The following rare plants are just a few of the many rarest wonders the world kept tucked away in remote places.

Rafflesia Arnoldii
We’re unlikely to come across this flower anytime soon, not just because the flower is rare, but it’s only found in the rain forests of Southeast Asia. It is the world’s largest single flower. The flowers bloom lasts less than a week, but when it appears it is over three feet across, weighs nearly 25 pounds, and smells like rotting fish.

Rafflesia is really a parasite that doesn’t have any visible leaves, roots, or stems. It consists of small threads that grow inside the tissue of other plants, mainly the vines of the Tetrastigma genus. When Rafflesia displays its reddish-brown flower, the stem is the tissue of its victim.

Welwitschia
Welwitschia grows in the desert. The first thing one notices is its odd appearance. It looks like a giant, tattered green flower and is anything but pleasing to look at. This rare plant consists of two leaves, a stem base, and roots.  Welwitschia’s two leaves will last a lifetime, which is 400 to 1,500 years. It can grow to be 12 feet long. Welwitschia grows in the Namib Desert along the southwest coast of Africa. Some of its characteristics are unique even for rare plants. Welwitschia is the only plant in the world in which the stem’s apical growth point stops at an early stage. The stem grows out, up, and away from the original dead apex, which gives it an inverted cone shape.

Hydnora Triceps
Hydnora triceps is the only known eudicot with hypogeous flowering. Hydnora triceps is the only one out of about 200,000 species of plant that bears its fruits and flowers underground. It’s unique from 400,000 other species of angiosperms since it doesn’t have any leaves or leaf-like structures. H. triceps is native to southern Namibia. It is a subterranean parasite; only the tops of its flowers appear above ground. H. triceps produces no chlorophyll and is dependent on its host for survival.

The Island of Soqotra
The Island has around 800 plant species, of which 1/3  are unique to the region. One of the more unique plants is the umbrella-shaped dragon tree. A vast array of unique plant species could be further studied in order to gain a better understanding about each ones unique qualities.

While you may not be able to grow these exotic species at home, you can keep a great lawn using good lawn care. If you want to be able to make your own fertilizer at home, consider getting into wormery compost.

The Rafflesia arnoldii image above by the Tropen Museum.
The Welwitschia image by Michael O’Brien.