The plant world is huge and incredibly diverse. At the beginning of 2010, botanists studied and described about 320 thousand plants, of which more than 280 thousand were flowering. According to preliminary estimates of scientists, at least 500 thousand different types of plants grow on our planet! The article will tell you about the smallest flower in the world. Below you will find its detailed description, characteristics.
Description
What is the smallest flower in the world? The name of this miracle is wolfia. This aquatic plant, belongs to the highest flowering monocotyledonous, belongs to the Aroid family, the subfamily - Ryaskovs, has 11 species.
This smallest flower in the world has the shape of a ball, slightly flattened laterally, bright green or yellowish in color. Its length does not exceed 1-1.4 mm, its width is 0.5-1 mm, the heaviest ball weighs no more than 200 mcg. For comparison: about 30 of these flowers can fit on one side of a match head!
Wolfia is a rootless plant; its body is a reduced stem, on which there are breathable stomata, with a length of only 12-14 microns. With their help, gas exchange between wolfia and the environment is carried out. On the stem during flowering, in July-August, a tiny flower appears, primitive in structure, but still having a pestle and a couple of stamens. It can only be examined under a microscope, it is not visible to the naked eye, it is so small.
Spread
The smallest flower in the world is subtropical. All species of this plant grow in fresh waters with a weak current in North and West Africa, South and Central America, as well as in Asia. In the southern latitudes of the Russian Federation, only the species Wolfia arrhiza grows.
The plant feels good and actively multiplies only if the water temperature is in the range from + 23 ° C to + 29 ° C. At higher rates, rootless wolfia dries. At the same time, it can withstand a temperature drop of up to 15 ° C.
Breeding
Wolffia propagates mainly vegetatively. There are two ways:
- the formation on the maternal body of a microscopic process, which, upon reaching full maturity, disappears and begins an "adult" life;
- dividing the mother stem into several parts, most often by 2 or 3.
If the weather conditions are favorable, then the smallest flower in the world multiplies very quickly. In the tropics, the surface of almost any body of water with stagnant water is covered by a green carpet of these plants.
Wolfless rootless has a wide distribution area. This is explained by its structure: the surface of the balls is a little sticky, due to which they are easily attached to any object that appears in the water where the plant lives. Balls thus "move" to a new place.
