smallest flowering plant

[Hugh Wilson]

>From a web page that approaches this question:

http://daphne.palomar.edu/wayne/plmar96.htm


"Two of the smallest species are W. angusta, an Australian species
recently described in 1980 by Dr. Landolt, and the worldwide tropical
species W. globosa. The entire plant body of these two species is
less than one mm long (less than 1/25th of an inch) and it is
difficult to say which is the smaller of the two, but perhaps W.
globosa may be slightly smaller! An average individual plant is 0.6
mm long (1/42 of an inch) and 0.3 mm wide (1/85th of an inch). It
weighs about 150 micrograms (1/190,000 of an ounce), or the
approximate weight of two ordinary grains of table salt! One plant is
165,000 times shorter than the tallest Australian eucalyptus tree and
7 trillion times lighter than the most massive giant sequoia tree. It
is small enough to slip through the eye of an ordinary sewing needle,
and at least 5,000 plants could be packed into a thimble."


> Date:          Fri, 5 Nov 1999 13:22:43 +0100
> Reply-to:      Jan Bosselaers <dochterland at VILLAGE.UUNET.BE>
> From:          Jan Bosselaers <dochterland at VILLAGE.UUNET.BE>
> Subject:       Re: smallest flowering plant
> To:            TAXACOM

> Dear Stephen,
> >
> > what is the smallest flowering plant in the world?
> >
> Some representatives (I do not know which ones) of the genus Wolffia
> Hork. ex Schleid. (Lemnaceae) are the smallest flowering plants in
> the world. In Western Europe, the smallest one is Wolffia arrhiza
> (L) Hork. ex Wimm. Wolffia's are a lot smaller than Lemna spp.
> Unfortunately, they almost never flower. Many botanists die without
> ever having seen a Lemnaceous plant flower.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Jan
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> Jan Bosselaers
> "Dochterland", R. novarumlaan 2
> B-2340 Beerse, Belgium                       tel 32-14-615896
> home: dochterland at village.uunet.be           fax 32-14-610306
> work: jbossela at janbe.jnj.com
> web: http://gallery.uunet.be/Dochterland/
> "Vaillant est le lion - Tendre est son coeur" On my favourite
> camembert cheese

Hugh D. Wilson
Texas A&M University - Biology
h-wilson at tamu.edu (409-845-3354)
http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/Wilson/homepage.html