There are estimated to be about 369,000 known flowering plant species in the world....
1. D
There are estimated to be about 369,000 known flowering plant species in the world. Flowering plants make up the bulk of the world’s vegetation, and fall into two major groups: dicotyledons (roses and daisies, for example) and monocotyledons (daffodils, tulips, and lilies, for example).
2. B
The Rafflesia arnoldii - a parasitic flowering plant found in the rainforests of Indonesia - produces the world’s largest blooms. The flower can have a diameter of around 3 feet - the largest ever recorded is thought to be 3.4 feet - and can weigh up to 11 kilograms. It is one of the world’s rarest flowers, and also among the smelliest, with a repulsive odour similar to that of rotting flesh (a means of attracting insects for pollination) which has earned it the nickname “corpse flower”.
3. C
Flowers are the reproductive parts of the plant that produce fruits and seeds.
The stamens produce pollen; the pistils (or carpels) include the ovary, style (not stylus), and stigma.
4. D
One of the longest-used flowers in Eastern culture, the beautiful peony is considered the King of Flowers, particularly in Asian countries like Japan and China.
The rose is considered the Queen of Flowers.
5. A
Jasminum officinale (or chambeli) is the national flower of Pakistan.
The lovely, white, fragrant jasmine is not only popular in our gardens but is also valued in several other regions around the world.
6. B
The cornflower - which is not, as its name might suggest, the flower of the corn plant, but the blossom of a beneficial weed in cornfields - is also known by several other names, including bluecup, blue blob, blue bonnet, cornbottle, boutonierre flower, hurtsickle, and gogglebuster.
Bluebells, on the other hand, are blue bell-reminiscent flowers of the Hyacinthoides plants.
7. D
Despite its appetizing name, the buttercup is inedible. Buttercups are toxic to animals and are poisonous when eaten, although their acrid taste generally prevents that from happening. Handling the plants can also cause skin issues.
Zinnias (as garnish), hibiscuses (in beverages and as garnish), and tulips (petals as garnish) are edible.
8. B
Tulips have three petals and three sepals, but since the sepals are very similar in size and shape to the petals, tulips appear to have six petals.
9. A
The heir apparent to the British throne, Prince Charles, is paid one daffodil per year as rent for his lands on the Isles of Scilly, off the coast of Cornwall. The Prince’s Duchy of Cornwall estate leases over 100 acres of land on the islands of Bryher, St Mary’s, St Agnes, and St Martin’s for just a daffodil a year.
10. D
Oscar-Claude Monet’s (1840 - 1926) Water Lilies series - oil on canvas paintings that depict the artist’s flower garden at his home in Giverny - is one of the most famous painting series in the history of art. The father of French Impressionist painting began painting the water lilies in 1899 in a series that he worked on for the next 20 years of his life.
11. B
English Romantic poet William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850) was inspired by an event in 1802 - in which Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy came across a “long belt” of daffodils - to write the poem at some point between 1804 and 1807. It was first published in 1807 in Poems in Two Volumes, and a revised version was published in 1815.
12. C
“They now came upon more and more of the big scarlet flowers until they found themselves in the midst of a great meadow carpeted with nothing but poppies. Now, in the magical Land of Oz, it is a well known fact that when there are many of these flowers together their odor and fragrance is so strong and so powerful, that anyone who breathes it in instantly begins to fall asleep, and if the sleeper is not carried away from the deadly scent of the blossoms, they sleep on and on forever and ever until their dying day.” - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
- S.A.
