Nude woman and man in flower

A single white trumpet flower, cropped so close against an emerald tumult as to seem almost like a periscope peering out of a sea, it now hangs in the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, in Bentonville, Arkansas. A companion piece, less expensive, less vaginal, belongs to the Indianapolis Museum of Modern Art, about twenty minutes from where I grew up, in a suburb where fathers presented their daughters with promise rings. For centuries, excess floral emphasis gaslighted the fairer sex into overidentification. Flowers do this a lot, and not only to women. Following the Dutch and English penetration of Asia, the Caribbean, and Africa, Renaissance Europe was abuzz with bio-speculation; it is impossible to separate the rise of the Western floral arts from colonialism. The bubble in tulip prices is now a textbook case for the first failure in futures markets, with the subsequent collapse wiping out the mortgages of the Dutch middle class.

Like many of Rivera's paintings, The Flower Carrier imparts simplicity, yet exudes much symbolism and meaning. The paint was rubbed into the masonite, the most common method for painting on hard surfaces. The vibrant colors evoke one of Diego Rivera's favorite artist Vincent van Gogh. The colorful painting displays a peasant man in white clothing with a yellow sombrero, struggling on all fours with a dramatically oversized basket of flowers that is strapped to his back with a yellow sling.

When it comes to the garden an array of brightly coloured flowers can bring a smile to anyone's face - but when they look a bit rude you may get a few sniggers. Now gardeners who have been left red faced by some of the world's rudest plants have named and shamed them, with everything from "hooker's lips" to the "naked man orchid" making the list. Whether it is a flower in the form of a naked man or a sexually-suggestive shrub, rude plants show that nature really does have a great sense of humour. The top eight rude plants, which could border on slightly offensive, have now be revealed by researchers from the online garden centre Gardeningexpress.

Take a look at six important paintings showing female nudity in art and find out more about their hidden symbolic meanings. Nudity and art have been connected since the beginning of humanity. Female nudity in art, divine or mortal, became a fascinating and shocking symbol. For centuries, artists have been accused, absolved, marginalized because of the subjects but at the same time gained admiration, glory, and acceptance. Take a look at these six seminal paintings of female nudes and find out more about why they became so important for the history of art.