| MadSci Network: Botany |
There are several ways to measure "fast", such as height growth, horizontal spread, reproduction rate, dry weight gain, and life cycle. Bamboo is often considered the fastest growing plant, height wise. It has been reported that it may grow up to 3 to 4 feet in height in one day. During peak growth, corn can gain about 50 grams of dry matter per square meter per day, which is the maximum reported. Wisconsin fast plants complete their seed-to-seed life cycle in about five weeks under a fluorescent light bank in a classroom. The world's smallest flowering plant, the aquatic Wolffia microscopica, can form a new plant by budding every 30 hours under ideal conditions. Many weeds are very rapid growers. The aquatic weeds, water hyacinth and giant salvinia, spread extremely rapidly. The vine kudzu is also a very rapid grower. Fast growing shade trees grown in the USA include willows and princess tree or Paulownia. You might want to check the Guinness Book of World records to see what they currently list for the fastest growing plant. You can find much more info about these plants by using a search engine such as google.com References Bamboo Wisconsin Fast Plants Wolffia World's Fastest Reproducing Plant The Amazing Story of Kudzu Water Hyacinth Giant Salvinia FEDERAL NOXIOUS WEED LIST Paulownia
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