Top 10 Most Beautiful Flowers
Flowers have played a crucial reproductive role in the worlds flora for over 100 million years and have delighted mankind for millennia. They are beautiful to behold, provide oils for many uses and even petals to sleep on.
It wasn’t always this way. For much of the dinosaurs reign on earth there were no flowers. Imagine a world without flowers. Impossible.
10. Poppy
Poppies have been valued for centuries for their edible seeds and opium. They are now also closely associated with the trench warfare that took place in World War 1 and serve as a symbol of remembrance for those who have died war.
Although they are a small and relatively simple flower with slightly crumpled petals, they form stunning vistas in the wild, laying a carpet of vivid red across the landscape.
A straight forward, unpretentious but most beautiful flower.
9. Gardenia
The gardenia is somewhat similar to a rose in construction, but it has a quirky twist in the middle petals and can be odd and unbalanced in shape, in a nice way of course. It is almost always a beautiful cream white color.
The gardenia shrub is native to most tropical areas of the world and is actually a part of the coffee family. It has a strong, sweet perfume, perhaps one of the most attractive perfumes in the plant world, making it perfect for both scented gardens and indoor displays.
8. Magnolia
The magnolia is one of the oldest flowering plants in the world, dating back tens of millions of years. In fact the magnolia pre-dates bees and was pollinated by beetles.
The magnolia flower resembles an oriental lantern when it’s closed and opens to reveal spectacular large petals that could be the most elegant of teaspoons.
Magnolia’s are most often a combination of white, pinks and purples and when a magnolia tree is in full bloom it is a veritable cacophony of color and beauty. Certainly one of the most majestic flowers on our list.
7. Rose
The rose has been one of the world’s most treasured flowers for centuries, gracing gardens of royalty and us commoners in equal measure. It is believed to have originated in Asia but is now grown in all corners of the globe.
The shape and design of the rose is most elegant and beautifully balanced and the breadth of color across the different types of roses is immense, and delightful.
Rose petals have been used to form carpets for celebrities and royalty, but when crushed and steam distilled it’s the oil the petals give up that is special. Rose oil is used in perfumes, cosmetics, cooking and medicine.
Just don’t forget to be wary of the thorns. They really do pack a painful prick.
6. Tulip
Tulips originated in the Middle East before moving through Turkey into Europe and on to North America and other parts of the globe. In the late 1500’s tulips began appearing in the Netherlands and by the 1630’s the flowers had become so popular that their bulbs were being used as defacto financial instruments. They boomed in a speculative bubble that became known as ‘tulip mania’ and subsequently busted.
Tulips are a well ordered flower with petals that neatly fold around the stamen like hands cupped and pointing toward the sky. They come in all types of colors, except blue, and last well in a vase.
The tulip shape is so distinctive in profile that is used to describe other objects. Tulip wine glasses for example. This is one elegant flower.
5. Lily
The lily family, lilium, is made up of an amazing range of six petal flowers that comprise various shapes, all the colors of the rainbow, spot and brush stroke markings and long, pollen laden stamen. Lilies are found in most parts of the globe and are one of the most popular ornamental flowers.
Our choice of lily is the Asiatic Lily that is typical of the most popular shapes of lily with beautifully contrasted dark stamen against a white petal background with wispy streaks of yellow. Absolutely stunning.
To cap the lilies off, they range in height from one or two feet up to six feet. They are indeed a physically impressive and most beautiful species of flower.
4. Frangipani
Frangipani is native to the Caribbean, Central America and the northern areas of South America and is famously used throughout the islands of the South Pacific to make ceremonial wreaths, or ‘lei’.
Frangipani have a wonderfully elegant design with five petals splayed in a circle like a pack of cards. They are best known for their soft yellow ‘blown’ centre and bone white petals but also come in stunning pastel pinks and purples.
As well as being a beautiful flower, there is an intoxicating sense of freedom that comes with its Caribbean and South Pacific associations that elevate the frangipani from a merely superb flower to a symbol of relaxed tropical living.
3. Peonie
Unlike the relatively simple structure of a frangipani, peonies have a beautiful, rambling mass of petals that are most often densely packed in a large, sumptuous ball of color and texture.
The peony is native to Asia but is now planted in many countries around the world. They are not easy plants to grow and need a cool climate to grow well. Serious gardeners will prize a successful peony plant in their garden.
Peonies will last well indoors for up to a week and make one of the most beautiful flower arrangements.
2. Orchid
The orchid family include tens of thousands of individual species and more than one hundred thousand hybrids. There are twice as many orchid species as there are bird species and four times that of mammals. They are found all over the globe.
Orchids distinguish themselves through the strong symmetrical design of their five main petals and any markings on the petals and they are very often highly colored and scented.
Orchids are excellent indoor flowering plants that can last years with the right attention. A most beautiful flower.
1. Bunga Bakawali
The amazing Bunga Bakawali is a rare cacti flower of unknown origin (possibly Central America) that now grows naturally in the tropical rain forests of Asia and is particularly well known throughout Malaysia. It finds footholds in the upper branches of rainforest trees where it gets better access to sunlight, but it can also be cultivated at home.
The Bunga Bakawali flowers just once a year and then only for one night. When the day to open arrives the bud swells in the late afternoon, starts to open in the early evening and by midnight is fully open. By morning the flower has closed and dies.
The scent is said to be a beautiful blend of sweetness and spice and the flower itself has a stunning symmetrical design. Short internal petals are underpinned by longer petals and finally finger like petals that encase it all.
Incredibly beautiful and wonderfully enigmatic, it’s an easy choice for the number one spot.
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OddSpot
OddSpot
Plants have existed on earth for over 400 million years and before flowers came along reproduced by simply scattering their seeds around themselves, or relying on animals to take the seeds further.
Flowers appeared suddenly around 125 million years ago and fossil evidence of their evolutionary development has not been found. They just appeared.
Where did flowers come from? So many different types of flowers in so many places around the world in a cosmic instant. Odd.
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