Some plant species can take up to a century before blooming, but a widely circulated post on social media claims that there is a rare flower in the Himalayas with an astonishing growth period: it blooms only once every 400 years.
A plant believed to bloom only once every 400 years.
However, according to the AP Fact Check page in Australia, these claims significantly exaggerate the plant’s lifespan. Researchers have confirmed that the plant in the image is Rheum nobile, which blooms once after an average of about 33 years before dying.
This is not the first time an image of this plant has circulated on social media with the claim of “blooming once every 400 years.”
In November 2019, an Instagram user claimed that the image of Rheum nobile was “the Mahameru flower that blooms once every 400 years in the Himalayas,” adding that those fortunate enough to see the flower bloom would receive “lifetime luck.”
This plant is also known as Sikkim rhubarb.
It is known that the photo used for the false claims originated from a 2009 image uploaded to Flickr, showing Rheum nobile in full bloom, accurately identified by its name.
This species, also known as Sikkim rhubarb, is a perennial woody plant native to the Himalayas, growing to more than one meter in height. The dioecious perennial spends at least one year in a vegetative state before flowering once and then dying.
However, Rheum nobile does not take 400 years to bloom, according to Professor Jürg Stöcklin from the University of Basel, who has co-authored several papers on this plant.
He told AAP FactCheck in an email: “Rheum nobile is indeed a very spectacular plant due to its life cycle.”
This giant herb, found at altitudes above 4000m in the Himalayas, initially grows slowly. When it blooms, it has a “giant” appearance that can be seen from several kilometers away.
False claim post about Rheum nobile.
He added that this unique reproductive activity continues with thousands of seeds being dispersed before the plant dies.
Thus, Professor Stöcklin stated that the claim of “blooming once every 400 years” is false.
In a 2019 study published in the Annals of Botany, Professor Stöcklin and his co-authors estimated the average time for Rheum nobile to reach flowering size to be 33.5 years.
Many experts contacted by AAP FactCheck could not name any plant species in the Himalayas or elsewhere that take up to 400 years to bloom.
According to the Guinness World Records, the slowest blooming plant is a very rare giant plant, Puya raimondii, native to the mountains of Bolivia. The website states that its flowers appear after about 80-150 years of the plant’s lifespan.
Paul Licht, an emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and former director of the university’s botanical garden, told AAP FactCheck that the estimate of “blooming once every 80 years” comes from observations of the aforementioned plant in its natural habitat.
However, in controlled garden conditions, scientists have observed the plant blooming after just 28 years.
Shashi Babbar, a botany professor at the University of Delhi, stated that he is not aware of any plant species that takes a century or more to bloom.
“Indeed, many plants have long growth periods. However, these only last for a decade or longer. Monocarpic plants like bamboo and rattan take about 40 years to bloom and then die,” Professor Babbar noted in an email.
Laurence Dorr, a research botanist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, told AAP FactCheck that he cannot imagine a plant blooming once every 400 years, adding that very few species even live that long.
