Udumbara
The udumbara flower is said in Buddhist legend to bloom only once every 3,000 years, the last time being before the birth of Buddha.
Down the Garden Path
Down the Garden Path has stood the test of time as one of the world's best-loved and most-quoted gardening books. Ostensibly an account of the creation of a garden in Huntingdonshire in the 1930s, it is really about the underlying emotions and obsessions for which gardening is just a cover story.
Paphiopedilum rothschildianum
Paphiopedilum rothschildianum is a species of orchid commonly known as the King of the Paphs. It is a large sized clear-leafed plant. It blooms with a tall inflorescence with up to six, large flowers. It is unique in the Corypetalum group by holding its petals almost horizontally, giving the flower a very large appearance.
Kadupul flower
Kadupui is a flower that blooms at midnight and dies in the morning.
Talipot palm
The Talipot palm flowers only once in its lifetime, producing the biggest inflorescence in the flowering kingdom. The palm grows for 30 to 80 years, storing up energy and strength in its trunk to send out this massive inflorescence. After flowering and fruiting the plant will die.
Kurinji
Far up in the Nilgiri hills, a vast expanse of grassland at the southern edge of India's Western Ghat mountain range, the verdant landscape is usually only interrupted by a flash of colour from tea plantation workers and their brilliant saris. But once a decade the hills above the tea fields erupt in an explosion of blue and purple, thanks to the kurinji plant, a tiny flower that blossoms just once every 12 years and is found solely in the southern Western Ghats.
Baobabs
The baobab tree is known as the tree of life, with good reason. It can provide shelter, clothing, food, and water for the animal and human inhabitants of the African savannah regions. The cork-like bark and huge stem are fire resistant and are used for making cloth and rope. The leaves are used as condiments and medicines. The fruit, called "monkey bread", is edible, and full of vitamin C.
Eucalyptus deglupta
The unique multi-hued bark is the most distinctive feature of the tree. Patches of outer bark are shed annually at different times, showing a bright green inner bark. This then darkens and matures to give blue, purple, orange and then maroon tones. The previous season’s bark peels off in strips to reveal a brightly colored new bark below.
Jabuticaba
The jabuticaba fruit is unusual in that it appears to blossom right out of the bark and trunk of its tree. The tree may even look covered in purple warts or pimples when it is fully in season. It is often used in its native lands in South America much like grapes are used elsewhere.
Trithrinax campestris
Trithrinax campestris is a palm that grows in arid, well-drained, rocky soils. Its distinctive features are its compact shape, short green to grayish foliage, and trunk fully hidden by dry dead branches remaining from several previous seasons.