the.com/flowers
plants that evolved billboards and perfume to bribe insects into running their sex lives
means The colorful, often fragrant reproductive structures of flowering plants, typically with petals — and, by extension, the cut blooms we give, grow, and arrange.
from From Old French "flour" (also "flor"), descended from Latin "flos, florem," meaning blossom or bloom — the same root that branches into "flora," "florid," and "flourish." Curiously, "flour" (the milled grain) is the very same word: it once meant "the flower of the meal," the finest part sifted out, before English split the two spellings apart in later centuries.
- evolution speed
- they conquered Earth so fast Darwin called it abominable
- deception
- some orchids mimic female wasps to get pollinated
- heat trick
- skunk cabbage warms itself to melt surrounding snow
- oldest known
- fossil blooms date back over 130 million years
- corpse flower
- smells like rotting flesh to lure flies
corpse flower — amorphophallus titanum in indonesia, blooms once every 7-10 years and smells like rotting flesh
rafflesia — world's largest flower at 3 feet wide, found in southeast asia rainforests, parasitic plant
ghost orchid — rare florida swamp orchid with no green leaves, fewer than 2000 specimens exist
titan arum — tallest flowering plant at 10 feet, native to sumatra, bloomed at kew gardens in 2023