Wacky Facts

Each “seed” position is a separate small flower; the spirals follow Fibonacci numbers.

Experiments suggest pea roots grow towards the sound of running water even when the water is sealed in a pipe.

In the early 1900s, Bose built the crescograph to measure tiny plant growth and responses.

It produces the largest single flower on Earth, up to about a metre wide, and uses its smell to attract carrion flies.

The grass family includes rice, wheat, maize and bamboo and covers a large share of Earth’s land.

A coast redwood named Hyperion in California is about 116 m tall.

Seeds found at Masada in Israel, about 2,000 years old, were sprouted in 2005, producing a date palm nicknamed Methuselah.

Vanilla pods come from orchids of the genus Vanilla, and each flower must usually be pollinated by hand outside Mexico.

Chewing neem twigs (datun) for oral hygiene is a long tradition; neem has antibacterial compounds.

Pando in Utah is a single quaking aspen with about 47,000 stems connected by one root system.

This banyan in the Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Botanic Garden covers about 1.9 hectares with thousands of aerial roots.

Its trap closes only when trigger hairs are touched twice within about 20 seconds, which avoids wasting energy on raindrops.

Underground fungal networks link tree roots and can move nutrients and chemical signals between trees.

A Great Basin bristlecone pine in California called Methuselah began growing before the Egyptian pyramids were finished.

Holy basil is grown in many Indian homes and used in traditional remedies and teas.

Known as “touch-me-not” or chhui-mui, it folds its leaves within seconds by changing water pressure in its cells.