The following article contains world records which have been awarded to plants, for both individual plants as well as overall records held by a species.
With a flower growing up to 1.5 m (5 ft) in diameter, 3–4 m (10–13 ft) in perimeter and 10–12 kg (22–26 lb) in weight, Rafflesia arnoldii is the world's current largest individual flower. They grow in the forests of Sumatra and Borneo islands of Indonesia. With no roots, stems, leaves or chlorophyll, they are parasitic to many species of wild East Indian grapes (Tetrastigma spp) on the roots and stems of their vine. This made Rafflesia very hard to place in scientific taxonomy compared to other plant species. DNA analyses have shown that they belong to the family Euphorbiaceae (sensu lato) but they are usually placed in a family of their own (Rafflesiaceae),.[ verification needed ] The most famous plant species in this family are Spurges, Cassava, and rubber tree. [1] The very existence of the plant can only become visible when its plump buds emerge from the host through the bark on parts of the host tree, out of the ground, when it ripens, and excretes a fleshy scent of corpse to attract pollinators, which are carrion-flies. [2]
The world's longest flower is the Pelican Flower (Aristolochia grandiflora) of the Dutchman's Pipe Family (Aristolochiaceae). It is widespread in southern Mexico, Central America and the West Indies. The flower, a greatly expanded calyx, is up to twenty inches (51 centimeters) in width with a bulbous, globular shape, with one sepal extending up to ten feet (three meters), [3] or possibly even to 13 feet (four meters) in length. [4] while being only one-half inch (one centimeter) in width. It is also by a wide margin the largest single sepal known.
Balanophora involucrata of the Himalayas has a capitate inflorescence with myriads of tiny flowers each measuring only 1/1,000th of an inch (25 micrometers) in width. [5] The capitulum can contain as many as ten million (10,000,000) florets. [6] Each floret weighs approximately seven micrograms (about 4,000,000 to the ounce). [7]
A complete flower is one having all four of the basic organs; sepals, petals, stamens and carpels. Parishes Wild Buckwheat (Eriogonum parishii) of the Buckwheat Family (Polygonaceae) native to Upper and Baja California. This pink, trimerous flower has 3 sepals, 3 petals, 3 stamens and a pistil of three carpels, yet it measures only 1/40th of an inch (0.6 millimeter) in length. [8]
Corypha umbraculifera ,also known as the " talipot palm", is the largest branched inflorescence plant in the world. it is native to eastern and southern India and Sri Lanka. This plant lives up to 60 years and flowers only once in its lifetime.
Titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum), also known as the "corpse flower", is a flowering plant with the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world. The titan arum's inflorescence is not as large as that of the talipot palm, Corypha umbraculifera, but the inflorescence of the talipot palm is branched rather than unbranched. It is endemic to Sumatra, Java and Bali, all in Indonesia. The titan arum is described as a carrion flower, and is also known as the corpse flower or corpse plant (Indonesian: bunga bangkai: bunga means flower, while bangkai can be translated as corpse, cadaver, or carrion). For the same reason, the title "corpse flower" is also sometimes attributed to the genus Rafflesia.
The current world record holder for heaviest fruit is a pumpkin weighing 2749 pounds (1.247 tonnes), which was grown by Travis Gienger. [9] [10]
The fruit of species in the genus of Wolffia are the smallest and lightest fruit in the world. Two of the smallest species of Wolffia in the world, the Australian Wolffia angusta , and the Asian/African Wolffia globosa , are so small that it is difficult to distinguish between the size of their fruits. The fruit of W. angusta is 0.30 mm long (1/80th of an inch) and weighs about 70 micrograms (1/400,000 of an ounce). Even though it is the smallest fruit in the world, it is one of the largest fruits relative to the size of the parent plant. The common size of the parent plant of the two example species of Wolffia is less than one millimetre in length (less than 1/25th of an inch). This means the small ripe fruit of the genus takes up a third or more of the length of the parent plant. [11]
Rafflesia, or stinking corpse lily, is a genus of parasitic flowering plants in the family Rafflesiaceae. The species have enormous flowers, the buds rising from the ground or directly from the lower stems of their host plants; one species has the largest flower in the world. Plants of the World Online lists up to 41 species from this genus, all of them are found throughout Southeast Asia.
The Araceae are a family of monocotyledonous flowering plants in which flowers are borne on a type of inflorescence called a spadix. The spadix is usually accompanied by, and sometimes partially enclosed in, a spathe. Also known as the arum family, members are often colloquially known as aroids. This family of 114 genera and about 3,750 known species is most diverse in the New World tropics, although also distributed in the Old World tropics and northern temperate regions.
Amorphophallus is a large genus of some 200 tropical and subtropical tuberous herbaceous plants from the Arum family (Araceae), native to Asia, Africa, Australia and various oceanic islands. A few species are edible as "famine foods" after careful preparation to remove irritating chemicals. The genus includes the Titan arum of Indonesia, which has the largest inflorescence of any plant in the genus, and is also known as the 'corpse flower' for the pungent odour it produces during its flowering period, which can take up to seven years of growth before it occurs.
A sepal is a part of the flower of angiosperms. Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom.
Corpse flower can refer to:
Rafflesia arnoldii, the corpse flower, or giant padma, is a species of flowering plant in the parasitic genus Rafflesia. It is noted for producing the largest individual flower on Earth. It has a strong and unpleasant odor of decaying flesh. It is native to the rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo. Although there are some plants with larger flowering organs like the titan arum and talipot palm, those are technically clusters of many flowers.
Carrion flowers, also known as corpse flowers or stinking flowers, are mimetic flowers that emit an odor that smells like rotting flesh. Apart from the scent, carrion flowers often display additional characteristics that contribute to the mimesis of a decaying corpse. These include their specific coloration, the presence of setae and orifice-like flower architecture. Carrion flowers attract mostly scavenging flies and beetles as pollinators. Some species may trap the insects temporarily to ensure the gathering and transfer of pollen.
Arum is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araceae, native to Europe, northern Africa, and western and central Asia, with the highest species diversity in the Mediterranean region. Frequently called arum lilies, they are not closely related to the true lilies Lilium. Plants in closely related Zantedeschia are also called "arum lilies".
Wolffia is a genus of aquatic plants with a cosmopolitan distribution. They include the smallest flowering plants on Earth. Commonly called watermeal or duckweed, these aquatic plants resemble specks of cornmeal floating on the water. They often float together in pairs or form floating mats with related plants, such as Lemna and Spirodela species.
The Rafflesiaceae are a family of rare parasitic plants comprising 36 species in 3 genera found in the tropical forests of east and southeast Asia, including Rafflesia arnoldii, which has the largest flowers of all plants. The plants are endoparasites of vines in the genus Tetrastigma (Vitaceae) and lack stems, leaves, roots, and any photosynthetic tissue. They rely entirely on their host plants for both water and nutrients, and only then emerge as flowers from the roots or lower stems of the host plants.
Corypha umbraculifera, the talipot palm, is a species of palm native to eastern and southern India and Sri Lanka. It is also grown in Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Mauritius and the Andaman Islands. It is one of the five accepted species in the genus Corypha. It is a flowering plant with the largest inflorescence in the world. It lives up to 60 years before bearing flowers and fruits. It dies shortly after.
The flora consists of many unique varieties of tropical plants. Blessed with a tropical climate and roughly 17,000 islands, Indonesia is the nation with the second highest biodiversity in the world. The flora of Indonesia reflects an intermingling of Asian, Australian and unique, Indonesian lineages. This is due to the geography of Indonesia, located between the aforementioned continents. The archipelago consists of a variety of regions, from the tropical rain forests of the northern lowlands and the seasonal forests of the southern lowlands through the hill and mountain vegetation, to subalpine shrub vegetation. With the second longest coastline in the world, Indonesia also has many swamps and other varieties of coastal vegetation. Combined, these all give rise to a huge floral biodiversity. There are about 28,000 species of flowering plants documented in Indonesia, including 2500 orchids, 122 species of bamboo, over 350 species of rattan and 400 species of Dipterocarpus, including ebony, sandalwood and teakwood. Indonesia is also home to some unusual species of carnivorous plants. One exceptional species is known as Rafflesia arnoldi, named after Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles and Dr. Thomas Arnold, who discovered the flower in the depths of Bengkulu, southwest Sumatra. This parasitic plant has the largest flower of any plant, does not produce leaves and grows only on one species of liana on the rainforest floor. Another unusual plant is Amorphophallus titanum from Sumatra. Numerous species of insect trapping pitcher plants can also be found in Borneo, Sumatra, and other islands of the Indonesian archipelago. There are a staggering 6000 traditional medicinal plants used as Jamu.,
Rafflesia patma is a parasitic plant species of the genus Rafflesia. It is only known to grow on the Indonesian island of Java, although it may have occurred on Sumatra in the past. Like other species in its genus, this plant has no leaves, stems, roots or chlorophyll, instead stealing all its nutrition from Tetrastigma lanceolaurium, a rainforest liana.
The flora of Borneo include 15 species of dicot tree, 37 species of non-tree dicot and 49 species of monocot endemic to the rich forest of Brunei Darussalam. Borneo is also home to the world's largest flower, the "corpse flower", which can reach nearly 3 feet in diameter and up to 15 pounds (6.8 kg) in weight. Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is divided between three countries: Brunei in the north, the Malaysian constituent states of Sarawak and Sabah, and the 5 Kalimantan provinces of Indonesia.
Amorphophallus titanum, the titan arum, is a flowering plant in the family Araceae. It has the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world. The inflorescence of the talipot palm, Corypha umbraculifera, is larger, but it is branched rather than unbranched. A. titanum is endemic to rainforests on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
Rafflesia consueloae is a parasitic plant species of the genus Rafflesia endemic to the island of Luzon in the Philippines. It is the smallest species of the genus Rafflesia.