Fun Facts about Plants
There are approximately 250,000 different types of flowering plants in the world.
Wheat is the world's most widely cultivated plant. It is grown on every continent except Antarctica.
One ragweed plant can release as many as one billion grains of pollen.
Sunflowers have long been used to control weeds in cultivated fields. They produce a natural toxin from their roots that keeps weeds from germinating.
There are almost 600 species of carnivorous plants. They capture and kill prey like small insects and then digest and absorb the nutrients. Most carnivorous plants capture insects, but some species can
capture frogs, birds, and even small rodents!
The corn cob (ear) is actually part of the corn plant's flower. There are about 600 kernels on each ear of corn.
Pioneers planted 4 corn kernels for every plant they hoped to harvest: "1 for the maggot, 1 for the crow, 1 for the cutworm, and 1 to grow".
In a full grown rye plant, the total length of the roots may reach 613 kilometers (380 miles).
Batonophobia is the fear of plants.
The tallest tree in the world is the coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), which is recorded at 117m (385ft). This specimen can be found in Humboldt Redwoods State Park in California.
The oldest recorded living tree is a bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) growing on Wheeler Peak in east Nevada. It is believed to be more than 4600 years old.
The world's tallest grass, which has sometimes grown to heights of more than 130 feet, is bamboo.
The fastest growing plant is the giant timber bamboo from China (Bambusa oldhamii). It can grow as much as 1.21 m (4 ft.) in a day, reaching its adult height of up to 18.3 m (60 ft) in just two months.
The world's largest flower is Rafflesia spp., which can attain a diameter of 91cm (3ft) and a weight of 7kg (15lb). It is commonly known as the stinking corpse lily due to its smell of rotting carcasses.
The foul smell attracts flies, which pollinate the flower.
Duckweeds of the family Lemnaceae are the smallest flowering plants. Wolffia arrhiza is the smallest, with a plant body measuring 0.5-1.2mm (0.01-0.04in)
The world's biggest seed is the coco-de-mer nut, which can weigh up to 20kg (45lb).
The plant that takes the longest time to flower is the rare Bolivian herb Puya raimondii. The flowers (see below) emerge after the plant is about 150 years old, and the plant then dies.
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