Blooming huge

Botanists discovered the largest species of giant water lily at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, with leaves more than 10ft wide. The plant with the largest leaves is the Raffia regalis, a palm whose foliage can grow up to 82ft long and 10ft wide. The largest living organism is a colony of identical aspen named Pando (‘I spread’ in Latin) in Utah which covers 108 acres. A wild fig tree in Mpumalanga, South Africa has the longest roots on record at 400ft.

Net profits

Wimbledon comes to an end this weekend with the men’s and ladies’ finals. How has the total prize money for the singles championship changed over time?

Men’s / Women’s / Total prizes

1972 £5k / £3k / £50k

1982 £42k / £38k / £0.6m

1992 £265k / £240k / £4.4m

2002 £525k / £486k / £8.8m

2012 £1.1m / £1.1m / £16m

2022 £2m / £2m / £40m

Source: The All England Club

Jaws of death

Two tourists died from shark attacks in Egypt’s Red Sea last week. Last year there were 9 fatalities from 73 unprovoked attacks. Where did they happen?

Australia 3

New Caledonia 2

USA 1

Brazil 1

South Africa 1

New Zealand 1

Source: Florida Museum of Natural History

Cut price

Commodity prices shot up after Russia invaded Ukraine, fuelling inflation of 9.1 per cent in the UK and 8.6 per cent in the US. But recently some prices have begun to fall. Price drop from post-invasion peak:

US natural gas -37%

Wheat -35%

Copper -25%

Corn -7%

Satellite operations

Virgin Orbit announced it will launch a satellite from Newquay, Cornwall, in September – the first launch of its kind from the UK. Where are the other proposed locations for domestic spaceports?

– Shetland, Scotland

– Sutherland, Scotland

– Western Isles, Scotland

– Campbeltown, Scotland

– Prestwick, Scotland

– Snowdonia, Wales

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