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More “Useless Facts for Inquiring Minds.”

● Of the 195 flags of the countries of the world, only two feature the color purple. A parrot on the flag of Dominica has purple feathers, and a rainbow on the flag of Nicaragua has a purple band.

● Prunus is a genus of trees and shrubs that includes peaches, nectarines, plums, cherries, apricots, and almonds. All are stone fruits, which consist of a hard, inedible central pit and an edible fleshy surrounding (the almond seed being an edible exception). Prunus is a member of the rose family.

● Most bony fish (but not fish with skeletons of cartilage, such as sharks and rays) have a two-part, gas-filled swim bladder that controls buoyancy. By adjusting the amount of gas in the sacs, the fish can rise or fall in the water without swimming.

● Humans have an average of about 100,000 hair follicles on their heads. The number varies with hair color. The average is 150,000 follicles for blonde hair, 110,000 for brown, 100,000 for black, and 90,000 for red.

● The Galapagos Islands, notable for the many endemic species that led Charles Darwin to posit the theory of evolution, sit astride the equator 500 miles west of Ecuador (of which the Galapagos is a province) and consist of 18 major islands, four minor islands, and 107 mostly-unnamed islets and rocks.

● The full name of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) was Magdalena Carmen Freida Kahlo y Calderón.

● According to the Park Service, the (regrettable and tacky) sculptures on Mount Rushmore were carved between 1927 and 1941 at a cost of $990,000, which is $15,000,000 in today’s money.

● The Milky Way Galaxy is zipping through space at an estimated 130 miles per second while rotating clockwise. Within the rotation, our solar system is moving at about 143 miles per second. Owing to the galaxy’s humongous size, our sun takes 230 million years to complete one orbit of the Milky Way.