– credit, Denver Botanic Gardens
The Denver Botanic Gardens recently hosted a worldwide competition to see who could stack the most weight on a water lily pad before it sank, and the results were simply extraordinary.
Known as the Water Lily Weigh Off, more than 30 zoos and gardens in 9 countries around the world took part.
The sight of frogs sitting these one-assumes-to-be-delicate aquatic plants is a picturesque necessity in any pond scene, but don’t assume these lovely lilies to be shrinking violets, they’re actually incredible strong.
The Missouri Botanic Gardens posted a video on Instagram of their largest lily floating upright under 182 pounds of weight, while that of Florida’s Bok Tower Gardens beat Missouri’s score with 183 pounds.
Watching the videos of botanists stacking sandbags, oranges, bricks, and other weighty objects on the lily pads, also known as platters among botanists, have to be seen to be believed.
The Denver staff spoke to various local news outlets about the competition, describing it and the participants in glowing terms.
“I’m really proud of what we have been able to build out of this silly little idea we started,” says Vanessa Callahan, assistant manager of learning engagement at Denver Botanic Gardens, to KMGH-TV.
“[The participating gardens are] just showing so much creativity, so much storytelling, so much earnest about them, experiences and personality, and I’m having so much fun watching it.”
Third place went to a specimen at the Huntsville Botanical Garden in Alabama, which held 176 pounds.
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The species in question were the Victoria cruziana and the Victoria amazonica, giant water lilies that can produce a pad 6 feet in diameter in a mere 3 months. The pads act like solar panels, soaking up sun to produce chlorophyll to feed the underwater plant.
The pads themselves have a “highly engineered network of radiating ribs and cross-veins,” the Denver Gardens explains, with each of these becoming stiff and trapping air. The edges of the pads are turned up to prevent water accumulating on the pad, while the underside is covered in razor-sharp barbs that shred any encroaching vegetation.
The famous American renegade architect Frank Lloyd Wright famously used water lilies as inspiration for the support structure in the Johnson Wax Headquarters building in Wisconsin, especially because their design could withstand far more load than traditional columns.
WATCH the Missouri entry below…
SHARE This Fun And Incredible Display Of Natural Architecture…
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