The plant world on the planet appeared long before living organisms began to inhabit it. Representatives of the flora surround us in Everyday life: they delight with rich greenery, give flowers, give away their delicious and useful fruits, and also provide material for building houses, furniture, etc. There is nothing more familiar than a flower on the windowsill in an apartment or house. But the kingdom of flora is able to delight us with its exotic representatives, which have amazing properties, and sometimes even resemble animals. The top 10 contains amazing plants that are recognized as the most original and unusual in flora.

This tree is one of the most ancient on earth. Ginkgo witnessed the appearance of the first ancestors of mammals on the planet at a time when it already firmly dominated the earth. Its leaves, judging by the excavations and found remains from the Mesozoic era, covered the ground with a continuous carpet, which became thicker every year.

Despite the fact that ginkgo biloba looks like a normal one deciduous tree, it is coniferous. The fact is that its needles are firmly fused together and form a visible semblance of a leaf plate, which long time misled scientists.

Ginkgo is also unique because it can have an amazing effect on the human brain: it promotes concentration, improves memory, improves cerebral circulation. This has made ginkgo one of the most effective drugs for stroke, hydrocephalus, and dementia.

Although ginkgo is considered exotic (its homeland is China), its seedlings successfully take root in middle lane, showing all the characteristics of a very stable and surprisingly unpretentious representative of the flora.

It's unusual conifer tree takes 10th place on the hit parade.

On the 9th position of the top 10, circumpolar hemp falls for its exceptional frost resistance. She owes this property to the fact that during her appearance she developed new cold territories. The acquired cold resistance, amazing for the plant world, helped the circumpolar hemp survive calmly. glacial period.

Because under the conditions severe frosts and icing during the ice age, there was a severe shortage of grassy food, mammoths could rapidly die out, but they long time saved by the abundance of circumpolar hemp. In confirmation of this fact, paleontologists still often find tens of kilograms of its shoots in the huge stomachs of frozen mammoths.

Stability and survival in conditions of severe frosts is explained by the fact that the cells of this type of hemp contain natural alcohol-containing antifreeze, which performs standard photosynthesis, which is impossible under the condition of negative temperatures.

The 8th place in the hit parade of the 10 most amazing plants is occupied by the most drought-resistant representative of the flora - the Jericho rose.

This one lives unusual flower in hot deserts and is annual. During dry periods, the Jericho rose takes the form of a vessel: it lifts its leaves up and collects all the moisture that is contained in the air into the center of the rosette. When this water becomes too small, the leaves dry out completely. The wind tears off the ground part and carries the plant for many tens of kilometers along the hot sands.

If on its way the Jericho rose meets a body of water or any place with a normal level of humidity for life, the leaves are saturated with moisture and open, allowing the fruits from the center of the flower to pour seeds onto fertile soil, where they will successfully germinate and be able to live.

Because of this intricate mechanism, the desert rose has been conquering the conditions of sultry sands for many millennia.

This is herbaceous plant grows in Central Asia. In nature, this type of grass is not common, but it nevertheless became famous thanks to Buddhist monks, who often used bamboo in their rituals.

This representative of the fauna does not have a root structure and an obvious stem. It develops in dense large rings lying on the ground. Until now, botanists do not know how this herb reproduces.

An amazing property of the ring bamboo is that while lifting its ring from the ground, you can clearly hear “om”. This is talking plant gave rise to superstitious fear among people and confirmed the divine essence of the monks.

Now scientists have established the mechanism for the emergence of these "talks": it consists in a kind of movement of air capsules inside the rings and their partitions.

Bamboo ring is placed on the 7th place in the top 10 amazing plants in the world.

Residents South-East Asia they are extremely lucky: they do not need to buy sweets in stores, because in their countries sweets grow right on the trees. The real name of the tree, which gives people amazing pleasure, is sweet hovenia.

By appearance it is close to the linden we are used to. In the spring, during a lush flowering, clouds of bees gather around the tree, competing for the delicious nectar with which its flowers are overflowing.

The role of sweets is not fruits - pea-like dry drupes, but juicy stalks. The content of sucrose in them is very high - almost 50%. Gourmets consider their taste to be one of the most unique in the plant world, reminiscent of dried fruits soaked in rum syrup.

The extract and powder of dried stalks are widely used in cooking, as a flavoring additive for confectionery. From hoveniya sweet prepared a large number of drinks, and its wood is used to make musical instruments.

For the sweet taste that hovenia gives people, it falls into the 6th place in the rating of amazing plants.

flower of laughter

The black fruits of the flower are quite small, but eating them causes a violent reaction: a person immediately begins to laugh. Uncontrollable laughter lasts at least half an hour, and sometimes more than an hour.

After the attack of uncontrollable laughter stops, the exhausted person immediately falls asleep and sleeps soundly for several hours, and after waking up feels a hangover or discovers memory lapses.

This property was adopted by dentists: dope extract is used as an anesthetic, which helps not to feel toothache and stay in good location spirit during dental treatment.

nettle tree

Not all plants give fun and laughter, some can hurt a lot. An amazing nettle or stinging tree grows in New Zealand. Scientists call it Ongaonga.

This tree has a powerful defense mechanism that saves it from any attempt to harm. On the trunk there are densely located needle-thorns, at the base of which there are reserves of a poisonous substance from a mixture of histamines and concentrated formic acid. The poison causes a severe allergic reaction, and pain comparable to the simultaneous bite of several wasps.

After contact with a stinging tree, the death of one person was officially recorded, unofficial sources and local residents tell about many deaths. Large animals - dogs and horses - do not survive after a burn.

But this plant is not dangerous for all representatives of the fauna: the larvae of the Red Admiral butterfly find it very appetizing and tasty. Eating its foliage, these insects surprisingly quickly gain weight and at an accelerated pace undergo metamorphosis from a larva to a beautiful butterfly.

In 3rd place is the tallest plant on the planet - the sequoia. These trees look down on the crowns of their relatives in dense forests. Giant record holder this moment recognized as a tree growing in California in Redwood Park. This sequoia was discovered in 2006 and then its height reached 115.5 m. last years it grew another 2.1 m. According to rough estimates by dendrologists, the age of this specimen is about 800 years.

The sequoia is also the largest plant in the world in terms of volume. The volume of the largest representative is almost 1.5 km 3 - 1487 m 3. The wood of this tree weighs 1910 tons, which is equal to the mass of 10 blue whales. The trunk circumference of this specimen in the lower layer exceeds 31 m.

Venus flytrap

The venus flytrap flower looks very unusual. But she got to 2nd place not because of her appearance, but because of her eating habits.

For active growth and reproduction, the flower has adapted to feed on living organisms. Most often they are flying insects. The flycatcher has a specific smell that attracts insects. On the wings of the flower there are sensitive hairs that react to touch, after which they quickly close, leaving the victim in the middle of the trap. The plant digests the victim for about 10 days, after which the valves open again in anticipation of new guests.

Not only insects can be food for the Venus flytrap: the same fate overtakes caterpillars, snails and slugs that have crawled into it, as well as small frogs. When digesting such a large prey, not the most pleasant smell comes from the flower. But that doesn't deter fans at all. exotic plants, so the flower is becoming an increasingly frequent guest on the windowsills of apartments and houses.

For the amazing nutritional feature of the Venus flytrap, it becomes the silver record holder in the ranking of the 10 most amazing plants in the world.

The championship among the most unusual representatives of the flora goes to the owner of a huge flower - rafflesia. We are used to smelling flowers and enjoying their fragrance, but in this case, the situation is completely different.

The flower was most famous for its amazing pungent smell, reminiscent of rotten meat. For humans, it is extremely unpleasant, but for insects that pollinate this flower, this smell is very attractive, it makes them fly to the plant, overcoming long distances.

The rafflesia flower is the largest on earth: its diameter is about 1 m, so it is rightly considered a giant in the plant world. For its impressive size and atypical smell, rafflesia takes 1st place in the top 10 most amazing representatives of the flora of our planet.

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15. Rainbow Trees


Imagine walking through a forest of 60-meter trees in all the colors of the rainbow. Do you think this is possible only in a fairy tale movie? But no - Eucalyptus deglupta, or rainbow eucalyptus actually exists and is found in forests in the Philippines. These trees grow so fast that the bark peels off in strips, revealing a bright green layer that changes color to yellow, orange, red, purple and brown as it ages.

14. Snapdragon seed pods


Snapdragon has been widely used as a model by botanists in many genetic studies. For example, Gregor Mendel and Charles Darwin used Snapdragon for the study of heredity. Distinctive feature plants are his seed pods, each like a screaming skull.

13. Jaboticaba


Jaboticaba is fruit tree with unique fruit formation. Unlike most trees, whose fruits grow on branches, Jaboticaba forms its black fruits right on the trunk. It looks like they ooze from the bark. Although the Jaboticaba fruit is popular in Brazil, due to its short shelf life, it rarely makes it to other places. The fruit can be consumed fresh, as well as in the form of jam, wine or liquor.

11. Amorphophallus titanic

This flower is the tallest in the world - its height can reach three meters. The yellow spadix in the center contains small white flowers. As soon as they are ready to spread the pollen, the cob begins to generate heat, which helps to spread a fetid odor that resembles the smell of a decaying corpse. As in the case of the corpse lily, the smell attracts flies, which are engaged in pollination.

10. Elephant yam


Amorphophallus pionolifolia, or elephant yam - close relative Amorphophallus titanic. Formerly the only way to distinguish different kinds in this group was to smell them and find out what kind of stink they exude. The tubers, which gave the plant the name "yams", are the third most popular carbohydrate source in Indonesia after rice and corn. And the word "Amorphophallus" in the name indicates the shape of the flower - literally it translates as "shapeless penis."

9. Voronets thick-legged


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8. Bitter cucumber

Momordica charantia, or bitter cucumber, is a herbaceous vine that grows all over the world. Its fruits, empty inside, have a warty surface. They are usually eaten while they are still green because the yellowing fruit becomes more and more bitter as it ripens. However, when the fully ripe fruit opens, a sweet, bright red center can be found inside.

7. Naked man


Orchis italica, also known as the Naked Man orchid, can be found almost everywhere in the Mediterranean region. They are very popular among orchid lovers because ... well, at least because the petals look like naked men, which is incomprehensible here. The plant has about 40 varieties, so you can choose a naked man in almost any color and size.

6. Predatory pitchers

Animals eat plants. This is the natural order of things. However, some plants go against the system and fight back. The pitchers trap insects, spiders, and even small mammals and reptiles, and then drown them. Their modified leaves hold a liquid that contains digestive enzymes and chemical substances. As soon as the victim enters the jug, he slides down the waxed slippery walls, which do not allow him to get out. After unsuccessful attempts to get out, the victim is immersed in the liquid, drowning, and the plant digests it to provide itself with nutrients that are not found in the soil.

5. Flowering stones


Of course, you know perfectly well that flowering stones do not exist in nature. But it is precisely them that the amazing plants of the genus Lithops resemble. They can be found in the rocky and sandy deserts of South Africa. Plants have adapted to superficially resemble the rocks around them. This shape allows them to survive in regions with low rainfall, as the small surface area inhibits evaporation. Lithops are popular houseplants and are often sold specifically as "living stones".

4. African Gidnora

3 Albino Sequoia

Ask your child to draw a tree and you will get a brown trunk and green leaves. Everyone knows that trees are green. Everything except the albino sequoia. These trees are unable to produce chlorophyll, and without chlorophyll they cannot absorb sunlight and produce their own nutrients. For other trees, this would be a death sentence, but sequoias have the ability to share roots among themselves. When an albino redwood sprouts, it needs to attach itself to the root system of another tree in order to extract food.

2. Red tumbleweed

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1. Kiss plant


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1. Amorphophallus titanic (corpse lily)

This flower has giant size, he is beautiful, but exudes a terrible stench. True, it spreads around itself the smell of rotten fish and meat for only a couple of days, and then fades. And it blooms tropical plant very rarely - in the 40 years that the "corpse lily" lives, the flower appears only 3-4 times. The plant can grow up to 3 meters tall, and the weight of the flower can pull up to 75 kilograms. The "corpse lily" grows in the forests of Sumatra, but there it is almost exterminated, so it is easier to see it in botanical gardens.

2. Venus flytrap

This beautiful, even graceful plant is a real predator: with its leaves of a special design, it deftly catches small insects. As soon as an unlucky fly touches with its paw or wing the villi on the leaf bed, it slams shut. And while the insect is actively kicking, the plant only increases the secretion of digestive juice. An insect caught as if in shells is completely digested in 10 days. Then the leaf opens and lures a new victim with droplets of nectar. People have even been able to tame this potted predator by growing it on a windowsill. If you properly care for him, then the process of hunting can be observed with your own eyes.

3. Passiflora

This tropical liana has a very unusual and beautiful flower. These flowers were first noticed in South Africa missionaries, to whom it seemed like the crown of thorns of Jesus Christ. Therefore, they gave it the unscientific, but very colorful name "passion flower" (an allusion to the passion of Christ). In general, there are over 500 species of these woody climbing vines, called passionflower.

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4. Victoria amazonica

This is the largest water lily in the world. The diameter of its leaves floating on the surface of the water reaches two meters. Such a sheet can safely hold a child on itself. Victoria amazonian flowers are very beautiful, so this species can often be seen in botanical gardens and greenhouses.

5. Nepenthys

It looks very odd carnivorous plant which grows in Southeast Asia. This bushy climber climbs higher into neighboring trees. In addition to ordinary leaves, it also has trapping ones, which very much resemble an impressive jug up to 0.5 m high. Catching leaves have a bright color that attracts insects and small rodents. Fragrant nectar protrudes from the top edge of the jug. Attracted by color and smell, the victim crawls inside the jug and slides down its slippery walls. At the bottom of the jug, a puddle of digestive acids and enzymes, reminiscent of gastric juice, awaits her. From the inside, the surface of the leaf has wax scales that do not allow the victim to get out of the jug. Nepenthis digests its prey for several days. Once I managed to find a rat caught in such a jar.

6. Porcupine tomato

This unusual plant is famous for its incredibly large thorns. This weed grows in Madagascar, reaching a height of one and a half meters, it is decorated purple flowers. But getting close to these flowers to pick them is very difficult, because the plant bristled with long orange poisonous spikes. In fact, this plant does not belong to the nightshade, and it was called “tomato” because of the fruits resembling medium-sized tomatoes.

7. "Living stones" (lithops)

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8. Velvichia is amazing

Although this dwarf tree does not look very spectacular, it is attractive due to its strangeness. The amazing Velvichia has very strong roots, a stem and only two leaves. These leaves never fall off and are not replaced by new ones, they just grow slowly at the beginning and wither at the ends, and this can go on for over 2000 years. Overgrown sheet plates resemble some kind of shaggy beard or mane. The trunk of velvichia grows mainly in width, and not in height, therefore, with a height of no more than 2 m, it can have a girth of up to 8 m. This unusual long-liver lives in the South African Namib desert. It can go for years without rain, because it absorbs moisture with leaves from the fog. This is edible plant with a pleasant taste, and it can be eaten not only baked, but also raw. He was even nicknamed the "onion of the desert" for its gastronomic properties.

9. Rafflesia Arnold

This is the most unusual and largest flower in the world. Rafflesia Arnold belongs to the Euphorbiaceae family, it grows up to 90 centimeters in diameter, and the flower can weigh up to 10 kg. Although this giant flower looks unusually impressive, you cannot put it in a room, because it emits a very bad smell rotting meat, which he needs to attract pollinating insects. The bud ripens for several months, but the flowering takes place in just a couple of days. The plant produces many seeds that are dispersed by insects such as ants and large mammals such as elephants, which may accidentally step on the flower and carry the seeds on their feet.

10. Chirantodendron ("creepy handshake")

The flowers of this plant are very unusual shape, because of which it is called the "hand of the devil." It comes from Mexico, where the Aztec tribes once lived. They used the flowers of this plant, similar to hands, in magical rituals. And their coloring only excites the imagination even more - sharp red claws are visible at the ends of the “fingers”. During the flowering period, the chirantodendron is covered with “palms”, terribly fluttering in the wind.

It has not yet been studied how many leaf forms actually exist in nature. It is also impossible to count their exact number in the crown of even an average tree; one can only guess approximately.

From the school science of botany, it is known that the leaf is part of the shoot of a plant, its outer lateral organ, with the help of which the function of photosynthesis takes place.

In those regions of the globe where people experience four seasons, they are given to observe everything life cycle leaves - from emerging from swollen buds to changing color from green to crimson, yellow and red.

By the appearance of the leaves, you can determine whether the plant is healthy, whether it receives a balanced diet, and even which macro- and microelements are most prevalent in the water. For example, if there is an excess of acid in the diet, then the leaves will have a reddish tint around the edges, if there is more alkali - bright green, even turquoise.
An interesting fact is that 80% of the leaves of the studied plants like conditions with an air temperature of +200C and a relative humidity of 75-80%.

In a plant like ivy, the leaves themselves are able to turn to sunlight, substituting the entire surface for it.

Pea tendrils, which cling to all sorts of protrusions and help the plant maintain an upright position, are also modified leaves.

It is difficult to imagine that cacti, in addition to thorns, also have ordinary leaves, but, as it turned out, this fact has been proven and irrefutable. They can only be examined under a microscope, since their dimensions are very small (from 30 to 2000 microns) and they are located at the very base of the plant stem. Cactus leaves took the honorable first place in the nomination of the smallest.

Giant plates capable of withstanding a load of up to 75 kg. - this is nothing more than the leaves of the water lily "Victoria Amazon", named after Queen Victoria by the wanderer Schomburgk.

There can be a great many such nominations, since every living thing, without exception, has its own zest and uniqueness. And even a leaf of a poisonous vine or a healing plantain is equally unique and harmonious in the surrounding world.