What is the smallest flower in the world?

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 - flowering plants. According to preliminary estimates of scientists, on our planet grows at least 500 thousand different plant species! The article will tell 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 higher flowering monocotyledons, belongs to the family of Aroids, the subfamily - the Ryaskovs, has 11 species.

This smallest flower in the world has the shape of a ball, slightly flattened from the sides, a bright green or yellowish hue. Its length does not exceed 1-1,4 mm, width - 0,5-1 mm, the most "heavy" ball weighs no more than 200 μg. For comparison: on one side of the match head can fit about 30 named flowers!

Wolffia is a rootless plant, its body is a reduced stem, on which there are breathable stomata, a length of only 12-14 microns. With their help, a gas exchange is carried out between wolves and the environment. On the stem during flowering, in July-August, a tiny flower appears, primitive in structure, but still has a pistil and a pair of stamens. It can only be viewed under a microscope, it can not be seen with the naked eye, it is so small.

Spread

The smallest flower in the world is subtropical. All species of this plant grow in fresh water bodies with a weak current in North and West Africa, South and Central America, and also in Asia. In the southern latitudes of the Russian Federation, only the species Wolfia arrhiza grows.

The plant feels well and actively replicates only if the water temperature is within the range of + 23 ° C to + 29 ° C. At higher rates, the rootless wolfia dries up. In this case, it can withstand a temperature drop of up to 15 ° C.

Reproduction

Wolffia reproduces, mainly, vegetatively. There are two ways:

• Formation of a microscopic outgrowth on the maternal body, which disappears at full maturity and begins an "adult" life;
• Division of the maternal stem into several parts, most often 2 or 3.

If the weather conditions are favorable, then the smallest flower in the world reproduces very quickly. In the tropics, the surface of almost any body of water with standing water covers a green carpet of these plants.

Wolffia rootless has a wide distribution area. This is due to its structure: the surface of the balls is slightly sticky, due to which they are easily attached to any object that is in the water where the plant lives. Balls thus "move" to a new location.

Chemical composition: benefit and harm for volfia

The smallest flower in the world is rich in vitamins A, C, Group B, PP. Protein wolfia contains as much as soy, so a tiny plant is eaten by aborigines, and this flower is also readily eaten by aquarium fish.

Wolff is a bio-cleaner, so scientists have found it to use in industrial sedimentation tanks: green beads filter water, cleaning it from salts of heavy metals.

However, it often destroys rice plantations, so it is actively struggling with the cultivation of rice.

Now you can easily answer the question about what is the smallest flower in the world.