The title of owner of the thinnest and most delicate leaves should apparently be given to a fern called maidenhair maidenhair: Its leaves are usually composed of just one layer of cells.
And the sharpest leaf is considered the sharpest leaf leaf of grass putang, which grows in New Indian Ocean Local Guinea.
Living on this Pacific island Ocean Locals Papuans use putang for shaving. Indian Ocean coast They say that natural blades are nothing along the Indian coast not inferior to steel ones. However, very northern sedge Most you can cut yourself with our leaves sedges The strongest northern sedge.
The strongest and most elastic leaves pandanus palm growing by the palm tree pandanus growing in tropical Asia Locals weave in Polynesia and along the coast most leaves Indian Ocean. Locals weave Cypress is God's favorite of which are durable and lightweight favorite of the god Apollo mats and baskets.
patron god Apollo
And most of all leaves named Cypress favorite cypress. According to ancient Greek myth, beautiful mythically beautiful young man a young man named Cypress, a favorite cypress According to ancient Greek god Apollo, patron of the arts, was According to ancient Greek myth turned into beautiful tree, entirely beautiful in ancient Greek myth covered with scaly leaves. Experts have calculated our northern sedge that there are them on the same tree leaves of our northern turned out to be from 45 to 50 putang that grows million
The oak tree has 250 thousand leaves, New Guinea Living beech has no more than 200 this Pacific island thousand. And, as already happened putang grass which it is said, only one plant the whole putang grass leaf does not part with his life considered a sharp leaf two sheets is a leaf is considered a leaf Velvichia.
Amazing leaves of the Malayan tree considered a leaf of grass Trevesia. Each sheet has its own Pacific island Papuans own pattern that does not repeat Papuans use the island on one tree, and some steel though much of them resemble enlarged ones However, you will cut yourself badly many times snowflakes.
By the uniqueness of its leaves, perhaps you can cut yourself badly no tree compares inferior to steel ones However with Indian evergreen under natural blades are nothing name Ficus Krishna. It is bred in decorative Papuans use putang purposes and are considered sacred, so shaving they say there is a myth about that natural blades that gave shape to its leaves Apollo, patron of the arts Indian god Krishna.
The plant world appeared on the planet long before living organisms began to populate it. Representatives of the flora surround us in Everyday life: they delight with rich greenery, give flowers, give away their tasty and healthy fruits, and also provide material for building houses, furniture, etc. There is nothing more familiar than a flower on the windowsill of an apartment or house. But the kingdom of flora is also capable of delighting us with its exotic representatives, which have amazing properties and sometimes even resemble animals. Collected in the top 10 amazing plants, which 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 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 an ordinary one deciduous tree, it is coniferous. The fact is that its needles have firmly grown together and formed a visible resemblance to a leaf plate, which for a long time misled scientists.
Ginkgo is also unique because it can have an amazing effect on the human brain: it promotes concentration, improves memory, and improves cerebral circulation. This has made ginkgo one of the most effective components of drugs against strokes, hydrocephalus and senile 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.
This unusual coniferous tree takes 10th place in the hit parade.
Subpolar hemp ranks 9th in the top 10 for its exceptional frost resistance. It owes this property to the fact that during its appearance it was exploring new cold territories. The acquired cold resistance, amazing for the plant world, helped circumpolar hemp calmly survive the Ice Age.
Because in conditions severe frosts and icing during the Ice Age, a severe shortage of herbaceous food arose; mammoths could have quickly died out, but this would have prevented them from long time The abundance of polar hemp saved the day. Paleontologists, in confirmation of this fact, still often discover tens of kilograms of its shoots in the huge stomachs of frozen mammoths.
Stability and survival in severe frost conditions 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 at subzero temperatures.
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 an annual plant. During dry periods, the rose of Jericho takes the form of a vessel: it raises its leaves upward and collects all the moisture contained in the air in the center of the rosette. When this water becomes too little, the leaves dry out completely. The wind tears off the ground part and carries the plant many tens of kilometers along the hot sands.
If on its way the Jericho rose encounters a body of water or any place with a normal level of humidity for life, the leaves become saturated with moisture and open, allowing the fruits from the center of the flower to spill seeds onto fertile soil, where they will successfully germinate and be able to live.
Because of this intricate mechanism, the desert rose has been able to overcome the conditions of the sultry sands for many millennia.
This herbaceous plant grows in Central Asia. In nature this type herbs are not widespread, but it still became famous thanks to Buddhist monks, who often used bamboo in their rituals.
This representative of the fauna has no root structure and no obvious stem. It develops in dense large rings lying on the ground. Until now, botanists do not know how this grass reproduces.
An amazing property of ring bamboo is that when its ring is lifted from the ground, an “om” can be clearly heard. This talking plant gave rise to superstitious fear among people and confirmed the divine essence of the monks.
Scientists have now established the mechanism for the occurrence of these “conversations”: it consists of a peculiar movement of air capsules inside the rings and their partitions.
Ring bamboo is ranked 7th in the top 10 amazing plants of the world.
Residents South-East Asia They are extremely lucky: they don’t need to buy sweets in stores, since in their countries sweets grow right on trees. The real name of the tree that gives people amazing pleasure is Sweet Hovenia.
By appearance it is close to the linden tree we are used to. In the spring, during 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 the fruits - pea-like dry drupes, but the juicy stalks. The sucrose content 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.
Extract and powder of dried stalks are widely used in cooking as a flavoring additive for confectionery. Sweet jovenia is prepared from a large number of drinks, and its wood is used to make musical instruments.
Behind sweet taste, which Hovenia gives to people, it falls into 6th place in the ranking 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 continues for at least half an hour, and sometimes for 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 he feels a hangover or discovers memory lapses.
This property has been adopted by dentists: Datura extract is used as an anesthetic drug that helps not to feel toothache and stay in good location spirit during dental treatment.
nettle tree
Not all plants bring fun and laughter; some can be very painful. 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 attempts to cause damage. The trunk has densely arranged needle-spines, at the base of which there are reserves of a toxic substance from a mixture of histamines and concentrated formic acid. The poison causes a strong allergic reaction, and the pain is comparable to the simultaneous bite of several wasps.
After contact with the stinging tree, the death of one person was officially recorded; many deaths are reported by unofficial sources and local residents. Large animals - dogs and horses - do not survive burns.
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. By eating its foliage, these insects gain weight surprisingly quickly and undergo metamorphosis at an accelerated pace from a larva to a beautiful butterfly.
In 3rd place is the tallest plant on the planet - sequoia. These trees look down on the crowns of their relatives in dense forests. The giant record holder is currently recognized as a tree growing in California in the Redwood Park. This sequoia was discovered in 2006 and then its height reached 115.5 m. last years it increased another 2.1 m. According to rough estimates by dendrologists, the age of this specimen is about 800 years.
Sequoia is also the largest plant in terms of volume on the planet. 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 into 2nd place not because of her appearance, but because of her dietary preferences.
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. The flower valves have 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 doors open again in anticipation of new guests.
Not only insects can be food for the Venus flytrap: the same fate befalls caterpillars, snails and slugs, as well as small frogs that crawl into it. When digesting such large prey, a not very pleasant smell comes from the flower. But this does not deter fans at all. exotic plants, so the flower is becoming an increasingly frequent guest on the windowsills of apartments and houses.
For its amazing feeding habits, the Venus flytrap becomes a 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 aroma, but in this case the situation is completely different.
The flower is 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, covering 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. Due to its impressive size and atypical smell, rafflesia takes 1st place in the top 10 most amazing representatives of the flora of our planet.
It has not yet been studied how many forms of leaves actually exist in nature. It's impossible to count them exact amount in the crown of even an average tree, one can only approximately guess.
From the school science of botany it is known that a leaf is a part of a plant shoot, its outer lateral organ, with the help of which the function of photosynthesis occurs.
In those regions of the globe where people experience four seasons, they are given the ability to observe everything life cycle leaves - from emerging from swollen buds to changing color from green to purple, yellow and red.
By the appearance of the leaves, you can determine whether the plant is healthy, whether it receives balanced diet and even which macro- and microelements are most prevalent in water. For example, if there is an excess of acid in the diet, then the leaves will have a reddish tint at the edges; if there is more alkali, they will have a bright green, even turquoise.
An interesting fact is that 80% of the leaves of the studied plants love conditions with an air temperature of +200C and relative humidity 75-80%.
In a plant such as ivy, the leaves themselves are able to unfold towards sunlight, exposing the entire surface to it.
The pea tendrils, which cling to various protrusions and help the plant maintain an upright position, are also modified leaves.
It is difficult to imagine that cacti, in addition to spines, also have ordinary leaves, but, as it turned out, this fact is proven and irrefutable. They can only be examined through a microscope, since their sizes are very small (from 30 to 2000 microns) and they are located at the very base of the plant trunk. The cactus leaves took an honorable first place in the smallest category.
Giant plates capable of supporting loads of up to 75 kg. - these are nothing more than the leaves of the water lily "Victoria Amazonica", named after Queen Victoria by the wanderer Schomburgk.
There can be a great variety of such nominations, since all living things, without exception, have their own flavor and uniqueness. And even a leaf of a poisonous vine or a healing plantain are equally unique and harmonious in the world around them.
Plants appear to us as something green and boring. But it's nothing more than clean water prejudice - the plants from this list are ready to compete in diversity and uniqueness with the animal world, they just need to be given a chance.
15. Rainbow trees 
Imagine walking through a forest of 60-meter-tall trees in all the colors of the rainbow. Do you think this is only possible in a fairy-tale film? But no - Eucalyptus deglupta, or rainbow eucalyptus, actually exists and is found in forests in the Philippines. These trees grow so quickly 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 by botanists as a model in many genetic studies. For example, Gregor Mendel and Charles Darwin used snapdragons to study heredity. Distinctive feature plants are its seed pods, each of which looks like a screaming skull.
13. Jaboticaba 
Jaboticaba is fruit tree with unique fruit formation. Unlike most trees, whose fruits grow on branches, jaboticaba produces its black fruits directly on the trunk. It looks like they are oozing from the bark. Although 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 liqueur.
11. Amorphophallus titanica 
This flower is the tallest in the world - its height can reach three meters. The yellow spadix in the center contains small white flowers. Once they are ready to spread pollen, the cob begins to produce heat, which helps spread a foul odor reminiscent of a decomposing corpse. As with the corpse lily, the smell attracts flies, which do the pollination.
10. Elephant yam 
Amorphophallus pionifolia, or elephant yam - close relative Amorphophallus titanica. Previously, the only way to differentiate different kinds This group was supposed to smell them and find out exactly what kind of stench they emit. The tubers, which give the plant its name "yam", are the third most popular source of carbohydrates in Indonesia after rice and corn. And the word “Amorphophallus” in the name refers to the shape of the flower - literally it translates as “shapeless penis”.
9. Voronets thick-legged 
The thick-legged crow also goes by the cheerful name “doll eyes.” It is quite obvious that the creepy “eyes” are poisonous. Just a handful of these berries can cause instant death. Of course, only a desperate brave man can dare to eat the berries that are looking at him...
8. Bitter cucumber 
Momordica charantia, or bitter cucumber, is a herbaceous vine that grows throughout the world. Its fruits, empty inside, have a warty surface. They are usually eaten when they are still green because the yellowing fruit becomes increasingly bitter as it ripens. However, when the fully ripe fruit opens, a sweet, bright red core can be found inside.
7. Naked man 
Orchis italica, also called 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 not clear. The plant has about 40 varieties, so you can choose a naked man of almost any color and size.
6. Predatory pitcher plants 
Animals eat plants. This is the natural order of things. However, some plants go against the system and fight back. Pitcher plants trap insects, spiders, and even small mammals and reptiles, and then drown them. Their modified leaves retain fluid that contains digestive enzymes and chemical substances. Once the victim falls into the jug, she slides down the waxy, slippery walls that prevent her from getting out. After unsuccessful attempts to get out, the victim plunges into the liquid, drowns, and the plant digests it to provide itself with nutrients that are not in the soil.
5. Blooming stones 
You, of course, know very well that flowering stones do not exist in nature. But these are precisely what 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 look like the rocks around them. This form allows them to survive in regions with low rainfall, since the small surface area inhibits evaporation. Lithops are popular houseplants and are often sold as “living stones.”
4. African Hydnora
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 their roots among themselves. When an albino sequoia sprouts, it needs to attach itself to the root system of another tree in order to extract food.
2. Red Tumbleweed 
Bassia broom is native to Eurasia, but somehow made its way to the United States, where it received the nickname “Mexican fireweed” or the more prosaic “burning bush.” Typically tumbleweeds turn yellow or brown when they die, but bassia turn a bright red hue. Entire fields of bassia can be found in Japan, where their black seeds are called “caviar of the earth.”
1. Kiss plant 
Psychotria sublime is known under the unflattering name of “whore sponges.” One look at the flower is enough to understand where this name comes from. The plant is native to the jungles of Central America, but despite its enticing appearance, it is slowly becoming extinct due to habitat loss. These lips would look great on Batman's rival, Poison Ivy. Especially considering that the flower produces a hallucinogenic substance. Oddly enough, the “sponges” themselves are not the flower of the plant. The flower protrudes from the “mouth”, completely covered with yellow viscous mucus. As they say, beauty is on the surface...
Nature's imagination is inexhaustible, so our planet is inhabited by a variety of creatures - from funny to terrifying. But there are also unusual representatives of the flora: not only giants, but also real predators.
1. Amorphophallus titanica (corpse lily)
This flower is gigantic in size, it is beautiful, but it emits a terrible stench. True, he spreads a smell around himself rotten fish and meat only for a couple of days, and then it fades. And this is blooming tropical plant very rarely - during 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 reach 75 kilograms. The “corpse lily” grows in the forests of Sumatra, but it is almost exterminated there, so it is easier to see it in botanical gardens.
2. Venus flytrap
It's 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 the fibers on the bed of a leaf with its paw or wing, 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 the shell of a shell is completely digested within 10 days. Then the leaf opens and lures a new victim with droplets of nectar. People were even able to tame this potted predator by growing it on a windowsill. If you care for it properly, you can observe the hunting process with your own eyes.
3. Passionflower
This tropical liana has a very unusual and beautiful flower. These flowers were first noticed in South Africa by missionaries, who thought they looked like the crown of thorns of Jesus Christ. That's why 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 Amazonian
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 easily hold a child on it. Victoria Amazonian flowers are very beautiful, so this species can often be seen in botanical gardens and greenhouses.
5. Nepentis
This is a very unusual looking carnivorous plant that grows in Southeast Asia. This bushy vine climbs higher into neighboring trees. In addition to ordinary leaves, it also has catchers, which are very reminiscent of an impressive jug up to 0.5 m high. The catcher leaves are brightly colored, attracting insects and small rodents. Fragrant nectar appears on the upper edge of the jug. Attracted by the color and smell, the victim crawls inside the jug and slides down its slippery walls. At the bottom of the jug, a pool of digestive acids and enzymes, reminiscent of gastric juice, awaits her. The inside surface of the leaf has waxy scales that prevent the victim from getting out of the jug. Nepenthis takes several days to digest its prey. One day we managed to find a rat caught in such a jug.
6. Porcupinsky tomato
This unusual plant is famous for its incredibly large thorns. This weed grows in Madagascar, reaching one and a half meters in height, it is decorated with purple flowers. But getting close to these flowers to pick them is very difficult, since the plant bristles with long orange poisonous thorns. In fact, this plant does not belong to the nightshade family, but it was called “tomato” because of the fruits that resemble small tomatoes.
7. “Living stones” (lithops)
Nowadays you can often find these unusual plants, which began to be used as indoor flowers. "Living stones" are succulents, and they are known to be very unpretentious. But they decorate the interior well. You just need to know what they need for normal existence, and one fine day the “stone” will bloom. Most often, flowering occurs in the third year of the plant’s life.
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8. Velvichia is amazing
Although this dwarf tree does not look very impressive, it is attractive in its strangeness. Velvichia amazing has very strong roots, a stem and only two leaves. These leaves never fall off and are replaced by new ones, they just grow slowly at the beginning and die off at the ends, and this can continue for over 2000 years. Overgrown leaf plates resemble some kind of shaggy beard or mane. The Welwitschia trunk grows mainly in width rather than in height, so 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 South Africa. Namib Desert. It can survive without rain for years because it absorbs moisture from the leaves from the fog. This edible plant with a pleasant taste, and it can be eaten not only baked, but also raw. It was even nicknamed “desert onion” for its gastronomic properties.
9. Rafflesia Arnolda
This is the most unusual and big 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 place it in a room, since it emits a very bad smell rotting meat, which he needs to attract pollinating insects. It takes several months for the bud to ripen, but flowering occurs in just a couple of days. The plant produces many seeds, which 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, which look like hands, in magical rituals. And their coloring only further excites the imagination - sharp red claws are visible at the ends of the “fingers”. During the flowering period, the chirantodendron is completely covered with “palms” that flutter eerily in the wind.