Fact Archive

In botany, a flower is a single reproductive unit. However, many of the things we call "flowers" are actually composite inflorescences: structures formed of groups of flowers. Thus, while at up to 3m high, the titan arum holds the title for the world's largest known inflorescence, it is not composed of a single flower. Instead, the title of the world's largest flower, at up to 1 m wide, belongs to the corpse flower, Rafflesia arnoldi, so-called due to the distinct smell of dead flesh it produces

Potatoes are members of the Solanaceae family, which are characterised by their ability to produce an array of toxins including Solanine, which is poisonous to humans. Luckily, the solanine level in potatoes is very low, but all parts of the plant apart from the tubers are toxic to humans! Other members of this family include tomato and deadly nightshade

While most fruits come in different varieties (think Granny Smith vs Gala apples), all bananas are clones of each other. While this results in bananas being one of the most consistent tasting fruits, it's causing serious issues for growers: it's much easier for diseases to infect clones compared to if every banana was unique. This is why banana-flavouring tastes so different to modern bananas: the flavouring is based on the old Gros Michel using until the 1950s

Native to the tropical Americas, Mimosa pudica, more commonly known as the touch-me-not plant has an interesting reaction to touching its leaves: the leaves fold inwards in a domino-style reaction. Using a structure known as the pulvinus, these plants use osmotic (water) pressure to rapidly (for a plant!) open and close the leaves.

This means that they have 8 copies of every gene (and 8 copies of every chromosome). Humans have only two copies of every gene, as do most animals. However, one of the many cool things about plants is that they often undergo ploidy events, which can result in them having extra chromosome copies.