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Monday 28 June 2010

Amazing Amazonion Water Lilies

I love plants. One of my favourites is the Giant Amazon Water Lily (Victoria Amazonica), named after Queen Victoria. I like it because of it's enormous lily pads.


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It's leaves can grow up to 3 metres in diameter on a stalk of 7-8 metres in length. You can even stand on them..




The leaves have inspired architects designs in the past and recently. The ribbed underside of the lily pad was the inspiration for the Crystal Palace which was built in 1851 to house the Great Exhibition. It stood 33 metres high and was 564 metres long. Sadly, in 1936 it was destroyed in a fire.

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 In modern times lily pads have inspired green ideas to help with climate change:
floating lily pad cities for refugees displaced by rising  sea levels; http://tinyurl.com/6mykcn
and solar lily pads; http://tinyurl.com/5ncwma
They truly are wonderful plants.

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