Terribly beautiful: the most big flowers in the world
When we're talking about about the largest flowers in the world, then our imagination imagines something of incredible beauty with a divine aroma. Unfortunately, the reality is very different from our ideas. Giant flowers are beautiful in their own way, unusual, exactly worth attention. We invite you to familiarize yourself with them in our article!
The widest flower
The unusual plant has five bright red fleshy petals with convex inclusions, and the depression in the middle of the flower can hold about 4 liters of water! The flowers of the colorful Rafflesia open quite rarely and only last for three or four days. After pollination for 7 months, the flower begins to grow a fruit containing about 4 million seeds!
If you ever have the opportunity to admire this flower, it is best to do so from a distance, as Rafflesia has a terrible smell. Therefore, the flower is sometimes called the “corpse lily.” But due to such an unpleasant aroma, dung flies and other insects land on the plant, which pollinate the flower.
Tallest flower
Three-meter Amorphophallus Titanium or more simply - Titan Arum. This giant plant, which belongs to the araceae family, also has a very terrible smell of carrion. The weight of the flower is 50 kilograms!
Titan Arum is considered a dormouse plant because it a large number of spends time in the form of a large tuber. With the arrival of spring, a stem stalk appears from the tuber, and over time complexly dissected petals develop around it, which then acquire a frightening dark red hue. The plant blooms for only 2-3 days, then the flower dies and leaves begin to grow, reaching 6 meters!
Amorphophallus was first discovered by a Florentine scientist in 1878 in Indonesia. The flower lives for about 40 years and blooms only a couple of times.
It is worth noting that just recently, on July 18, Titan Arum bloomed for the first time in 11 years on the territory of the Cambridge University Botanical Garden! About 1000 people gathered to watch this spectacle!
The largest inflorescence
The largest inflorescence in the world is Puya Raymonda, which grows in the Andes mountains. Of all the flora on the planet, this plant is one of the most ancient. Its inflorescence reaches a height of about 13 m, and a diameter of more than 2 m. Unusually, the flowering period begins only after 100-150 years of growth! The plant is also called the “Queen of the Andes” because it stands out from all others due to its large size.
During the flowering period, Puya appears long stem, on which about 10 thousand white, purple or green flowers somewhat similar to lilies soon grow.
These are the record-breaking flowers! They attract and repel at the same time, but nature created them that way, and she knows what she’s doing!
When the first European explorers crossed the jungles of Sumatra in the 19th century, they were amazed by flowers the size of large wheels that seemed to lie right on the ground. The flowers had fleshy, succulent red petals with white growths on the surface, resembling a piece of rotting meat. At the bottom of his cup they found something that could be used to fill a small saucepan. The flower gave off a corpse-like smell. Both its color and specific aroma are designed to attract insects that feed on the predator flowers. This is Rafflesia Arnoldi - the most big flower in the world.The plant got its name thanks to its discoverers - biologist Arnold and officer Raffles.
Giant amorphophallus (Amorphophalus titanum)
Another huge flower also grows in Sumatra - gigantic amorphophallus. It is the largest flower in the world and can reach 3 m in height. Like Rafflesia, Amorphophallus emits a rotten flesh odor that attracts all sorts of carrion-eating insects.Amorphophallus blooms within 2-3 days, 3-4 times over 40 years of existence.
Giant petals purple- actually a bract (protective leaf). It can be up to 1.2 m in diameter and 1.3 m in height. A huge inflorescence grows from a tuber weighing up to 100 kg. On the giant “trunk” in the middle of the flower (the so-called spadix) there are flowers, both and.
Fan palm (Corypha umbraculifera)
The largest inflorescence is found in the fan palm (Corypha umbraculifera), native to southern India and Ceylon. The leaves of the plant reach 25 m in height, the stems are up to 1.3 m in diameter, and the inflorescences are 6-8 m in length. They consist of several million small flowers attached to a branched stem at the top of the trunk. fan palm only once in my life between the ages of 30 and 80.Video on the topic
Very small flower, which can only be seen through a magnifying glass, is located on the top of the plant. This is a depression in which there is one stamen and pistil. A special feature of the plant is its incredibly fast
We all remember the fairy tale “Thumbelina”. A little girl was born from a flower. He probably seemed simply huge to her. But this is fiction, fantasy. Are there really big flowers on our planet? Of course have. What Mother Nature didn’t come up with!
Rafflesia Arnoldi
This is the largest flower in the world. His equal cannot be found on the whole Earth. This plant belongs to the Rafflesiaceae family, which has about 30 species.
Interestingly, Rafflesia arnóldii - the largest flower in the world - can only be found in the jungles on the island of Kalimantan and the island of Sumatra - the most large islands The Malay Archipelago, which in turn is the largest archipelago in the world. How nature brought together all the best! Unfortunately, today this miracle is becoming less and less common. The giant Rafflesia Arnoldi is on the verge of extinction.
Other species of this family grow in areas of Southeast Asia - the Philippines, Indonesia, and the island of Java.
The miracle plant received its name in honor of two scientists:
- Joseph Arnold, an English doctor who discovered a huge flower while working in Sumatra. Although it is reliably known that Arnold was shown the miracle plant by a local resident, whose name remains unknown;
- Raffles Stamford, a naturalist who studied and described the new species.
The flower core has the shape of a bowl with high sides and a diameter of up to 1 meter (the largest known specimen had a core diameter of 1.6 meters). During tropical downpours, the core bowl collects 7-9 liters of rainwater. Around it are five petals 0.5 meters long and up to 5 cm thick. The total weight of the flower reaches 10 kg!
The Aborigines call it "lotus flower", "corpse line" or "carrion lily" because the flower has a terrible smell. A kilometer away it carries rotten meat. This exclusive “aroma” attracts flies that pollinate Rafflesia Arnoldi.
Local residents use the plant to prepare healing infusions. Men drink them to restore potency, and women drink them to maintain a good figure.
A very interesting development cycle of the largest flower in the world. The seeds (very small, it is difficult to even see them; up to 4 million seeds ripen in one plant) penetrate under the bark of the “host” and freeze for 18 months. After a year and a half, they awaken and release thin sucker threads, with the help of which they begin to feed on the sap of the mother plant. Gradually, a thickening called a bud forms at the site where the seed is introduced. The bud grows and transforms into a large bud. This process takes 3 long years. The bud also blooms very slowly - another 9-18 months. But the “corpse lily” blooms for only 4-5 days, after which it turns into a black, shapeless mass that stores seeds. Animals that step on Rafflesia fruits spread these seeds throughout tropical forest.
Here is such an amazing, largest flower in the world - Rafflesia Arnoldi!
What other largest flowers grow on Earth? Amorphophallus Titanium – perennial, belonging to the Araceae family, which has more than 3000 species. The flower comes from the tropics, from the island of Sumatra. Unfortunately, today you can no longer find it there, since people have completely exterminated strange plant. It has been preserved as a species in several major botanical gardens and scientific biological centers.
Amorphophallus grows from a huge tuber. The plant has a short powerful stem and a single giant leaf several meters wide, up to 3 meters long and 10 cm thick. This amazing representative of the flora blooms once every 7-10 years. Before this, it drops its leaf and goes into hibernation for 3-4 months, gaining strength and nutrients. And then Amorphophallus throws out the flower.
The inflorescence of this plant is one of the largest in the world. It reaches a height of 3 meters and a width of 1.5 meters. Looks like a huge yellow cob. In its lower part is the flower itself in the form of a corrugated burgundy-purple cape. Another unique feature of the plant is that it heats up to 40°C when flowering.
Flowering lasts only 1-2 weeks. Because of its rarity and spectacular nature, the flowering of Amorphophallus is a major event in the world of botany. Tourists also do not want to miss such a moment, coming from all over the world to take a selfie next to the amazing flower.
The plant has only one, but very significant drawback: it smells strongly of rotten eggs, rotten fish and meat. For this deadly “aroma”, which simply eats away the eyes, the flower is called “rotting” or “cadaverous”.
This plant is not a flower, but I would like to mention it due to the fact that its inflorescence is the largest in the world. It has a height of more than 10 meters with a diameter of more than 2 meters! Consists of 12-15 thousand tiny flowers. Puya Raymonda throws out a peduncle and bears fruit only once at 80-150 years of age, after which it dies, leaving behind 10-12 million ripe seeds. They are carried around by the wind, but sprout from everything huge amount no more than 3-5 seeds. Puya grows in isolation, per 1 sq. km of range there is only 1 plant. So they stand, huge lonely candles, in Peru, Bolivia and the Andes.
Puya belongs to the Bromeliad family, which has a record number of species - more than two thousand! Named in honor of the naturalist Antoni Raimondi, who devoted his entire life to the study and description of this plant.
Puya Raymonda took another one for herself gold medal– this plant is the oldest living on the planet. Scientists have nicknamed it the “dinosaur plant.” According to rough estimates, the species is several million years old.
Flowers are different. Some are simply pleasing to the eye in the garden. Some can be given as a sign of gratitude or your feelings. But among them there are real monsters that are scary to even glance at.
And so, meet the blood-red Rafflesia arnoldii - the largest single flower in the world, which can reach up to 90 centimeters in width and weigh up to 11 kilograms.
Size is not the only reason why you should not include this plant in your bouquet; its smell is disgusting, reminiscent of rotting meat, only dung flies decide to pollinate it. And this suits Rafflesia quite well, because its ancestors appeared about 46 million years ago and evolved from tiny 2 mm plants into giants.
The colorful flower, consisting of five fleshy petals, blooms in 3 to 4 days, and after pollination, a fruit containing from 2 to 4 million seeds develops within 7 months.
Rafflesia was first discovered on the island of Sumatra. Officer Stamford Raffles and botanist Joseph Arnold composed the first scientific description plants and measured it. He was given a sonorous name - Rafflesia Arnoldi. But local residents have long known about its existence and called it no less majesticly - “bunga patma”, which means “lotus flower”.
To be precise, Rafflesia Arnoldi is the widest flower, but the tallest inflorescence is the 3-meter Amorphophallus Titanium, also known as the “corpse flower”, “snake palm” or “voodoo lily”.
Amorphophallus is a dormouse plant; it spends a lot of time in the form of a huge tuber, up to half a meter in diameter and weighing 50 kilograms. And only in spring a spotted stem-cutting appears from it, at the end of which a beautiful, complexly dissected leaf develops.
Amorphophalus is not a single inflorescence, but a structure of many small male and female flowers. Its homeland is Sumatra in Indonesia. It also does not bloom for long, namely 2 - 3 days, and smells terribly of rotting corpses.
After the flower dies, the leaf structure begins to grow, which can reach 6 meters in height and 5 in diameter. When the tuber uses up its energy reserve, the plant goes dormant for 4 months and the process repeats.
The giant was discovered by the Italian botanist Odoardo Beccari back in 1878. The largest specimen ever found was 3.3 meters tall and weighed 75 kilograms.
These were plants that you would never want to grow at home, despite their uniqueness.
Every day we see flowers that surround us everywhere - daisies, roses, violets, tulips, chrysanthemums, dandelions, and their beauty has become familiar and even somewhat banal to us.
But in different parts of the planet there grow truly amazing and unusual in terms of adaptability and appearance flowers, and every time, looking at this natural miracle, you are surprised by the beauty flora. Let's get acquainted with the most unusual flowers of our planet:
1. Tricyrtis hirta.
This perennial herbaceous plant, reaching a height of 40-80 cm, has flowers white with numerous purple spots.
This grows decorative flower in the subtropical zone of Japan, where there is shade. Tricyrtis shorthair is relatively easy to cultivate.
2. Wolffia angusta.
This is the smallest flowering plant on the planet, its size ranges from 0.5 to 0.8 mm.
These little flowers live on water surfaces. The name of the flower was given in honor of the German entomologist and botanist Johan F. Wolf.
3. Amorphophallus titanica (Amorphophallus).
Is the largest tropical flower, but despite its natural beauty, it is a very foul-smelling specimen of flora. The inflorescence emits the smell of decaying flesh. If we translate the name of the flower from Greek language, then it means “shapeless phallus.”
This giant flower has one of the largest inflorescences in the world, reaching a width of one and a half meters and a height of 2.5 m. Amorphophallus titanica blooms for only two days. Previously, it grew in Indonesia, on the island of Sumatra, but then foreigners destroyed the flower. Today he is considered very rare flower, and you can see it in botanical gardens around the world.
This amazingly beautiful flower deservedly bears the status of the most romantic and piquant flower on the planet. Because of its bright red inflorescences, people also call it “hot sponges.”
Psychotria loves warmth and moisture and grows in the tropics. Its homeland is the forests of South and Central America, where the subtropical climate reigns.
5. Sexy Orchid Drakaea glyptodon.
The title of “unusual” orchid was won by the “sexy” orchid - the inflorescence of the flower resembles the body of a certain species of wasp. In addition, the orchid secretes pheromones, the same as those released by the female wasp.
Interestingly, the sex orchid begins to bloom during the breeding season of wasps, and then the males flock to the flowers and try to mate with them. This is how wasps transfer pollen from one plant to another. The sex orchid grows in Australia.
In appearance this amazing flower resembles a flying duck, and that is what people call it. She got this appearance from nature to attract insects called sawflies.
For them top part The flower resembles a female, and, flying from flower to flower, pollination occurs. The Kalania orchid has miniature dimensions: the width of the flower is 2 cm, and the height is only 50 cm. The orchid grows in Southern and Eastern Australia under eucalyptus trees, and there are 2-4 flowers on the stem.
In most cases, it lives underground, but when the required amount of precipitation falls in the desert, African Hydnora appears on the surface and becomes discolored. The flower reaches a length of 15-20 centimeters. Pollination occurs with the help of beetles that fly to the scent emitted by the flower.
8. Sundew (Drosera).
This carnivorous flower amazing beauty. The inflorescence secretes droplets of mucus, which are a trap for insects.
It is insects that the sundew feeds on. The flower grows in the mountains, on sandstones and swamps.
9. Passionflower (Passiflora alata).
Passiflora or Stratoflower is an amazingly beautiful flower from the genus of the Stratoflower family.
There are about five hundred species in nature. The inflorescence is 10 cm in diameter, and passionflower grows mainly in Latin America.
10. Nepenthes Attenboroughii.
This one is unusual interesting flower was discovered on the island of Aalavan by three scientists in 2000, who went on an expedition to find this miracle of the plant world. The first information about the flower was received from missionaries who visited the island earlier. Going to Mount Victoria, scientists discovered huge flowers, the inflorescences of which resembled voluminous jugs.
It turned out that these unusual flowers- true predators that feed on rodents. It still remains a mystery how these flowers were able to survive to this day. This phenomenon is being studied today at McPherson's laboratory. Do you think custom bouquets made from these flowers would be in high demand?
11. Monkey orchis (Orchis simia).
This beautiful flower grows in bushes and forests, where there is a lot of light, in forest glades of the lower (sometimes middle) mountain zone up to an altitude of 1500 m above sea level.
This flora specimen is a rare species and is listed in the Red Book of Russia. When the monkey orchis blooms, it emits a pleasant orange aroma.
A flower of a genus of epiphytic herbaceous plants of the Orchidaceae family, native to northeastern Australia and southeast Asia.
Habitat: mountain and lowland forests with high humidity. Some representatives of the genus are popular in indoor floriculture, botanical gardens and greenhouses.
13. Clianthus.
This genus of this flower, which prefers sunny areas, includes two species that are endemic to New Zealand.
Clianthus inflorescences are bright red in color and resemble the beak of a kaka parrot in appearance. The flower also has another name - Lobster Claws.
The inflorescence, thanks to its festively colored flowers, resembles a bright caramel lollipop in appearance.
These unusual flowers open only in the presence of bright light, and in the evening the inflorescence, like an umbrella, curls up in a spiral. It's beautiful unpretentious plant lives well at home.
The flower got its name due to the shape of the inflorescence, which resembles a shoe. The original shoe-like shape is characteristic of three orchid genera.
Most of the species grow in deciduous and located in areas with temperate climate. Bright flowers slippers are a kind of traps, and most of the insects end up inside the lip, and you can get out of there in a way that guarantees pollination.
16. Hoya.
An evergreen vine from the family Persianaceae, wax ivy grows in natural conditions in India, South China, Australia.
The genus Hoya, numbering 200 species, was named after the English gardener Thomas Hoya. Lianas creep in nature, and in forests they grow on tree trunks.
17. Primrose “Zebra Blue”.
Large primrose flowers have yellow center, an attractive cream-colored coloring, permeated with many veins of blue-violet color.
During flowering in May, primrose produces many inflorescences that emit a pleasant aroma.
This Flora specimen is herbaceous plant, belonging to the Kolokolchikov family. A plant with small, broadly lanceolate flowers blue color. There are 300 varieties of bells in the world (100 of them in Russia), and they grow in places with a temperate climate: in the Caucasus, Europe, Siberia, Asia, America.
The plant grows in the forest, near rocks, in wastelands. Peach bell - rare plant related to decorative types. This excellent honey plant, listed in the Red Book.
This flower grows in North America, and in Russia it can often be found in gardens, where it is used to create beautiful flower beds. 22 species of flowers are found in the wild - these are spikes of zygomorphic flowers, colored bright colors blue, yellow, purple shades.
The inflorescences resemble a lion's mouth or even a skull. Appearance of the flower Snapdragon, which has already faded, looks quite scary and resembles a skull.
20. Orchid “Dove” (Peristeria Elata).
This flower has a whimsical, and even unusual shape, resembling a dove hiding in the open petals of an inflorescence. The flower is very capricious and requires special care: high temperature and humidity.
This unusual flower also has a second name - the Holy Spirit Orchid, and on Easter, Christian believers in the tropics decorate churches with these orchids.
21. Hazel grouse (Fritillaria).
This is wonderful perennial flower. Latin name fritillus means vessel or chessboard, where the dice are placed. These names are not given in vain - they are associated with the color and shape of the flower. In Russia, the name was given due to its external resemblance to a bird of the grouse family.
When looking at this unusual flower, it seems that the bird has bowed its head low. The hazel grouse blooms for a short time - about 20 days. Moles, mice, and shrews are afraid of it, so the hazel grouse is simply necessary in flower beds and garden beds.
Japanese camellias are trees or shrubs that reach a height of one and a half to eleven meters. This plant is ideal for a greenhouse or winter garden with cool mode.
The homeland of camellia is Japan and China. It is the official flower symbol of the state of Alabama.
23. Rafflesia (Rafflesia arnoldii).
Rafflesia grows on the islands of Sumatra, Kalimantan, Java, the Philippines, and the Malay Peninsula. Inside its huge bowl, 5 to 7 liters of water can collect. The flower has neither leaves nor stem.
In Asia this is amazing beautiful flower white in color is edible, and the leaves and tendrils of almost all types of trichosanthus are eaten as green vegetables.
There are original curls at the tips of the petals. This flower is also used for medicinal purposes.
25. Common catchment or Aquilegia.
It is a perennial herbaceous plant from the Ranunculaceae family, growing in parks, forests, and meadows. The species' range covers Scandinavia, southern and central Europe.
In Russia, the flower can be found in the European part. Flowers with a diameter of 4-5 cm are brightly colored - purple, blue, pink and, very rarely, white.
26. Great White Heron Orchid (Habenaria Radiata).
This amazingly beautiful flower also has another name - Habenaria.
Its beautiful and large pearly white inflorescence, framed by a wide fringed lip, in appearance resembles a white heron in flight.
This is a member of the legume family. The flower is often cultivated as ornamental plant in countries with tropical and subtropical climates.
The flower grows in tropical and wild forests of the Philippine Islands.
28. Tacca chantrieri.
This perennial plant with a developed vertical rhizome is a species of monocotyledonous flowering plants of the Dioscoreaceae family.
The inflorescences and young leaves are still used to make curry, and the rhizome has found use in Thai medicine.
This snow-white, rarest flower on the planet, growing on the islands of Sri Lanka, resembles a water lily in appearance. The life of this flower is short - it blooms at midnight and fades by dawn.
According to ancient legend, during the short flowering period of the kadupul, a mythical snake-like demigod creature named Nagi descends to the earth. He picks a flower to present it to the Buddha himself on the holy mountain of Sri Pada.