What is the name of the largest flower in the world. The most huge and unusual flowers What is the largest flower in the world name
Terribly beautiful: the largest flowers in the world
When it comes to the largest flowers in the world, our imagination imagines something of incredible beauty with a divine aroma. Unfortunately, the reality is very different from our ideas. Giant flowers are beautiful, unusual, and definitely worth attention in their own way. 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, as it spends a large amount of 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, which reach 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 develops a 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!
One of the largest flowers in the world is called Rafflesia, it also has a less pleasant, but telling name - corpse lily. Whether it’s nature’s mockery, the largest flowers are deprived of the gift of fragrant fragrance to the delight of people. On the contrary, a terrible stench of rotting meat emanates from it. If there are gardens in hell, then it is rafflesia that blooms in them. Although, as you can see in the photo, the rafflesia flower is not without its attractiveness.
5 powerful bright petals with white specks look impressive. Dung flies probably think so too, although they certainly consider the smell to be the main advantage. Flies land on a flower studded with small thorns and, floundering, fall into the trap of the ring part. Reluctantly, they end up at the very stamens, where sticky pollen settles on their backs. The flies get out and pollinate other flowers.
Rafflesia does not have a normal root system and it is difficult for it to obtain the substances necessary for growth from the soil. A Rafflesia seed, who would have thought, is the size of a poppy seed. In some mysterious way, it penetrates under the bark on damaged stems or roots of vines, releases plant fibers that are woven into the structure of the vine, and feeds at the expense of its neighbor. This does not harm Liana. Rafflesia blooms for only 3-4 days.
The record holder at number two is a flower with the strange name “Amorphophallus titanica”. And this is truly a titan among flowers. The height of amorphophallus under good conditions reaches 3 meters, which is higher than human height. Plant width 1 meter. The flower looks quite original.
The biggest roses
And now about the pleasant things, about flowers with the most delicate aroma. Among roses there are also record holders for size. The largest roses are considered to be those whose buds reach 13-14 cm. Varieties of large roses include “Helen Robinson”, “Belvedere”, “Diamonds Forever” and some others.
Success largely depends on the skill of the gardener, because ordinary roses are beautiful, but large varieties require doubly attention. For how beautiful and majestic a bouquet of such roses is.
The largest bouquet of flowers
Unfortunately, the number of roses in the largest bouquet in the world is not known. But it was fifteen meters high, which ensured that in 2005 it was included in the Guinness Book of Records. The record holder was placed on the Qatar embankment in honor of the wedding of a local prince. Photos of the largest bouquet of flowers have not been preserved.
The tree with the biggest flowers
The inflorescence of Puya Raymonda, a rare and amazing plant, can compete in size with both Rafflesia and Amorphophallus. 11 thousand small flowers make up an inflorescence reaching a height of 13 meters. The girth of the tree with the largest flowers is about 2-3 meters.
Puya Raymonda is found only in Peru and Bolivia, and it blooms only once in its life - when it reaches the age mark of 50-80 years. This is such late beauty.
Record-breaking baby among flowers
And for comparison, we present you with a photo of the smallest flower in the world.
Baby Wolffia is smaller than the eye of a needle. Roots and leaves are missing. Wolfia grows on the surface of reservoirs. It blooms extremely rarely, and even among botanists, finding it in nature is considered an event.
...what is the largest flower in the world?
It's hard to believe that the world's largest flower is a plant taller than a man, smelling like a rotting dead animal, and having the dark red color of a rotting body. But the Indonesian Amorphophallus Titanum or “corpse flower”, as the locals call it, is a reality, a phenomenon pollinated in natural conditions by insects looking for carrion.
These plants not only live in the wild, but many have bloomed in the last few years in botanical gardens around the world. The last one bloomed in public for the first time in Washington, causing much fanfare. Public interest in the life of a flower is so high that the Botanical Garden has established hotline with records of updated information about the progress of the flower.
A mature “corpse” flower emerges from a huge tuber stored underground once every three years. The plant puts a lot of effort into producing this giant, colorful inflorescence. When young, the plant produces a single leaf, which can reach the size and appearance of a small tree with many leaves. However, in preparation for several days of flowering, the plant must shed its leaf and remain dormant for over 4 months to store energy.
An adult eight-year-old flower is usually 1.82 m tall. However, in May 2003, an inflorescence appeared in Bonn that reached a height of 2.74 m. The previous record was set in 1932, when a flower in Holland reached 2.67 m in height.
According to scientists, this giant flower also changes the ambient temperature. The experiment was carried out at night. From 20 degrees the temperature in the room rose to 32°C. The temperature increased from 23:00 until 3–4 am, when the temperature dropped again to 20 degrees.
Italian botanists first recorded data on a plant of this class in 1878. The first such flower grown in captivity was cultivated at England's Royal Botanic Gardens in 1889, causing such a stir in the community that police were required to control the crowds.
IN last years The rainforests of Sumatra have been damaged by civilization and pollution, and it is unknown how many flowers of this species have died. Indonesian experts are confident that flowers are in danger. Only one fact is reassuring: such a huge interest in this unusual plant forces scientists to grow it under artificial conditions.
By the way, the weight of a flower can reach 75 kg.
In the Bogor Botanical Garden, located near the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta, founded by the Dutch colonialists, the most big flower in the world - Amorphophallus titanium. Translating its name from learned Latin so that it can be pronounced in polite society is not easy. A fairly approximate translation would be: “Shapeless titanic phallus.” However, to be very precise, our hero is the largest inflorescence in the world, and not a flower. Among flowers, the palm belongs to the giant Rafflesia arnoldi, reaching a meter in diameter, whose homeland is located in the same place as amorphophallus - in the jungles of the western part of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, which is one of the world record holders for biological diversity. However, rafflesia, although large, is still it is significantly inferior in size to amorphophallus, sometimes growing up to three and a half meters in height. But the difference between an inflorescence and a flower can only be understood by a professional botanist.
Arnold's Rafflesia (Rafflesia arnoldii)
The flower received its name in honor of the British doctor and naturalist Joseph Arnold, who in the 19th century was in Sumatra on the expedition of Sir Raffles Stamford. But the plant itself was not discovered by Joseph, but by a local guide who worked in the forests of the southwestern part of the island along with the doctor.
You can meet Rafflesia in tropical rainforests on one of the two islands. It lacks a stem, or rather, it is almost not expressed. In addition, here you will not find roots and leaves that receive nutrients from the earth to nourish the body of its owner. The flowers themselves have a red-brown hue, they are very large, and they emit such a smell that you can recognize someone approaching them from several hundred meters away - the aroma is reminiscent of the smell of rotting meat. The latter, by the way, attracts the main pollinators - flies. Unfortunately, flowering lasts only a few days, and the ripening of the bud lasts at least two to three months.
The flower has fruits that are shaped like berries, and inside them are seeds. But how to distribute them throughout the territory? It turns out that large animals do this, for example, elephants, which carry crushed berries on their feet. However, small insects also play a role in the distribution of seeds - they carry them on themselves (for example, like ants).
Amorphophallus titanum
Next on our list is Amorphophallus titanica, a large tropical plant with one of the largest inflorescences in the world. This species was first discovered in West Sumatra in 1878 by an Italian traveler. For a long time, this flower grew exclusively in the forests of the island of Sumatra, but now it can often be found in botanical gardens around the world, where it has taken root well. But in its homeland it is very difficult to find, since people have almost completely exterminated the plant.
The flower is very unusual. On the surface there is a short and at the same time thick stem, at the base of which we see a huge leaf, the height of which can reach 3 m and the width - up to 1 m.
The flowering of this plant lasts only two days a year and travelers come to see this spectacle. You just need to remember to take a gas mask with you, as the aroma of the flower is reminiscent of a mixture of rotten fish and rotten eggs.
Stapelia
Another unusual flower is Stapelia, native to southern and southwestern Africa. The height of Stapelia is small - up to 60 centimeters, with its appearance the plant is very reminiscent of a cactus, including due to the teeth. On the side you can see flowers - they differ in size, for example, the diameter of a flower can reach 30, or even 40 cm, which, you see, is quite a lot. In its shape it resembles a five-pointed star.
As in the other cases we described above, Stapelia has the aroma of rotting meat, although it looks very aesthetically pleasing in appearance. The most common flies that fly to the smell of rot are used as pollinating insects.
No matter how surprising it may sound, the flower is very common in indoor culture, because it is relatively easy to maintain. It is necessary to keep the plant in bright light, but do not forget that too bright sun can cause burns to it. In summer, watering should be done moderately; in winter, this should be done extremely rarely. In general, we have before us a fairly unpretentious plant, which is great for those who only yesterday began to study floriculture.
Lysichiton americanum
Lysichiton americana refers to perennial species flowering plants of the Araceae family. This plant grows exclusively in humid areas of the western Pacific coast of North America: in swamps, along rivers, in wet forests, and so on.
The length of the rhizome is about 30 cm, but the leaves of the largest plants are simply amazing in their size - their length can reach one and a half meters, and their width can be up to 80 cm! The flowers are bright yellow, somewhat reminiscent of tulips, and grow up to 40 cm tall.
Lysichiton americana produces heat, thanks to which the snow in the neighborhood quickly melts and allows the plant to survive even in difficult conditions.
Aristolochia (Kirkazon, Aristolochia)
This is a large genus of perennial herbs from the Kirkazonaceae family, the number of species of which is more than 300 species. They grow most often in the tropical zone.
Kirkazons often have climbing shoots or vines, so they are often grown as ornamental plant in greenhouses or, say, parks. Some of the species have huge flowers, the diameter of which exceeds 30 cm. Other species may have leaves of the same size. Several types are used in medicine. Thus, Kirkazon serpentine is often used as a remedy for snake bites in North America. However, you can resort to using the plant only after prior consultation with your doctor.
Puya Raymondii
Finally, I would like to talk about a plant that I dare not call a flower. Nevertheless, it is very interesting and we simply could not ignore it.
So, Puya Raymonda is known as the plant with the largest inflorescence in the world, and also as one of the most ancient plants that has ever grown on our planet.
Puya Raymonda belongs to the bromeliad family, and was discovered only in 1830 by a French traveler. True, it was named in honor of the Italian scientist who spent his entire adult life researching this plant.
The inflorescence is simply huge - it is several times larger than that of its closest competitor, which is Amorphophallus titanica, described just above. The inflorescence consists of 11 thousand tiny flowers. By the way, the height of Raymond's puya is 13 meters, and the diameter can reach 2 meters.
If earlier the number of plants amounted to hundreds of units, today this figure has increased several times thanks to the governments of Peru and Bolivia, in whose territory it grows.
