Common Misconceptions and Mistakes
I'm going to take some time here and correct some common mistakes and misconceptions a lot of people have about certain things. Some of these may well be classified as urban legends.
• The creator of Tintin, Hergé, was Belgian, not French as a lot of places have it. I've read book reviews and essays on the man that solemnly declare him to be French. He didn't like his Tintin books thought of as comics either. Oh yeah, it's 'Tintin', not 'Tin Tin'. Got it?
• Water is blue because it is a blue substance. The same with oxygen. Text-books that prattle on endlessly about Rayleigh scattering and wavelength absorption don't quite have it right.
• The tamarillo is a native to the northern Andes of South America, not New Zealand. Does tamarillo sound like a Maori word to anyone? It's Spanish.
• The macadamia, specifically macadamia integrifolia is native to the northern parts of the state of New South Wales and the south-east of the state of Queensland in Australia. It's not Hawaiian. Sorry. I actually live in a town where these trees grow natively.
• The kiwifruit isn't from New Zealand either. It's other common name, the Chinese Gooseberry may give away its origin, although it isn't a true gooseberry.
• The sunflower doesn't automatically turn its flower-head to face the sun. It will track the sun across the sky as it's growing, but no sunflower I've ever grown has turned its inflorescence to face east.
• A banyan isn't a generic name for jungle vines or trees. It's two specific species of the Ficus (fig) genus, found in India and Malaysia, ficus benghalensis and ficus microcarpa. Both trees can be huge. The misconception probably comes from the Banyan Vines network software.