The rarest flowering plants. The rarest flowering plants Rare flowers of the world
Plants that bloom once at the end of life and die off after fruiting, botanists call monocarpic. Of course, these are first of all annuals. Everyone had to see dying asters, marigolds, cereals and many other plants that had fulfilled their purpose and completed their life cycle by autumn.
Biennial plants need two years for this: the first year is the accumulation of reserves, the second is their maximum use for procreation. But even among perennial plants you can find the same strategy - development, single fruiting, death. Only the development and accumulation of reserves take them much more time.
Such a life cycle is characteristic of some types of palm trees, as well as trees under the general name - spatels. One of them, called the “pride of the mountains” by the locals, grows on the mountain slopes of Jamaica, reaching a height of 15 meters. Its thin slender trunk is crowned with beautiful feathery leaves. After about seven, sometimes ten years, a red fan-shaped panicle with a diameter of up to 2.5 meters soars up one and a half meters from the crown of a tree. Seeds ripen six months after the start of flowering. A lot of them are formed, and seedlings appear in abundance around the tree. And the tree itself, which gave life to a new generation, dies.
No less famous perennial monocarpic is agave american, or "agave", which, after ten, twenty or even more years of life in the form of a rosette of hard leaves pressed to the ground, suddenly throws up a six-meter flowering arrow. Sometimes up to a thousand germs of new plants are formed on such an arrow. They fall to the ground and sprout around the mother plant. But the plant itself dies within one to two weeks. True, in some species of agaves, lateral underground shoots remain, which give rise to new rosettes, i.e. in general, an individual (but not one rosette) lives for a long time and blooms repeatedly.
"Agave" in Greek - "stately, prominent." At the same time, Agave is the name of a priestess who, according to one of the ancient Greek myths, refused to believe in the divinity of Dionysus, and an angry god sent madness on her. At a festival dedicated to the god of wine, in a fit of rage, she tore her own son to pieces.
Agave in the countries of Central America is a source of sweet juice, which is called "aqua miel" - "honey water". It is harvested by cutting off the stem at the beginning of flowering, and the juice accumulates in the center of the rosette of leaves. During the season, agave can produce up to a thousand liters of sweet juice. Even in ancient times, the Aztecs, by evaporation, obtained molasses from juice - mimihuatl, or made a heady drink - pulque by fermentation. Now pool agave and exported to many countries, and in the Mediterranean it is specially bred to produce pulque.
Europeans first saw the agave in the 16th century and soon brought it to Spain and then to other countries. Due to its originality and ease of reproduction, it quickly gained popularity in the Mediterranean countries. In 1583, in the Italian city of Pisa, the botanist A. Cesalpino discovered an agave flower.
Nature did not deprive the desert of monocarpics. No grass in the desert grows as tall and mighty as ferula and its relative "ammonia grass" Dorema. Ferules grow so densely that in a good year it is even difficult to pass between them. From a distance, they seem like outlandish trees, and for some time the desert turns into a “forest-steppe”. A powerful two-meter stem - "pipe" does not grow every year. It depends on the amount of water that accumulates in the spring in the large radish-like ferula root. Three conditions are necessary for flowering: a cold winter, a wet spring, and a plant age of at least seven years. Only by this age, the basal rosette of leaves can prepare enough substances to build a "pipe".
If all these conditions are met, then in a short time, from early spring to the beginning of the summer heat, a “trunk” as thick as a log will appear over the sandy desert. From above it is decorated with lemon-yellow balls of inflorescences, and hundreds of thousands of insects flock to the ferula to feast on the nectar of its flowers. As soon as summer comes into its own, the "trunk" of the ferula dries up.
While some plants bloom all year round, delighting the eye with bright colors and unusual shapes, others delay their flowering for a year, or even decades. Therefore, when they bloom, it becomes a real event. You will learn about some rare flowering plants from our today's list:
Smolyovka narrow-leaved (Silene stenophylla)
blooms once a year, in summer
It grows in the arctic tundra of the Far East and in the mountains of northern Japan. The plant can definitely be called one of the rare flowering thanks to one particular case. Last year, a group of Russian scientists were able to regenerate a plant from the placental tissue of seeds found in the Magadan region, near the Kolyma River, at a depth of 38 m under a layer of permafrost. The seeds are 32,000 years old.
American Agave (Agave americana)
blooms every 10 years
Despite the fact that in everyday life the American agave is called the "plant of the century", it blooms once every 10 years. Native to the mountainous deserts of Mexico, the plant is a common ornamental plant grown throughout the world.
Niilakurinji (Strobilanthes kunthiana)
blooms every 12 years
Native to South India, the plant adorns the slopes of the Western Ghats. The Nilgiri mountain range, translated into Russian meaning "blue mountains", got its name from the purple-blue flowers of a plant that blooms once every 12 years. The flowering cycle of Niilakurinji is so clear that the inhabitants of the local Paliyan tribe tracked their age with it.
Puya Chilean (Puya chilensis)
blooms every 15-20 years
This plant, which grows in the Andes, is called by many the killer of sheep. The plant is dangerous for sheep, other animals and birds, which can become entangled in the thorns located on the leaves and slowly starve to death. It is assumed that if the animal dies, then the plant receives nutrients from a nearby decaying corpse.
Queen of the Andes (Puya raimondii)
blooms every 80-150 years
It grows in Bolivia and Peru. During flowering, the plant reaches 12 meters in height, throwing up a spike with seeds, with thousands of green, white and purple flowers growing on it. As soon as the thorn drops the seeds, the plant dies.
Madagascar palm (Tahina spectabilis)
blooms every 30-50 years
Growing to enormous size, the plant dies immediately after fruiting. The palm is the largest of the 170 species of palms growing in Madagascar: the trunk is up to 18 meters in height, the leaves are up to 5 meters in length.
Giant Cardiocrinum, or Giant Lily (Cardiocrinum giganteum)
blooms every 5-7 years
The giant Himalayan lily is the largest of the lily family, growing up to 3.5 meters. Grows in the Himalayas. Discovered in the mid-1800s, the plant is popular with the most patient gardeners who have learned to grow it in a variety of climates.
Melocanna Baccifera
blooms every 44-48 years
Refers to the type of tropical bamboo, grows in East Asia. During flowering, which occurs every 44-48 years, a large number of seeds attached to the flowers attract a huge number of rodents, causing a real invasion.
Corypha umbrella-bearing, or talipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera)
blooms every 50-60 years
The trunk of the tree reaches a height of up to 25 meters, and its diameter is up to 1 meter. It grows in India and Sri Lanka. After flowering, the plant, having used up all its energy to produce golf ball-sized fruits, dies off.
When does the fern bloom?
According to popular belief, the fern blooms only on the night of Ivan Kupala. The person who found the flower will own the treasure or the language of animals will be revealed to him. But this is a legend. In nature, the fern never blooms. But there are some grounds in the legend. Two rare species of fern (grozdovnik, uzovnik) throw out something similar to a brush of flowers, a leaf with sporangia that open in dry weather. Rarely blooming plants are like ferns: they give people delight and the feeling that a treasure has been found.
Still would! There are such rarely blooming ones that it will not be enough to wait for them to bloom in one human life.
puya raimondi
We invite you to get acquainted with such, the most rarely flowering plants:
puya raimondi blooms rarely, once every 150 years. Now Puya raimondi is preserved in Peru, Bolivia. This is a lush ball of narrow leaves with spines, located on a short thick trunk. A three-meter ball rises to a height of more than a human height for more than a hundred years, after which it blooms and dies.
legendary bloom
Udumbara(Youtan Poluo) is a legendary plant. Botanists believe that it blooms once every 3000 years. The flower is 1 mm in diameter. In 2000, it was discovered in Seoul - flowers descended on the Buddha statue. According to the monks, the flowering of this plant is a miracle. Udumbara in Sanskrit means Auspicious flower from the sky. More than 7 thousand people came to see this miracle.
Flower Kadupul grows on the islands of Sri Lanka, and blooms only at midnight. It dies immediately after flowering. The opportunity to see flowering is rare even among local residents.
bamboo blossom
Some types of bamboo bloom less than once every hundred years. After flowering, bamboo dies, because during the flowering period it consumes all energy reserves.
Agave american(Agave americana) is a perennial plant with succulent thick green large leaves. There are about 300 types of them. Agaves bloom extremely rarely. Peduncle with a height of 3 to 10 m, on which up to 10,000 flowers in the smallest inflorescences. Agaves bloom once in a lifetime, then die within a few months.
Palm tree blooms once in a lifetime
Corypha palm umbrella(Corypha umbraculifera) blooms once in a lifetime. It is preparing for flowering 60-70 years.
Titanium aronnik(Amorphophallus titanum) reaches more than one and a half meters in height, grows in the tropical forests of Indonesia, is endangered. In the wild, the plant blooms once every 16 years, flowering lasts two days. The size of the flower reaches 1.5-2 meters and is considered the tallest flower in the world, and also belongs to the species of the most smelly flowers in the world.
Smell of blooming aloe
Middlemist red(Middlemist Red) - the rarest flower on the planet. Grows in a greenhouse in the UK, in a garden in New Zealand and that's it. The last flowering of Middlemist red was observed in 2010 at Chiswick House, London.
Aloe(Aloe arborescens) - a plant that is popularly called the agave, they say, blooms once every hundred years. There is some truth in this: and yet, if you have a ten-year-old agave at home, then you can, by creating certain conditions, contribute to its flowering. But consider if it's worth it. After all, the smell of flowering aloe is very thick and often causes a headache.
Ecology
While many plants prefer to bloom annually, and among them there are those that do not stop blooming all year round, there are trees and shrubs whose flowering is extremely rare sometimes once a century!
To see a rare flowering plant during the flowering period is a great success, sometimes it real event for nerds which happens only once in a lifetime.
sheep eater
It is not in vain that this plant received such a strange name, it really able to kill an animal! Puya chilensis has sharp spikes that a small beast can stumble upon. If he cannot get out of the "shackles", he eventually dies of hunger. There is an assumption that the plant in this way catches prey to feed on its juices.
The plant blooms with beautiful giant flowers, however, you would hardly want to have it in your garden: the plant blooms only once every 15-20 years, except that it would be useful to scare away dogs and pests.
rare flowers
Madagascar palm
Madagascar palm (Tahina spectabilis) can reach incredible sizes, it dies after it bears fruit, and blooms only once in a lifetime - aged..100 years!
But the most interesting thing is that this unique tree was first discovered in 2008. It produced flowers so infrequently that it was not particularly noticed in the circle of palms of other species. This tree has incredibly similar features to Asian palms that grow at a distance of 6 thousand kilometers From him.
Scientists believe that these plants existed in Madagascar at a time when the island had not yet separated from India. 80 million years ago. Today on the island of Madagascar grows no more than 100 these rare palms.
night cactus
night cactus Selenicereus grandiflorus begins to bloom relatively quickly - in just a year However, seeing it bloom is not so easy. North American desert dweller Sonora and Chihuahua, this cactus blooms only at night.
Despite the attractive white and yellow flowers, this cactus looks very intimidating: it has tentacle-like stems that entangle everything that is nearby. Moreover, the plant can reach a height about 12 meters.
Smolyovka narrow-leaved - a plant of the Ice Age
Smolevka narrow-leaved (Silene stenophylla) - a plant that blooms not so rarely, but one of them bloomed after 30 thousand years! That is how long its seeds have lain in permafrost since the Ice Age.
Biologists discovered squirrel burrow fossils with plant seeds and after analysis concluded that they 31,800 years. With the help of growth hormones, it was possible to revive the seeds and make them germinate.
An Ice Age plant turned out to be incredibly similar to the modern look Silenestenophylla with small differences in seeds, roots and buds.
Scientists have discovered hundreds of thousands of well-preserved seeds and nuts in a hole, they long to see what other riches history holds.
The rarest flowers
mountain strobilant
Strobilant kind Strobilanthes kunthiana blooms with beautiful purple-blue flowers that cover the plant completely. The plant serves decoration of the slopes of the mountains Western Ghats in southern India, and the mountain range Nilgiri translated means "Blue Mountains", it got its name precisely because of these plants.
Unfortunately, the flowering of this strobilant is quite rare, it blooms once every 12 years. Flowering usually happens with a certain frequency, so the local tribes used it in order to watch your age.
Today Strobilanthes kunthiana is endangered due to construction in these areas.
Agave american
American agave (Agave americana) sometimes called "centennial plant", and in order to bloom, it needs at least 10 years. This plant is often used as a decoration for gardens and parks, so it can be found almost all over the world. American agave is also used for food, medicines and drinks are made from it.
Agave can be easily confused with aloe because their appearance is very similar. However, when in bloom, agave looks completely different from aloe or any other succulent. The plant gives a long arrow up to 8 meters in height, on which there are branches with yellow inflorescences.
Rare flowers of the world
Queen of the Andes
species plant Puya raimondii called "Queen of the Andes" because it often stands out from the background of other plants of these places with its size. During the flowering period that comes after 80-150 years of growth, it reaches about 12 meters.
This plant manages to reach such an unprecedented height in conditions of sufficient harsh climate at very high altitudes in the mountains where other plants simply cannot survive.
During flowering, the Queen of the Andes grows long stem with seeds, which blooms thousands of white, green and purple flowers. As soon as a plant drops millions of seeds, it dies.
For various reasons, including fires, populations of these plants have declined significantly in recent years in Peru and Bolivia.
blooming bamboo
Melocanna baciffera- a variety of bamboo, which is widely used in India for various purposes. This plant blooms once every 44-48 years, and locals would like even longer intervals between blooms.
After flowering, large fruits appear, which contain a large number of seeds that attract rodents. rat infestation- a real disaster, they destroy bamboo and cereal crops, spread diseases, cause hunger.
Talipot palm
Talipot palm- another giant plant compared to other types of palms, which reaches a height about 25 meters and has a barrel diameter up to 1 meter. The branched inflorescences of these trees have a height 6-8 meters. These are the largest inflorescences known to science.
To see the flowering of this tree, you need to arm yourself with considerable patience: sometimes you have to wait 30 or even 80 years! The plant blooms just before its death. It gives all its energy to hundreds of thousands of golden round fruits that the tree sheds just before its death.
Talipot palm - national tree of sri lanka, it is grown for a wide range of goods, including building materials, thatched roofs, and buttons made from seeds.
rare beautiful flowers
giant lily
Giant lily (Cardiocrinum giganteum)- an amazing plant that can be found in the Himalayas. For most of its life, it exists as a modest bush with shiny leaves, but through 5-7 years releases a stem about 3 meters in height with delicate flowers in the form of a pipe.
This plant is the largest of the lilies and grows at high altitudes from northern India to Japan. Researchers first discovered it mid 19th century in the Himalayas, after which the plant began to grow in other places.
While many plants bloom profusely throughout the season, others wait a long time before showing their bloom. Some do not bloom for many years and even centuries, and throw out the color only once in a lifetime.
10. Chilean Puya (Puya chilensis).
This giant plant is said to be a sheep killer. It releases a huge 3-meter arrow with a likeness of a flower at the end. Puya traps animals, and when they die, sucks the nutrients out of them. Some believe that this plant developed this habit in order to use rotting corpses for nutrition. This unusual flower can serve as a great way to keep dogs off your lawn. If you decide to plant it, then know that it grows slowly and blooms only 1 time in 15-20 years.
9. Madagascar palm (Tahina spectabilis).
This plant reaches a huge size, dies after the appearance of fruits and blooms only once, after 100 years. What makes this tree especially unique is that it was only found in 2008. Due to the fact that it blooms extremely rarely, no one probably noticed that it was different from other palm trees. The tree has remarkably similar characteristics to palms found in Asia, leading some scientists to believe that these palms existed in Madagascar before it broke away from India 80 million years ago.
While thousands of this palm's seeds have been collected and planted in botanical gardens, less than 100 of these plants grow in Madagascar.
8. Cereus blooming at night (Selenicereus grandiflorus).
Compared to other plants that are noted in our article, its flowering stage occurs quite quickly, after only one year after planting. But to see this representative of the cactus family blooming is quite difficult. It grows predominantly in the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts and blooms only at night.
Despite their attractive white and yellow flowers, these cacti have a rather intimidating appearance due to their tentacle-like long stems that wrap around everything nearby. And given that it can grow up to 12 meters (39 feet) long, there probably won't be many objects that will go unnoticed by it.
7. Narrow-leaved lychnis (Silene stenophylla).
The presence of angustifolia on this list may seem strange at first, because it blooms annually, usually throughout the summer. However, before the period of its flowering comes, more than 30 years must pass.
So what's the problem? The plant was found as a seed on Siberian permafrost from the Ice Age. Biologists have discovered the seed of this plant in a petrified squirrel hole. The seed was revived with the help of growth hormone. A plant growing during the Ice Age is remarkably similar to its modern relative. There are only minor differences in seeds, roots and buds.
Scientists have found hundreds of thousands of other well-preserved seeds and nuts in the burrow and are looking forward to seeing how they will grow in more temperate climates. These amazing finds are a constant reminder of climate change on Earth.
6. Kurinji plant.
When the kurinji bush blooms, it throws out many purple and blue flowers.
It adorns the mountains of southern India, and the sight is so spectacular that the mountains of the Nilgiri range (which translates as "blue mountains") were named after these beautiful flowers. Unfortunately, kurinji only blooms once every 12 years. However, their flowering period is so precise that it is said that local ancient tribes used the plant to keep track of their age.
Unfortunately, kurinji is endangered, although some organizations are working to protect this unique plant.
5. American agave (Agave americana).
Although this plant is sometimes called "agave" agave actually blooms once every about 10 years. This common ornamental plant is grown all over the world, and chances are you've seen it grow in a garden or in someone's yard. In fact, you must have mistaken it for aloe, because, except when agave blooms, these two plants are very similar. However, when it blooms, you will not confuse it with any other plant. It releases a tall, eight-meter arrow with yellow flowers.
In addition to being a beautiful plant, agave is also grown for later consumption and juice, and as an antiseptic.
4. Queen of the Andes (Puya raimondii).
This plant always outshines other vegetation growing in the area, but when it finally blooms (after 80-150 years), it throws out a flower up to 12 m (39 ft) tall and really looks like something extraordinary. It is amazing that the queen of the Andes reaches such a length, in regions with harsh conditions and at very high altitudes, where it is very difficult for other plants to survive.
When it blooms, it shoots an arrow with numerous white, green and purple flowers. After the Queen of the Andes drops millions of her seeds, the plant dies.
Due to grazing, burning and other factors, the population of this plant is declining throughout Peru and Bolivia.
3. Melocanna baciffera.
This is a type of bamboo that can be found throughout India. It blooms every 44 to 48 years and no doubt the locals want it to bloom even longer. Why are they so afraid of the flowering of this plant? Large fruits are attached to the flowers of this bamboo, containing a large number of seeds that attract rodents. Thus, a magnificent sight is the cause of the invasion of black rats. In addition to the fact that rats are carriers of various diseases, they are the cause of another serious problem - hunger.
2. Talipot palm.
This is another type of giant palm that reaches 25 meters in height and has a one meter trunk. In addition, its branched inflorescence reaches a size of 6 by 8 meters. You need to be patient to see this tree in bloom, because. they throw out color only 1 time in 30 - 80 years. However, seeing this huge plant blooming, one becomes sad, because. which means it will die soon. It spends all of its energy reserves growing golf ball-sized fruits that rapidly fall off before the plant dies.
The talipot palm is the national tree of Sri Lanka. Various goods are made from it, wood and straw are obtained.
1. Giant Himalayan lily Cardiocrinum giganteum).
The Himalayas seem to be a magical place where unique plants grow and the fact that a giant lily grows here once again confirms this fact. For most of its life, this plant is a modest tuft with glossy leaves, but after 5-7 years it sprouts up to three meters (9.8 feet) in length and produces funnel-shaped flowers with a delicate, bewitching fragrance.
The plant is the largest of all lily species and tends to grow at altitudes ranging from Northern India to Japan. Researchers discovered this flower in the mid-1800s, and since then, diligent and patient gardeners have been successfully growing it in a variety of climates.