8 plants you need to see in person to believe Posted by Elise Kirsten on 12 April 2019 Tags:corpse flower, plant, plants, succulents, tropical pitcher plant 1. Dragon blood tree Dracanae cinnabari Dragon blood tree – Socotra Island, Yemen. Image credit: Rod Waddington/ Flickr This tree, found in Yemen and native to the Socotra archipelago, gets its intriguing name from the colour of its sap – red, of course. The dragon blood is an evergreen tree which grows to about 9m in height. Each branch of the tree continuously divides itself into two, which is known as dichotomous branching. 2. Devil’s betelnut box Rafflesia arnoldii A Rafflesia Arnoldii and its buds, taken at foothill of Mt. Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Image credit: Creative Commons This unusual-looking flower is one of Indonesia’s three national flowers and is found in Sumatra and Borneo. It has the nickname Kerubut, meaning ‘Devil’s betelnut box’ and it emits a smell of rotting flesh to attract insects to pollinate it. 3. Bear’s-head tooth mushroom Hericium americanum Source: Wikipedia Creative Commons Technically, fungi aren’t plants, but this bizarre-looking mushroom is definitely intriguing. The bear’s-head tooth mushroom is found in North America, usually grows on dead hardwood trees and is white when young and yellows with age. It’s edible when it is still white and has a nutty taste. 4. Jackal food Hydnora Africana Jackal food flower. Image credit: Flickr The jackal food plant grows underground with only its flower (which is brown on the outside and bright salmon or orange on the inside) above the surface. This parasitic plant has no chlorophyll and takes what it needs from its host. According to Sanbi.org it is found in ‘dry and semi-arid parts of the Succulent Karoo, Little Karoo, Eastern Cape Karoo, and the dry coastal thickets between the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal’. The plant can also be found in other parts of Africa, such as Namibia, Swaziland, Botswana and as far north as Ethiopia. 5. Tropical pitcher plant Nepenthes species Image credit: This tropical pitcher plant is found predominantly in Borneo, Sumatra and the Philippines. It uses its pouch as a trap to catch small creatures that gets caught inside by its sticky sap. This can include spiders, worms, ants and lizards. Some species of these pitcher plants have developed a symbiotic relationship with tree shrews. The pitcher acts as a toilet for the shrew, giving the plant nitrogen from the dung, while the shrew eats the plants’ exudate. 6. Corpse flower Amorphophallus Titanium Image credit: Pixaby and Wikipedia The corpse flower is the largest individual flower on Earth, and one of the most rare. It only flowers once every 30 to 40 years, causing great excitement when it does. The large, smelly plant – it’s one of a group of plants that emit a foul stench of carrion to draw insects to help pollinate it – is only found naturally in western Sumatra and western Java, Indonesia. It can also be found in a number of greenhouses and botanical gardens throughout the world, for instance at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in England and the Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney, Australia. 7. African starfish flower Stapelia grandiflora Image credit: Flickr Known globally as starfish flowers and locally as carrion flowers, this species of succulent found in South Africa is characterised by its starfish-shaped, foul-smelling flowers. The flowers give off a strong scent of rotting meat to attract flies as pollinators, however, according to Sanbi.org, ‘species such as S. erectiflora and S. flavopurpurea have sweetly-scented flowers, but they are rare.’ 8. Living stone plants Lithops schwantesii Stone plant. Image credit: Pixaby Living stone plans are tiny caespitose succulents found in Namibia and South Africa’s Northern Cape which as the name suggests, look like stones. The plant grows almost entirely under the soil, with only the upper truncated part of the leaves visible. They often grow in twos or threes, but up to 15 can be clustered together in a group and the plant produces pretty, vygie-like flowers (also known as ice plants). You may also like Related Posts ‘Stroop’ gets SANParks Kudu Award and donates prize money 4 December 2019 'Stroop', the acclaimed documentary that investigates rhino poaching in South Africa, received its 26th award... read more Greta Thunberg arrives in Europe by catamaran 3 December 2019 Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg arrived in the port of Lisbon on Tuesday morning after... read more Activists want SANParks to provide replacement for Tokai Forest pines 3 December 2019 Parkscapes is appealing to SANParks to meet with the organisation to discuss upholding the agreed... read more PREV ARTICLE NEXT ARTICLE
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