List of largest inflorescences


The following is a list of the largest inflorescences known from plants that produce seeds.
TypeSpecies and familyNative rangeDimensionsComments
Largest overall. Largest panicle. Largest monocot.Talipot palm ; ArecaceaeSri Lanka Panicle up to thirty five feet top to bottom and 22 feet wide. The main axis is up to 14 inches thick.It consists of up to sixty million flowers and emerges from a bud four feet high and a foot thick; the largest bud known from any plant. Monocarpic.
Tallest inflorescence.Florida century plant ; AgavaceaePeninsular Florida.58 feet in height "or more" in height plus a panicle sensu stricto of twelve feet.Each rosette is monocarpic, but the plant produces side shoots or "pups" which can grow as large as the mother plant.
Largest dicot inflorescence. Largest subterranean inflorescence. Longest living inflorescence?Caloncoba flagelliflora; Traditionally Flacourtiaceae, but now often in the small segregate taxon AchariaceaeSouthern Cameroon and the Congos in west central Africa.A carefully scaled illustration in "Naturlichen Pflanzenfamilien" indicates that each stolon-panicle is up to forty feet in length, and about ten feet wide.Its two-inch white flowers rise just above the forest litter. This could be one of the longest lived inflorescences.
Largest complex inflorescence Ficus geocarpa, and the very similar F. uncinata subsp. strigosa. Moraceae.Malay Peninsula and Borneo.Stolon-panicle up to 33 feet in length. Width not stated Subunits are syncarps.Almost all fig species are pollinated by parasitic wasps, usually one wasp species exclusively with one Ficus species. It is not clear how these two subterranean figs accomplish pollination.
Largest spiciform panicle."Titanka" or "cunco" Bromeliaceae.High Andes of Peru and Bolivia.Spiciforn panicle per se up to 23 feet in height plus a peduncle of another three feet. At the widest point, it can be 4.5 feet in width.Composed of 8,000 to 20,000 flowers arranged into several hundred secondary spikes. 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.
Largest unbranched inflorescence. Largest spatheate inflorescence.The krubi, or bunga bangui Amorphophallus titanum; AraceaeSumatraSpadix up to in height. Spathe about half as high and 4' 11" across the mouth.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.. In the non-flowering years the corm produces a huge leaf resembling a small tree.
Largest true spike."Lechugilla" or "mescal pelon". Agave pelona AgavaceaeSonora State, Mexico.Spike per se up to 17 feet long with additionally a 4.5 foot peduncle. Spike is also four inches thick.'
Largest catkin.Ivory palm. Palmae, or Arecaceae.Montane rainforests of the Andes.Male catkins up to four feet long by ten inches thick..
Largest overall umbel. Largest compound umbel.Caucasian Hogweed UmbelliferaeOriginally from Caucasus Mountains, but now naturalized to much of Europe.Twice compound umbel up to five feet in width, and composed of about 10,000 flowers.The sap of this plant can produce severe burns to human skin.
Largest raceme.Lobelia rhynchopetalum. CampanulaceaeThe high mountains of Ethiopia.Up to 11.5 feet in height by about ten inches wide.Similar giant Lobelia species are found in Ruwenzori and Mount Kilimanjaro.
Largest bractate inflorescence.Philobotryum soyauxianum. Flacourtiaceae.Rainforests of Nigeria, Cameroons and GabonBract up to forty inches in length by seven inches in width.Also spelled Phylobotryon. 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, rather than transfer of reproductive function to the leaves as in Ginkgo biloba epiphylla.
Largest capitate inflorescence.The King Protea Proteaceae.West Cape Province,South Africa.Twelve inches in diameter, including bracts.The largest capitate flower is the so-called "Russian Sunflower" Compositae which has developed capitate inflorescences or "heads" as much as 25.5 inches wide, or 29 inches if the ray florets are included. The "Russian" sunflower is native to the North American prairies.
Largest simple umbel The Candelabra Flower Amaryllidaceae.South Africa.The 35 deep rose colored flowers form a ball up to 24 inches in diameter..
Largest adventitious inflorescence.Streptocarpus wendlandii. Gesneriaceae.South Africa.Pale blue, foxglove-like flowers form a cluster about 12 inches long.Unlike Tilia and Phylobotryum, reproductive function has been transferred to the leaf. The entire plant consists of a single cotyledon up tu 2.5feet long by two feet wide. The inflorescence forms near the base of the leaf.
Largest individual flower, or solitary inflorescence.The Kerubut ; RafflesiaceaeSumatraDiameter 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 3 feet 5 inches in width. The largest flower bud of any kind ever measured was an R. arnoldii bud seventeen inches in diameter found at Mount Sago, western Sumatra by Prof. Willim Meijer in 1956. 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. The first, found in the Lojing Highlands of peninsular Malaysia on April 7, 2004 by Prof. Mat-Salleh and Mat Ros measured 3 feet 7.5 inches The second, found by Dr. Gan Canglin in August 2007 in Kelantan State, Malaysia measured 3 feet 8 inches in width. Previously unknown to science, R. kerrii was described by Meijer in 1984.
Longest solitary inflorescencePelican Flower Aristolochea grandiflora Widespread in the Neotropics.floral tube up to twenty inches wide, with one sepal extending downward as a 'tail' up to ten feet in length and about one-half inch in width. This flower is much lighter than Rafflesia; about two pounds as against up to 24 pounds for R. arnoldiiRohwer says the tail can be up to 13' 1" in length. The tail serves literally as a "red carpet" to lead pollinators to the stamens and pistel.