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botanic notables

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Botanic Notables: The Palm That Flowers Itself to Death

In 2008, a rare and unusual palm was discovered in remote Madagascar. Hailed as the most important new species of its kind, the tree made headline news—not for its notable survival, but for its spectacular demise. If the Tahina spectabilis had an epitaph, it would read "The gigantic palm that flowered itself to death."

Botanic Superlatives: The Fastest Flower

By Anna Laurent

Faster than a speeding bullet! The Bunchberry dogwood is able to launch pollen into the air in a third of the time it takes a bullet to leave a rifle barrel, making the plant (Cornus canadensis) a superlative example of botanic ballistics, engineering, and reproductive design.

Botanic Superlatives: The Flower with the Most Expensive Perfume

By Anna Laurent

The bewitching fragrance of jasmine vines is a difficult-to-bottle scent. Capturing jasmine's essence is considered a superlative feat of aromatic alchemy, which is why jasmine is an ingredient in some of the world's most expensive perfumes.

Botanic Superlatives: The Largest Forest of One

By Anna Laurent

An aspen forest in Utah could be awarded 47,000 blue ribbons that read "World's Largest Tree." That's the number of discrete tree stems that constitute Pando (Latin for "I spread"), a colony of genetically identical aspens that converge underground in a single sprawling root system. Also known as The Trembling Giant, the trees' fluttering leaves are a soft soundtrack in the forest.

Botanic Superlatives: The Oldest Tree

By Anna Laurent

The world's oldest tree is Methuselah, a 4,741-year-old bristlecone pine in California's White Mountains.

Botanic Superlatives: The Largest Seed

By Anna Laurent

The mythologized coco-de-mer (Lodoicea maldivica) tree is a Seychelles Island native palm, and yields the largest seeds (weighing up to 30 kg) in the plant kingdom. The seeds also happen to resemble a woman's curves.