The purpose of flowers is to attract pollinators to the plant that help it to reproduce. Flowers vary widely in color, shape, and size. Their often bright coloring serves to attract pollinators to them. There are nearly 300,000 known and described species of flowering plants growing all over the world. While many flowers are widespread and abundant, growing in fields and on roadsides, some are quite rare. Flowers can be rare due to many reasons. Some flowers only bloom at specific times and conditions. Others are rare due to habitat loss or competition with other species. Many flowering plant species are endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This article explores the rarest flower in the world: the Middlemist Red.
With only two known living Middlemist Red flower shrubs, one in England and one in New Zealand, this flower is incredibly rare. This rare flower has a mysterious and fascinating history, and it is a miracle that it survives to this day. This article details the discovery, history, and cultivation of the Middlemist Red.
The Middlemist Red flower is the rarest cultivar of the common camellia (Camellia japonica) species. Interestingly, the Middlemist Red flower isn’t actually red at all. These flowers are instead a deep pink color. The flowers grow on incredibly large evergreen shrubs. Common camellia shrubs are usually 4.9-19.7 feet tall but sometimes grow up to 36 feet tall. The shrubs have thick, dark green leaves that grow in an alternate pattern. Additionally, the leaves are around 2.0-4.3 inches long by 1.0-2.4 inches wide. The flowers of common camellia grow along its branches, and they can appear alone or in pairs. They are 2.4-3.9 inches in diameter. In the wild, common camellia plants flower from January to March and fruit from September to October.
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