Today my wife, a friend of mine, and I went to explore a botanical garden in Warsaw. It was a small garden but surprisingly there was a rich variety of plant species, including the carnivores pitcher plant and Venus flytrap. Seeing them always delights me and make me think about evolution that resulted in so many diverse strategies. There were plants with colorful patterns (both in visible and ultravoilet range) on their leaves, and there were a few with spiked stems (not Cacti). In some plants the leaves were half a meter long, similar to Banana.

In this small garden, there were also dedicated sections for tropical plants and Cacti. My wife could recognize them, thanks to her degree in Pharmacy. I, on the other hand, felt like a total idiot there, surviving only with my child-like curiosity. Nevertheless, we saw many new plant species, completely unknown to me.

In one section, there were several types of Magnolia that I had never seen before. My friend told me that they are common in Europe and the yellow ones can be found in Ukraine. What fascinated me the most was their relatively big leaves as a flower, very similar to the size of Lotus leaves, and their smell :). We were going around smelling them, touching them and appreciating their beauty. To my surprise, the white Magnolia had a smell similar to my samphoo. LOL.

There were some plants–can’t remember the names–that had a bee- or a butterfly- like shape on their leaves. It makes me wonder about their survival strategy–maybe, this way they attract a real bee by mimicking the shape of a bee. Amazing right?!

Finally, the highlight of our trip was a bizarre plant, Titan Arum, that can grow several feet tall and is made of a single leaf, folded into layers. Over the course of 10-12 years, that leaf slowly transforms itself into either a full plant with stems and leaves, or into a flower–yes, the whole plant as a flower–that blooms briefly (around 24 hours) and then dies. My friend told me that it can sometimes take up to 100 years to get the flower, as most of the time it grows as a plant. However, when it does grow into giant flower–3 to 4 feet in diameter and 4 to 5 feet tall–it smells like a dead horse, attracting the meat eating insects to pollinate. Yikess!!