Buddha´s hand: an incredible lemon:

Myrciaria cauliflora:

Jaboticaba is an incredible large shrub, or small tree, from Southern Brazil, but it is also present in adjacent countries of Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, and northern Argentina. A profusion of white flowers makes the branches being loaded of various stages of maturing fruits when pollinated. The fruit is edible fresh or made into jams and jellies, or used to make wine. Jaboticaba makes a fine landscape shrub, tree or hedge. It can be grown as a patio or courtyard tree and is adapted to large container growing, but be careful because it does not tolerate low temperatures.

Source: University of Florida

One Ficus benjamina makes a forest

Monument to Philip IV:

This equestrian statue of the king dates to the 17th century. It was produced by the Italian sculptor Pietro Tacca using scientific advice from Galileo Galilei and drawings by Diego Velázquez and a bust by Juan Martínez Montañés. To get the horse to remain on two legs, the front part is hollow and the back solid, this lets the statue to produce an amazing sensation of movement.

Tropism Experiment by Cameron Wright

Studies in plant movement

Nepeta cataria

Peter Del Tredici:


I could not resist, I finally bought the book and has been one of the best purchases I've made ​​this year. The book is called "Wild urban plants of the north east" and it´s a field guide of some plants that colonize urban spaces. The book include a list of trees, shrubs and herbaces with images taken by himself and his students. 


Source: Peter Del tredici

Plantas2 


Plantas2 is an image bank for ornamental species. Most of images are taken from google images. Anyways, it is very useful to have them listed. If I had more knowledge in web design I would create a plant social network! Any volunteer?


Source: plantas2

Strelitzia reginae

Isn´t it beautiful?, it looks like Grace Jones.

Source: kew.org

Eucalyptus deglupta

Eucalyptus deglupta is a huge evergreen tree from the seasonally-wet humid tropics. Indigenous to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the southern Philippines. It is the world’s fastest-growing forestry tree, but this is not the main particularity. You just have to see the pic to guess what makes it different. Just google it and enjoy.

Leafsnap:

Leafsnap is a free iphone application that identifies plant species from photographs of the leaves. Leafsnap is the first in a series of electronic field guides being developed by researchers from Columbia University, the University of Maryland, and the Smithsonian Institution. This website shows the tree species included in Leafsnap, the collections of its users, and the team of research volunteers working to produce it.

Source: leafsnap.com

Puya raimondii

Puya Raimondi, also known as Queen of the Andes, is an endemic species of the alto-andina zone of Bolivia and Peru. This plant lives in isolated areas with stone soils and an altitude of 3200 – 4800 m. Puya raimondii has a 10 meters inflorescence with more than three thousand flowers and produces 8–12 million seeds in each plant, but it only blooms once in its lifecycle. It can live about 100 years. The species is officially considered endangered.

Source: www.iucn.com

Wollemia nobilis:

Wollemia nobilis is a coniferous tree discovered 150 km north from Sydney, in 1994 by David Noble. The discovery is considered, by some, to be one of the most important botanical finds of the century. When this plant was discovered, there were 40 trees in the world, with a worrying lack of genetic variation. The area, where the species were located, is undisclosed to the public due to posible viruses introduction. Nowadays due to a propagation programme, is present worldwide, and a well considered ornamental tree.

Source: www.wollemipine.com

Rhizanthella gardneri

Rhizanthella gardneri is a critically endangered orchid that lives all its life underground. It even blooms underground, making it virtually unique amongst plants. Now, with less than 50 individuals left in the wild, scientists have made a timely and remarkable discovery about its genome. Last year, using radioactive tracers, scientists at The University of Western Australia showed that the orchid gets all its nutrients by parasitising fungi associated with the roots of broom bush, a woody shrub of the WA outback. Despite the fact that this fully subterranean orchid cannot photosynthesise and has no green parts at all, it still retains chloroplasts.

Source: www.sciencedaily.com

The Genus Equisetum:

Equisetum is a genus that remains from the Carboniferous (about 350-300 million years ago). Horsetails plants like equisetum were the dominant plant type.

The reduced leaves in Equisetum contain no chlorophyll, so photosynthesis is carried out by the stems and branches, if present. Horsetails are also called scouring rushes because the epidermal cells contain hard silica deposits, which made them useful for scouring pots and pans before the invention of steel wool scouring pads.

Source: www.northernontarioflora.ca