The following is a list of the largest inflorescences known from plants that produce seeds.
Type Species and family Native range Dimensions Comments Largest overall, largest panicle, largest monocot, Corypha umbraculifera; Arecaceae (Talipot palm) Southwestern India and Sri Lanka (Ceylon) Panicle can reach more than tall. The flowering stem (peduncle) is up to thick. It consists of up to sixty million (60,000,000) flowers and emerges from a bud high and in thickness. It is Monocarpic, flowering and fruiting only once, then dying. Tallest inflorescence Agave weberi; Asparagaceae San Luis Potosí and Tamaulipas The flowering stem, the scape, may very rarely reach as much as in height in Florida, but in its native range it only reaches . The panicle in the strict sense is just of this height. Each rosette is monocarpic, but the plant produces side shoots or "pups" which can grow as large as the mother plant. The population in Florida was regarded as a separate species as Agave neglecta, but has now been synonymized with A. weberi. Largest dicot inflorescence Caloncoba flagelliflora ; Achariaceae Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, and Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa. Each of the runners may radiate out more than from the trunk of the tree along the forest floor, with the maximum length measured as . Its wide, six-petaled white flowers rise just above the forest litter. This could be one of the longest lived inflorescences. In principle it could produce flowers for decades. Largest complex inflorescence (the major framework is one sort of inflorescence such as a panicle or raceme, but the subunits are not individual flowers, but some completely different sort of inflorescence such as a fig, which is a syconium) Ficus uncinata; Moraceae Malay Peninsula and Borneo Stolon-panicle up to in length. Width not stated. Subunits are syconia (figs). Almost all fig species are pollinated by parasitic wasps, usually one wasp species exclusively with one Ficus species. It is not clear how these two subterranean figs accomplish pollination. Largest spiciform panicle Puya raimondii; Bromeliaceae ("Titanka" or "Cunco") High Andes of Peru and western to central Bolivia Spiciform panicle that usually reaches in height, but has a maximum recorded height of . The total height of the plant when blooming may reach . The stem at the base of the inflorescence may be in height and a very thick . Composed of 8,000 to 20,000 flowers arranged into several hundred secondary spikes, each subtended by a conspicuous bract. Like the Talipot and most Agaves, this is a monocarp. The life cycle from seed to seed is 80 to 150 years. The largest individuals are to be found near the abandoned village of Manallasaq, Huamanga Province, Peru.Largest triplex inflorescence (combining features of three different kinds of inflorescences)"Makua" (Harmsiopanax ingens) Araliaceae. Montane rainforests of New Guinea. Up to high and comparable width. The basic framework is a panicle, The ultimate twigs are spikes, but not with individual flowers, but about fifty tiny umbels of 8 to 20 flowers each. H. ingens is another monocarp. Harmsiopanax may be the only genus which combines three types of inflorescence. Largest thyrse Maypole Tree (Sohnreyia excelsa) Rutaceae. Amazon Basin Up to in height and equally wide and composed of numerous botryoid cymes. This also is a monocarp. It was discovered in 1911 by Dr. Ernst H. G. Ule. Also called Spathelia excelsa. Largest unbranched inflorescence, largest spatheate inflorescence The krubi, or bunga bangui Amorphophallus titanum; Araceae Sumatra Spadix up to in height. Spathe about half as high and across the mouth. Amorphophallus hewettii marginally smaller. Amorphophallus gigas taller but smaller. The plant lives about 40 years, blooming about every fourth year. The inflorescence springs up from a corm weighing up to . A corm grown by Dr. Louis Ricciardello of Gilford, New Hampshire is claimed to have weighed and produced an inflorescence in height.Laurel Trier, "Local Surgeon May Own The Largest Flower in the World", GILFORD STEAMER newspaper (1 July 2010 Page 1 The tallest A. titanum inflorescence reported in a credible source is . In the non-flowering years the corm produces a single compound leaf about high, and comparably wide, resembling a small tree. Largest true spike (all flowers attached directly to the main axis) "Lechugilla" or "mescal pelon". Agave pelona Agavaceae Sonora State, Mexico. Spike per se up to long with additionally a peduncle. ' Largest catkin Ivory palm (Phytelephas macrocarpa). Palmae, or Arecaceae. Montane rainforests of the Andes. Male catkins up to long by thick.According to Dr. Giuseppe Mazza, the Coco de Mer (Lodoicea maldivica) can have male catkins up to in length. Caption to a photograph. but no more than width (and therefore less massive than those of Phytelephas). Lodoicea is another candidate for longest living inflorescence since the catkins are known to produce pollen for a period of ten years, "or more".Gardener's Chronicle. Volume 1 (first series) [September 4. 1841] page 583. Largest overall umbel, largest compound umbel Caucasian hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum) Umbelliferae Originally from Caucasus Mountains, but now naturalized to much of Europe. Twice compound umbel up to in width, and composed of about 10,000 flowers. The sap of this plant can produce severe burns to human skin. Largest raceme "Gibarra" (Lobelia rhynchopetalum). Campanulaceae The high mountains of Ethiopia. Raceme up to in height by about wide, on a plant with a total height of Similar giant Lobelia species are found in Ruwenzori and Mount Kilimanjaro. The Iliau (Wilkesia gymnoxiphium; Asteraceae) of Kauai, Hawai'i produces complex racemes up to long by up to wide on a peduncle up to in length, on a plant with a total height of about . The raceme consists of about two hundred yellow daisy heads (capitula) each about in diameter. These are arranged in about 20 whorls of ten capitula each. Largest bractate inflorescence Phyllobotryon soyauxianum. Historically Flacourtiaceae, but now included in Salicaceae. Rainforests of Nigeria, Cameroons and Gabon Bract up to in length by in width. Also spelled Phyllobotryum, and also known as Phyllobotryon spatulatum. The flowers appear along the midrib. It is thought by most morphologists that this represents the fusion of an inflorescence to a leaf as in Tilia species, rather than transfer of reproductive function to the leaves as in Ginkgo biloba 'Epiphylla', and some Streptocarpus spp. The largest individual flower borne upon a leaf is that of Erythrochiton hypophyllanthus (Rutaceae) of South America, which bears a solitary flower up to wide in the middle of a leaf up to length by wide. Largest enclosed (self insulated) inflorescence Sikkim rhubarb (Rheum nobile) (Chenopodiaceae) The Himalayas. Up to in height by in width at base.The inflorescence is enclosed by overlapping, translucent, cream-colored bracts up to diameter. Largest globular capitulum (wild)African breadfruit (Treculia africana) Moraceae Central Africa. About at time of flowering, eventually becoming up to in width by about half as long and weighing up to . According to Aubreville, The capitulum can be up to wide and up to in weight.The largest globular capitulum (domesticated) is the Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) (Moraceae) grown throughout southern Asia and the East Indies. The largest Jackfruit reported in a reliable journal weighed . Both the Jakcfruit and Treculia are cauliflorous (flowers and fruit borne directly on the trunk and/or major limbs). The present Guinness champion, from Pune (Poona), Maharashtra, India, weighs . Largest capitate inflorescence (wild) King protea (Protea cynaroides) Proteaceae. West Cape Province, South Africa. in diameter, including bracts. By contrast, the smallest wild capitate inflorescence is that of Hesperevax sparsiflora, a composite, which has 5 to 9 disc florets, each only 0.2 mm width, surrounded by bracts bringing the capitulum up to 3.8 mm width. The largest capitate inflorescence (domesticated) is the so-called "Russian Sunflower" (Helianthus annuus macrocarpus) Compositae which has developed capitate inflorescences or "heads" as much as wide, or if the ray florets are included. The "Russian" sunflower is native to the North American prairies. The tightly packed disc florets can have a phyllotaxis as high as 144 / 377. Largest simple umbel (all flowers radiate from one central locus point) Candelabra flower (Brunsvigia orientalis, or B. gigantea) Amaryllidaceae. South Africa. The 35 deep rose flowers form a ball up to diameter.The simple umbel with the greatest number of flowers is Flowering Onion (Allium giganteum)[Alliaceae] of the Himalayas. Mr. James N. Giridlian, a bulb dealer in Arcadia, California counted 5286 florets in a single globular umbel about diameter.Long Beach Independent Press Telegram (24 January 1970) p. B3 Largest cincinnusPaloeloe or sororoca (Phenakospermum guyannense) (Strelitziaceae)The wetlands of the Amazon Rainforest. Each cincinnus of up to 25 flowers is subtended by a sheathing bract up to in length and wide at the base. Each flower is up to in length. There are up to ten cincinni, alternating left and right, on a peduncle up to in total height. This is another monocarp with a terminal inflorescence, but like some agaves it produces sideshoots which will eventually grow as large as the mother plant; in the case of Ph. guianense up to tall.Largest verticillaster Lion's ear or wild dagga (Leonotis leonurus) Lamiaceae Savannas of South Africa and adjacent southern Africa.Five to eight evenly spaced globular clusters along a peduncle up to in height by up to in width. Some bamboos such as Dendrocalamus spp. have verticillasters of more numerous, but smaller clusters.Largest syconium Dinner plate fig (Ficus dammaropsis) (Moraceae) Montane Rainforests of New Guinea. Up to diameter. Largest cyme Begonia macdougalii (Begoniaceae) Mexico. Total length but only is the cyme sensu stricto, the rest being the peduncle.Begonian Vol. 14 Issue 11 (November 1947) page 220. Reportedly also in Brazil. Largest adventitious inflorescence Cape primrose (Streptocarpus saundersii) Gesneriaceae. KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. White or pale lavender flowers form a cluster about high by about half as wide. Unlike Tilia and Phyllobotryon, reproductive function has been transferred to the leaf. The entire plant consists of a single cotyledon (seed leaf) up to long by wide. The inflorescence forms near the petiole end of the leaf. Largest corymb American elderberry (Sambucus canadensis maxima) Caprifoliaceae. Eastern North America. Corymb up to in width.Largest dimorphic bractate inflorescence Marcgravia evenia (Marcgraviaceae)