Facts About Flowers – Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Flowers

There are over 400,000 different species of flowers covering the planet. Flowers are found almost everywhere and people grow accustomed to seeing them without realising the speciality of each little bloom. These plants have lots of interesting and unusual facts surrounding their existence which are not common knowledge. Whether it is their history or various uses, flowers have many interesting tales to tell.

Flower History
The soldiers in the army of an Egyptian Pharaoh over 3,500 years ago were the first known plant collectors in history. Since then, plants and horticulture have been a prominent part of human life.

Lilies are presumed to have originated from the Far East and are one of the oldest plants known. The flowers have been used in art for centuries. Gerbera daisies are available in extremely bright colours and are very popular in bouquets all over the world yet the flowers are originally from Africa. Tulips have an intricate history starting in 500 BC. The flower symbolised immortality, life and love. In the Seventeenth Century the bulbs of tulips were worth more than precious metals like gold.

Flower names
The names given to flowers date back many years and are some of the first words of spoken language. Many of these names have been removed from the dictionary over time such as buttercup, dandelion, holly, lavender and violet. Names originated from the use of flowers or fables. Fox-Glove for example was named as it was believed that foxes used to put the flowers over their paws to quieten the sound of their paws on the ground when hunting. The word has been used since 1000AD. “Poppy” is an incredibly old word originating from Sumerian, then Latin which then became poppy in English. The name “loosestrife” originated in the medieval era as the plant was used to calm cattle pulling a plough, lessening the “strife”.

Gladioli Pliny the Elder was named by a First Century AD scientist who noted a similarity between Roman weaponry and the sheath of the flower. The word gladiolus evolved from the Latin word for “sword” (“gladius”). The first flower of the British spring is widely considered to be the primrose; however the buttercup is actually the first flower of the spring. The Latin word for “first rose” is “prima rosa” and it is here that the name “primrose” originates.

Interesting uses for flowers
Flowers have been used for centuries in medicines and toiletries. Plants have a multitude of other uses from bookbinding to making clothes. The roots of the rosebay willow herb in the United Kingdom can be used to make flour which is sweet. Bluebell flower juice was used to bind books and the horsetail plant of the Northern Hemisphere makes a liquid that can be used to clean and polish metal and wood when the plant is boiled. Clothes can be made from the fibres of plants such as hemp. Clothing for German soldiers in the First World War was made from the fibres of stinging nettles.

Big and small flowers
The scientific name for plants which produce flowers are called angiosperms, derived from the Greek word “angos” and “sperm” meaning “seed bearing”. Australia boasts the tallest angiosperm in the world, a species called the Australian Mountain Ash which can grow to over 100m tall.

On the other end of the spectrum, watermeal is a plant found in ponds and small bodies of water that grows to only approximately 1mm in size.

Other interesting facts
Some very rare plants only flower once in their lives. The agave, also known as the century plant spends many years without growing any flowers, after which it grows one single bloom and dies. Similarly, the Puya raimondii which is found in the Andes waits 150 years before flowering and consequently dying.

Bamboo plants have the ability to flower every few years and when they do, the flowers of the same species bloom at exactly the same time.

The world’s favourite delicacy is grown from the cocoa tree which grows in tropical areas such as South America and the Ivory Coast in Africa. Chocolate is made from the beans which hang on the tree. The flowers of the tree are positioned low down on the trunks and bottom branches. Midges, which are tiny flies, pollinate the cocoa plant because they are attracted to fungus and mould and the flowers of the cocoa tree smell somewhat like mushrooms. The chocolate sold in shops is created from the pollination of trees by midge flies!

There are many more interesting facts about flowers and plants. With the endless species and varieties of flowers in the world, many incredible and unknown facts about them are still waiting to be discovered.

About the Author

Interflora South Africa is an online florist providing a wide range of beautifully arranged flowers in their catalogue, allowing you to order flowers online.

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