trying to fill in the gaps that the comic leaves with its abject, ignorant nonsense masquerading as pedantry, but wood is more complicated than just the presence of lignin.

Otherwise, oops, wheat is wood.