botanic superlatives

Articles (36) | Photos (0) | Answers (0)

Articles & Photos

Prince William and Kate's Honeymoon Souvenir: A Giant Seed

One of our most popular botanic superlative columns was about the seed of the coco-de-mer (The Largest Seed), which, according to the British tabloids, was a honeymoon souvenir for Prince William and his new bride, Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, from their time in the Seychelles Islands. After all, who doesn't want a giant, bottom-like nut for their new house?

Botanic Notables: The Smallest Orchid

By Anna Laurent

The discovery of the world's smallest orchid is, fittingly, the story of an intrepid explorer, an enigmatic flower, and the curious luck that brought them together. All but transparent, the flower's petals are one-cell thick, and its blossom is just 2.1 mm wide from tip to tip.

Botanic Notables: The Mother of Thousands

By Anna Laurent

Keeping a close eye on her developing progeny, this Kalanchoe succulent, nicknamed "the mother-of-thousands" is as prolific as it is maternal—hundreds of tiny plants actually grow on the mother's arms. When released, each plantlet falls to the ground to take root on its own—now the next "mother" in the lineage, never too far from home.

Botanic Superlatives: The Desert's Only Self-Watering Plant

By Anna Laurent

Among the valleys and foothills in Israel's Negev desert is a plant that can water itself, in a manner of speaking. The desert rhubarb (Rheum palaestinum) is the only known desert-dwelling species to have evolved a self-irrigating mechanism.

Botanic Superlatives: The First Nursery Catalog

By Anna Laurent

The first nursery catalog—in the 17th century—was a artistic masterpiece and a marketing strategy. It sold, of course, tulip bulbs, and helped contribute to the economic bubble of tulip mania.

Botanic Superlatives: The Loneliest Tree

By Anna Laurent

The loneliest tree in the world was a solitary acacia in a remote land. It was the only tree in a 400 kilometer radius. Standing alone in the vast Saharan expanse, l'Arbre du Ténéré (the Tree of Ténéré), was modest in size—three meters tall—but its mere survival was both remarkable, and invaluable to desert travelers.

Botanic Superlatives: The Blackest Flower

By Anna Laurent

Petunia is the new black! Our columnist Anna Laurent investigates the "Black Velvet" petunia and its specially bred dark hues. Adored by designers and admired by breeders, the flower is the most recent addition to a trend for black-flowered plants.

Botanic Superlatives: The Largest Baobab Tree

By Anna Laurent

There's a bar carved inside the world's largest baobab tree, in the Limpopo province of Modjadjiskloof, South Africa. With room for 50 patrons to sit and have a drink, one might say that what happens in the baobab, stays in the baobab.

Botanic Superlatives: The Most Imitated Plant

By Anna Laurent

As anyone who's emerged from a forest stroll with a sleeve covered in burdock burrs will agree, the wonderful story of Velcro's genesis is too familiar to be apocryphal.