The following is a list of the largest inflorescences known from plants that produce seeds.
| Type | Species and family | Native range | Dimensions | Comments | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Largest overall. Largest panicle. Largest monocot. | Corypha umbraculifera
| Southwestern India and Sri Lanka (Ceylon)[1] | Panicle can reach more than 8abbr=offNaNabbr=off tall.[2] The flowering stem (peduncle) is up to 14inches thick.[3] | It consists of up to sixty million (60,000,000) flowers and emerges from a bud 4feet high and 300NaN0 in thickness.[4] It is Monocarpic, flowering and fruiting only once, then dying.[5] | |
| Tallest inflorescence. | Agave weberi | San Luis Potosí and Tamaulipas[6] | The flowering stem, the scape, may very rarely reach as much as 13m (43feet) in height in Florida,[7] but in its native range it only reaches 8m (26feet).The panicle in the strict sense is just 3m (10feet) of this height.[8] | Each rosette is monocarpic, but the plant produces side shoots or "pups" which can grow as large as the mother plant.[9] The population in Florida was regarded as a separate species as Agave neglecta, but has now been synonomized with A. weberi. | |
| Largest dicot inflorescence. | Caloncoba flagelliflora | Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, and Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa.[10] | Each of the runners may radiate out more than 10abbr=offNaNabbr=off from the trunk of the tree along the forest floor.[11] | Its two-inch (5 cm) wide, six-petaled white flowers rise just above the forest litter. This could be one of the longest lived inflorescences. In principle it could produce flowers for decades. | |
| Largest complex inflorescence (The major framework is one sort of inflorescence such as a panicle or raceme, but the subunits are not individual flowers, but some completely different sort of inflorescence such as a fig; which is a syconium.) | Ficus uncinata | Malay Peninsula and Borneo | Stolon-panicle up to 10abbr=offNaNabbr=off in length. Width not stated. Subunits are syconia (figs).[13] | Almost all fig species are pollinated by parasitic wasps, usually one wasp species exclusively with one Ficus species.[14] It is not clear how these two subterranean figs accomplish pollination. | |
| Largest spiciform panicle. | "Titanka" or "Cunco" (Puya raimondi) Bromeliaceae. | High Andes of Peru and Bolivia. | Spiciform panicle per se up to 23 feet (seven meters) in height plus a peduncle of another 3feet. At the widest point, it can be 4.5abbr=offNaNabbr=off in width.[15] | Composed of 8,000[16] to 20,000[17] flowers arranged into several hundred secondary spikes, each subtended by a conspicuous bract. Like the Talipot and most Agaves, this is a monocarp. The life cycle from seed to seed is 80 to 150 years. The largest individuals are to be found near the abandoned village of Manallasaq, Huamanga Province, Peru.[18] | |
| Largest triplex inflorescence (Combining features of three different kinds of inflorescences). | "Makua" (Harmsiopanax ingens) Araliaceae. | Montane rainforests of New Guinea. | Up to 16.6 feet (five meters) high and comparable width.[19] | The basic framework is a panicle, The ultimate twigs are spikes, but not with individual flowers, but about fifty tiny umbels of 8 to 20 flowers each. H. ingens is another monocarp. Harmsiopanax may be the only genus which combines three types of inflorescence. | |
| Largest thyrse. | Maypole Tree (Sohnreyia excelsa) Rutaceae. | Amazon Basin | Ten feet (three meters) in height and equally wide and composed of numerous botryoid cymes.[20] | This also is a monocarp. It was discovered in 1911 by Dr. Ernst H. G. Ule.[21] Also called Spathelia excelsa. | |
| Largest unbranched inflorescence. Largest spatheate inflorescence. | The krubi, or bunga bangui Amorphophallus titanum; Araceae | Sumatra | Spadix up to 3m (10feet) in height. Spathe about half as high and 4feet across the mouth.[22] Amorphophallus hewetii marginally smaaller. Amorphophallus gigas taller but smaller. | The plant lives about forty years, blooming about every fourth year. The inflorescence springs up from a corm weighing up to 257 lbs 6 oz. (117 kilograms). A corm grown by Dr. Louis Ricciardello of Gilford, New Hampshire is claimed to have weighed 305lb and produced an inflorescence 10feet in height.[23] [24] The tallest A titanum inflorescence reported in a credible source is 10feet.[25] In the non-flowering years the corm produces a single leaf about 15 to 20-feet (4.5 to 6 meters) high, and comparably wide, resembling a small tree.[26] | |
| Largest true spike (All flowers attached directly to the main axis). | "Lechugilla" or "mescal pelon". Agave pelona Agavaceae | Sonora State, Mexico. | Spike per se up to 17abbr=offNaNabbr=off long with additionally a 4.5feet peduncle. Spike, including flowers, is about four inches (ten centimeters) wide.[27] | ' | |
| Largest catkin. | Ivory palm (Phytelephas macrocarpa). Palmae, or Arecaceae. | Montane rainforests of the Andes. | Male catkins up to 4feet long by 10inches thick.[28] | According to Dr. Giuseppe Mazza, the Coco de Mer (Lodoicea maldivica) can have male catkins up to 2sp=usNaNsp=us in length.[29] but no more than 5inches in width (and therefore less massive than those of Phytelephas). Lodoicea is another candidate for longest living inflorescence since the catkins are known to produce pollen for a period of ten years, "or more".[30] | |
| Largest overall umbel. Largest compound umbel. | Originally from Caucasus Mountains, but now naturalized to much of Europe. | Twice compound umbel up to 5feet in width, and composed of about 10,000 flowers.[31] [32] [33] | The sap of this plant can produce severe burns to human skin. | ||
| Largest raceme. | "Gibarra" (Lobelia rhynchopetalum). Campanulaceae | The high mountains of Ethiopia. | Raceme up to 11.5abbr=offNaNabbr=off in height by about 10inches wide, on a plant with a total height of 15to[34] [35] | Similar giant Lobelia species are found in Ruwenzori and Mount Kilimanjaro. The Iliau (Wilkesia gymnoxiphium) [Compositae] of Kauai, Hawai'i produces complex racemes up to 3feet long by up to 15inches wide on a peduncle up to 9feet in length, on a plant with a total height of about 12feet. The raceme consists of about two hundred yellow daisy heads (capitula) each about 1inches in diameter.[36] These are arranged in about twenty whorls of ten daisies each. | |
| Largest bractate inflorescence. | Phyllobotryon soyauxianum. Historically Flacourtiaceae, but now included in Salicaceae. | Rainforests of Nigeria, Cameroons and Gabon | Bract up to forty inches (one meter) in length by 7inches in width.[37] | Also spelled Phyllobotryum, and also known as phyllobotryon spatulatum. The flowers appear along the midrib. It is thought by most morphologists that this represents the fusion of an inflorescence to a leaf as in the Lindens (Tilia spp), rather than transfer of reproductive function to the leaves as in Ginkgo biloba epiphylla and some Streptocarpus spp. The largest individual flower borne upon a leaf is that of Erythrochiton hypophyllanthus (Rutaceae) of South America, which bears a solitary flower up to 2.7 inches (seven cm) wide in the middle of a leaf up to 19.5 inches (fifty centimeters) in length by 5.25inches wide.[38] | |
| Largest enclosed (self insulated) inflorescence. | The Sikkim Rhubarb (Rheum nobile) (Chenopodiaceae) | The Himalayas. | Up to 6ft 7in (two meters) in height by two feet (61 centimeters) in width at base. | The inflorescence is enclosed by overlapping, translucent, cream-colored bracts up to ten inches (25 centimeters) in diameter.[39] [40] | |
| Largest globular capitulum (wild). | African Breadfruit (Treculia africana) Moraceae | Central Africa. | About four inches (ten centimeters) at time of flowering, eventually becoming up to 18abbr=offNaNabbr=off in width by about half as long and weighing up to thirty pounds (up to 14 kilograms).[41] [42] [43] According to Aubreville, The capitulum can be up to 20abbr=offNaNabbr=off in width and up to 33lb in weight.[44] | The largest globular capitulum (domesticated) is the Jakfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) (Moraceae) grown throughout southern Asia and the East Indies. The largest Jakfruit reported in a reliable journal weighed in at 112lb.[45] [46] Both the Jakfruit and Treculia are cauliflorous (borne directly on the trunk and/or major limbs). The present Guinness champion, from Pune (Poona), Maharashtra, India, weighs 94 lbs 3 oz (42.72 kilograms).[47] | |
| Largest capitate inflorescence (wild). | The King Protea (Protea cynaroides) Proteaceae. | West Cape Province, South Africa. | 12abbr=offNaNabbr=off in diameter, including bracts.[48] By contrast, the smallest wild capitate inflorescence is that of Hesperevax sparsiflora. a composite, which has 5 to 9 disc florets, each only 1/ 120th of an inch (0.2 millimeter) in width, surrounded by bracts bringing the capitulum up to one-sixth inch (3.8 millimeters) in width.[49] | The largest capitate flower (domesticated) is the so-called "Russian Sunflower" (Helianthus annuus macrocarpus) Compositae which has developed capitate inflorescences or "heads" as much as 25.5abbr=offNaNabbr=off wide, or 29abbr=offNaNabbr=off if the ray florets are included.[50] The "Russian" sunflower is native to the North American prairies. The tightly packed disc florets can have a phylotaxis as high as 144 / 377.[51] | |
| Largest simple umbel (all flowers radiate from one center, or locus point) | The Candelabra Flower (Brunsvigia orientalis, or B. gigantea) Amaryllidaceae. | South Africa. | The 35 deep rose colored flowers form a ball up to 24abbr=offNaNabbr=off in diameter.[52] | The simple umbel with the greatest number of flowers is Flowering Onion (Allium giganteum)[Alliaceae] of the Himalayas. Mr. James N. Giridlian, a bulb dealer in Arcadia, California counted 5286 florets in a single globular umbel about 6inches in diameter.[53] | |
| Largest cincinnus | The Paloeloe or Sororoca (Phenakospermum guyannense) (Strelitziaceae) | Amazon Rainforest. | Each cincinnus of up to 25 flowers is subtended by a sheathing bract up to 17inches in length and 14inches wide at the base. Each flower is up to 11inches in length. There are up to ten cincinni, alternating left and right, on a peduncle up to 12feet in total height.[54] | This is another monocarp with a terminal inflorescence, but like some agaves it produces sideshoots which will eventually grow as large as the mother plant; in the case of Ph. guianense up to 40feet in height. | |
| Largest verticiliaster | Lion's Tail or Wild Dagga (Leonotis leonurus) Labiatae | Savannas of South Africa and adjacent southern Africa. | 5 t0 8 evenly spaced globular clusters along a peduncle up to three feet (0.9 meter) in height by up to 3.5 inches (nine centimeters) in width.[55] | Some bamboos such as Dendrocalamus have verticiliasters of more numerous, but smaller clusters. | |
| Largest syconium | The Dinner Plate Fig (Ficus dammaropsis) (Moraceae) | Montane Rainforests of New Guinea. | Up to 6inches in diameter.[56] | ||
| Largest cyme. | Begonia macdougaliidammaropsis (Begoniaceae | Mexico. | Total length 8feet but only 7inches is the cyme sensu stricto, the rest being the peduncle.[57] | Reportedly also in Brazil. | |
| Largest adventitious inflorescence. | Cape Primrose (Streptocarpus saundersii.) Gesneriaceae. | KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. | White or pale lavender flowers form a cluster about 24inches high by about half as wide. | Unlike Tilia and Phyllobotryon, reproductive function has been transferred to the leaf. The entire plant consists of a single cotyledon (seed leaf) up to 2.5feet long by 25inches wide. The inflorescence forms near the petiole end of the leaf.[58] | |
| Largest corymb. | The American, or Sweet, Elderberry. (Sambucus canadensis maxima). Caprifoliaceae. | Eastern North America. | Corymb up to eighteen inches (46 centimeters) in width.[59] | ||
| Largest dimorphic bractate inflorescence. | Marcgravia evenia (Marcgraviaceae) | About 12 inches (30 centimeters) long by 3 or 4 inches (8 to 10 cm) in width.[60] [61] | This inflorescence is extraordinary. At the upper end of the pendant inflorescence are several concave bracts angled to reflect and focus the sonar pulses of bats, helping the bats to locate the flowers. In the middle of the inflorescence the tubular,tetramerous flowers, about twenty in number, form a discoid circle (or flat umbel) about three inches (eight centimeters) in diameter. Below this a second set of bracts are formed into extrafloral nectarys which provide a reward for the bats' efforts. | ||
| Largest individual flower, or solitary inflorescence. | The Kerubut (Rafflesia arnoldii); Rafflesiaceae | Sumatra | Diameter 100cm (00inches) is most commonly given as the upper limit of R. arnoldii's expanse, but the largest R. arnoldii actually measured was one found by Prof. Syahbuddin of Andalas University in the Palupah Nature Reserve near Bukittinggi, Sumatra which measured 3feet in width.[62] [63] The largest flower bud of any kind ever measured was an R. arnoldii bud 17inches in diameter (not circumference) found at Mount Sago, western Sumatra by Prof. Willim Meijer in 1956.[64] It was destroyed by a superstitious native before it could bloom, but it seems certain that it would have broken Syahbuddin's record. | Although R. arnoldii has the greatest average size, the largest Rafflesia flowers actually measured were two specimens of the Bua Phut (Rafflesia kerrii ), of peninsular Malaysia and peninsular Thailand). The first, found in the Lojing Highlands of peninsular Malaysia on April 7, 2004, by Prof. Dr. Kamarudin Mat-Salleh, and his co-worker Mat Ros, measured 3feet[65] The second, found by Dr. Gan Canglin in August 2007 in Kelantan State, Malaysia measured 3feet in width.[66] [67] Previously unknown to science, R. kerrii was described by Meijer in 1984. | |
| Longest solitary inflorescence | Pelican Flower (Aristolochia grandiflora) (Aristolochiaceae) | Widespread in the Neotropics. | Floral tube (in this case a calyx) up to 20inches wide and 22abbr=offNaNabbr=off long, piebald and multicolored, with one sepal extending downward as a 'tail' up to ten feet (three meters) in length[68] [69] and about one-half inch (about one cm) in width. This flower is much lighter than Rafflesia; about two pounds (about one kilogram) as against up to 24lb for R. arnoldii[70] | Rohwer says the tail can be up to 13' 1" (up to four meters) in length.[71] The tail serves literally as a "red carpet" to lead pollinators to the stamens and pistel. In sharp contrast to A. grandiflora is A. nana of Mexico. The population around San Luis Potosí have flowers only one-half centimeter (0.2 inch) long by one millimeter (1/25th inch) wide.[72] |
