Marilyn Thipthorpe
We always love to smell these glorious buds of fragrance. Whether it be by the roadside or your garden, it seems like everyone always has the time or at least wants to stop for a while and just take in the beauty of flowers. Here are 10 amazing facts on flowers that you might not have known before.
1. In 17th Century Holland, Tulip bulbs were more valuable than gold! In 1630’s a kind of frenzy for tulips occurred in Western Europe named “Tulip mania” and tulips became so expensive as to be treated as a form of currency.
2. Gas Plant or the Burning Bush as it is sometimes called, earned its name because it’s leathery green leaves, on a calm summer night can be ignited with a match.
3. Angelica was used in Europe for hundreds of years as a cure for everything from the bubonic plague to indigestion.
4. Some species of bamboo develop flowers after 65 or 120 years. Interesting fact about flowering is that all plants of one bamboo species develop flowers at the same time, no matter where they are located in the world.
5. The lotus was considered a sacred flower by ancient Egyptians and was used in burial rituals.
6. Blue-cohosh, also known as squaw root or papoose root, was used by Native American women to ensure an easy labor and childbirth. On the other hand its cousin the black-cohosh also has estrogenic and abortifacient properties and was often combined with blue-cohosh to terminate a pregnancy.
7. It is said that sunflowers move their heads according to the movement of the sun.
8. Roses are related to apples, raspberries, cherries, peaches, plums, nectarines, pears and almonds.
9. Titan Arum is the world’s largest flower; the circumference of their huge flowers can be over three meters and they stand three meters high with a single leaf able to grow to the size of a small tree. Due to its horrible smell of rotten flesh, it is also known as corpse flower.
10. The Agave, also known as the century plant spends many years without growing any flowers, after which it grows one single bloom and dies