Here's a LITTLE news story that we found just a TINY bit interesting.
Heheh heh. Heh. Heh. What's that? I'm not funny? Get on with it? Oh, FINE then.
The story here really is quite something though. The smallest flowering plant in the world, known as Wolffia globosa (or, more colloquially, Asian Watermeal), is only 0.01 to 0.02 milimeters in diameter. To get an idea of just how tiny that is, take a glance at this picture: those aren't flowers covering that human finger. They're the whole damn plants. The flowers are so small, you can't even see them! (it's for this reason that we suspect that a ClareFlorist Asian Watermeal bouquet might not sell all that well...)
The plant has bloomed at the Tsukuba Botanical Garden in Japan. “I was deeply moved as I had been looking forward to seeing the flower in bloom for so long,” said curator Norio Tanaka. “I intend to carefully observe how the plant is pollinated and seeds are formed because this is a rare opportunity.”
Now how's that for "small but perfectly formed"!?
