3,000-Year-Old Moss

“On the fateful morning of November 9, 1971, John List’s religious fanaticism and dire financial straits reached a tipping point. He decided to go through with the plan to kill his entire family to “save them” from eternal damnation.” [Source]

The most chilling part of this case is that John left his family’s corpses in the entryway of the house, directly beneath the stained-glass window. Before he left, he put on soft church music—like he was staging a crypt. Months later, when a neighbor finally realized something was wrong, they entered a cold, lifeless home filled with nothing but the sound of hymns still playing.

“Yareta (Azorella compacta), also known as “Llareta” in Spanish, is a flowering plant that belongs to the family Apiaceae. It grows in the cold Puna grasslands of the Andes in Peru, Bolivia, northern Chile, and western Argentina at altitudes between 3,200 and 4,500 meters, where the wind blows unceasingly and the cold cracks even granite. To survive the extreme conditions, Yareta grows in packs so dense that its stems can take the weight of a human. The plant keeps close to the ground in order to retain as much heat in as possible. This also helps to resist the powerful high altitude wind, which would tear up the roots of any plant. To prevents moisture loss through evaporation the Yareta has wax covered leaves.” [Source]

Yareta can be hundreds of years old—some individuals are estimated to be over 3,000 years old.