The Most Expensive Plant In The World
If you've ever been to a botanical garden, or even a Pike's nursery, you likely felt an instant feeling of inner peace. After all, we're creatures that spend most of our time indoors despite having once been wild animals ourselves. It's natural to feel a calling to commune with all things green.
But just how much green would you be willing to shell out to have a special plant for yourself? In terms of the most expensive plant in the world, it'll cost you seven figures.
Unsurprisingly, most of the world's costliest plants are flowers, whose ornamental nature lends themselves to outsized price tags. According to MNN, this is the case with Rothschild's orchid (Paphiopedilum rothschildianum), also known as the Gold of Kinabalu orchid. Discovered in 1987, it was quickly ravaged by orchid smugglers, nearly leading to its extinction.
Its popularity stems from its regal horizontal petals, and the fact that it only grows wild in Malaysia's Kinabalu National Park, with each single bloom taking many years to appear. If you're in the market for one of these beauties, expect to plop down around $5,000 per stem.
Green paper for green plants
If you think that's expensive, you'll have to dive far deeper into your pockets to come up with the money for the world's most expensive bonsai tree, which netted $1.3 million at auction in Japan, according to Bonsai Empire. Even bonsai pots which contain the plants have been known to fetch as much as $150,000 — a tribute to both the time, effort and pure dedication it takes to cultivate these plants.
Still, things get more expensive. The Juliet rose cost breeder David Austin $5 million to make over the course of 15 years. The apricot-shaded beauty debuted in 2006, taking the floral world by storm. You can buy a Juliet rose for much less now, but technically, this is the costliest plant of all time.
But you know what goes out on a limb even further than price? Something that's priceless. That's what's up with the Sri Lankan Kadupul flower, which blooms as little as once a year in the dead of night and disappears before dawn. And if you try to harvest it? It won't last long enough to present to your bae on Valentine's Day. So, it's the kind of thing you just have to admire, assuming you make it to Sri Lanka in the dead of night on the one night of the year it blooms. It's kind of like that plant from Dennis the Menace, except this one has a legendary, calming scent.