Plants are truly incredible in so many different ways! From the places they grow to the strange ways they communicate, we’ve put together 15 incredible facts all about the weird and wonderful plants that grow on planet Earth. Find out which flower smells like rotting meat, why everyone went crazy for tulips in the 17th century, and which country is named after a plant! And if you liked this, check out more nature facts with our amazing animal facts! How about these incredible river Nile facts? Or maybe you’re ready for some radical rainforest facts! And you can find loads more amazing trivia on our main facts hub!

1. There is A Flower That Smells Really Bad

It’s called the Carrion Flower, or Toad Flower, and it smells like rotting meat! It even looks like something out of Stranger Things! The horrible smell has a purpose though – it attracts flies which will then help pollinate it.

2. Monkey Puzzle Trees Have Been Around for a Very Long Time

Monkey Puzzle Trees, the big ones with the spiky branches, are some of the oldest living conifers in the world today. They’ve been around in the same form for over 200 MILLION years! That means they were around when dinosaurs roamed the earth!

3. Plants Talk To Each Other

Not with their mouths, but with their roots! They use the roots to emit chemical signals into the soil and communicate to one another, letting other plants know how they are. And scientists are finding out more about this – they also think that some plants ‘talk’ to each other using ultrasonic sounds!

4. Trees Live For a LONG Time

As well as having been around for millions of years, trees can also live for a very long time. Some of the oldest known trees include the Great Basin Bristlecone Pine in California, which is thought to be about 5,000 years old! In the UK, the Fortingall Yew in Perthshire is thought to be at least 3,000 years old – and might even be up to 9,000 years old!

5. The Hydnora Africana Looks Like an Alien

This is the Hydnora Africana, and although it looks like something from Doctor Who, it’s actually a flower! It’s found in South and East Africa, and in fact, it’s a vampire flower – it doesn’t use sunlight to make food (like most plants), instead it sucks energy and nutrients from other plants from below the ground! We’ve only just started to explore the Hydnora africana, so who knows what else we will discover about it!

6. Plants Even Grow in Antarctica

Despite being permanently covered in snow and frost, plants do and can grow in Antarctica! In fact, it has about 800 species! These include moss, lichens and grasses, although there are no trees or shrubs. Still, it’s amazing that plants can adapt to any environment!

7. Baobab Trees Are Mostly Water

The Giant and bulbous Baobab trees found in Madagascar and Africa are actually almost 80% water. Growing in dry environments, the tree stores water to make sure it never runs out, a bit like a plant version of a camel. By the end of the rainy season, they can hold several swimming pools worth of water in their trunks!

8. In the 17th Century Everyone Went Mad For Tulip Bulbs

It was called ‘tulip mania’ and it was one of the first economic ‘bubbles’ in history. It came about because so many people were buying tulip bulbs in the Netherlands in the 1600s after discovering how easy it was to grow tulips from the bulb. They began to get insanely expensive, with some costing ten times a normal yearly income! For one bulb! The tulip bubble soon burst, and everyone went back to normal. Would you paying thousands of pounds for a tulip bulb?

9. Most Plants Grow in the Ocean

A whopping 85% in fact! These include lots of types of seaweed and algae, which are also both common foods for lots of sea creatures. In fact, there are even ‘kelp forests’ below the waves – huge stretches of land covered in dense thicket of seaweed so it almost looks like a forest!

10. Ghost Orchids Have No Leaves

Most plants use chlorophyll (a green chemical) to photosynthesis sunlight and create light. But the ghost orchid has no leaves or chlorophyll, so it can’t. Instead, it relies on another food source! A fungi that grows underground is the source of nutrients for the plant! Clever!

11. Most of Our Food Comes From Just 30 Species of Plants

That’s right – despite thousands of species of plants out there and what feels like an endless choice of foods, we actually only consume foods that come from about 30 species! Some of the factors that decide what we do or don’t eat include how easy it to cultivate and farm, different environments, and most importantly, whether it tastes good!

12. Roots Can Go Very Deep (400 Feet)

Have you ever wondered how deep a trees roots go? The answer – very! Although you can’t see roots, they do very important work for trees, including absorbing nutrients. These roots can go much deeper than the tree is tall! The longest roots in the world belong to a fig tree in South Africa – they are 400 metres deep! That’s nearly as deep as the Empire State Building is tall!

13. There is Only One Country In The World Named After a Tree

It’s…Brazil! Yes, the country of Brazil is named after the Brazilwood tree, due to the important of trees to the Europeans that colonised it. They were also going to call it ‘Island of the True Cross’ but we think Brazil is better!

14. The World Used to Be Covered in Giant Fungi

Long before trees had evolved, the earth had a different plant dominating the landscape – giant fungi. These fungi were called prototaxites, and scientist think they stood at over 20 feet tall! But we’re still figuring out exactly what they were and exactly what they looked like!

15. The Only Fruit With Seeds on the Outside is the Strawberry

Yes, the strawberry is unique in the way it stores its seeds! But why? Well, actually it gets even more complicated -the seeds themselves are actually the fruit (called achenes) and they store tiny seeds inside them! Technically the ‘fruit’ is part of the stem!