Here are 10 of the most awesome plants in the world!
8 – Tree Tumbo
The Tree Tumbo is native to the Namib desert within Namibia and Angola.
It’s mostly known as a living fossil, as it’s a plant that’s been around for pretty
much forever.
It’s informally known as “the most resilient plant in the world”!
This plant that’s native to Africa has a rather Germanic official name, because it's
named after the Austrian botanist and doctor, Friedrich Welwitsch.
Supposedly back in 1859, Welwitsch was so fascinated with the plant that he spent days
on the ground kneeling and looking at the Tree Tumbo!
While it's definitely not really all that pretty to look at, the Welwitschia plant is
truly one of a kind.
The plant consists of only two leaves and a sturdy stem with roots.
The two leaves continue to grow and can reach lengths of up to 13 feet!
While the largest specimens may be no more than 5 feet above ground, the circumference
of the leaves can grow more than 25 feet wide!
The age of individual plants is difficult to assess, but many plants are over 1000 years
old, with some plants even as old as TWO THOUSAND years old!
Seriously, are livings things really supposed to last this long?!
Because of its resiliency, the plant is actually part of the emblem in the national coat of
Arms in Namibia.
Oddly enough, some people eat this thing as well – they cook it in hot ashes and call
it the onion of the desert.
But really though, why would you wanna eat something that’s 1000 years old?
7 – Bleeding Tooth Fungus
Ever heard of the bleeding tooth fungus?
Yeah me neither.
The fruit bodies of this non-toxic fungus can pretty much bleed a bright red fluid that
contains a pigment with anticoagulant properties.
This guy is found in North America, where it’s especially common in the Pacific Northwest.
The unusual appearance of the fruit bodies is what sets this mushroom apart.
It produces spores on the surface of tooth-like protrusions that hang from the underside of
its fruit bodies.
The fruit bodies typically have a funnel-shaped cap with a white edge, although the shape
isn't guaranteed.
Although the fruit bodies are pretty interesting looking when young, they become brown and
nondescript when they age.
However, you don't wanna try one of these to eat even if they're nontoxic; supposedly
they're so bitter tasting it pretty much makes them inedible!
6 – The Pitcher plant
Pitcher plants are several different carnivorous plants that have modified leaves that make
pitfall traps.
Think of a watery grave with insides wayyyy too slippery for a bug to crawl out.
The watery part is essentially digestive fluid for the plant!
Pitcher plants are exactly what they sound like; they look like pitchers.
Like all carnivorous plants, they grow in locations where the soil is too poor in minerals
or too acidic for most plants to survive.
Rather than relying on photosynthetic glucose to survive, pitcher plants supplement available
nutrients and minerals normally gotten through the soil by devouring their insect prey!
Seriously, how smart can plants be?
Insects are attracted to the cavity formed by the cupped leaf, often by visual lure.
Inside the elongated structure is a pool of water.
The interior walls are waxy and slippery, and there are hairs toward the top that help
to make sure anything that got in stay trapped.
Once inside, many insects don't make it out, so they eventually drown in the liquid.
The plant's enzymes digest the prey and the plant is then able to replenish nutrients
that the soil can't provide.
5 – Corpse Flower
The c0rpse flower is a species of flowering plant that’s characterized as a carrion
flower, since well, it pretty much smells like the very strong horrible odor of decaying
flesh.
Ughhhh…..on a brighter note, it’s known for producing the largest individual flower
on earth.
This flower is native to the rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo and is actually one of
the three national flowers of Indonesia.
The flower grows to a diameter of around 3 feet and the largest measurement so far has
been a 3.4 foot diameter flower at the Palupuh Nature Reserve in Sumatra.
These flowers can weigh up to a whopping 24 lbs!
Actually, these flowers live as a parasite on several different types of vines in the
grape family that grow only in undisturbed rainforests.
How many of these plants still survive is unknown, but as the remaining undisturbed
forests of Borneo and Sumatra disappear, it can be assumed that their numbers are only
dwindling in number.
4 – The dancing plant
The dancing plant is one of a few plants that’s actually capable of rapid movement…..I mean,
it’s why it’s called the dancing plant.
It’s widely distributed throughout South East Asia and it can even be found on the
Society Islands, a remote chain of islands in the South Pacific.
This plant has small, lateral leaflets that move at speeds fast enough to be perceivable
with the naked eye.
To be honest, it’d be pretty freaky to see a plant dance, but that’s just me.
The leaves move up and down rhythmically, pretty much as if the plant’s actually dancing,
orrrrr it looks like it’s trying to send out some sort of signals to something out
there.
All that moving is possibly a strategy to maximize light by tracking the sun.
Each leaf actually has a hinge that lets the plant move.
But of course, the weight of these leaves means the plant must use up a lot of energy
to move it.
To optimize its movement, each large leaf also has two small leaflets at its base.
These move constantly along an elliptical path and sample the intensity of sunlight
first.
Once the smaller leaves figure out where the best spot is to get sunlight, they then direct
the large leaf to that specific area of most intensity.
To further support this theory, at night when it’s dark, the leaves droop downwards.
Another hypothesis that’s been brought up is that the rapid movements are intended to
deter potential predators.
Really?
Who came up with that one?
This plant isn’t Mayweather, if some animal wants to eat it, it’s gonna eat it!
3 – Nepenthes rajah
The Nepenthes rajah is the largest carnivorous plant in the world!
It’s most famous for the giant urn-shaped traps it produces, which can grow up to 15
inches tall and 8 inches wide.
This monstrous guy can hold almost a GALLON of water as well as 2.5 liters of digestive
fluid!
You’ll only find these guys particularly in areas of seeping ground water where the
soil is loose and wet, specifically in Malaysia.
This plant is so big, it’s known to occasionally trap even small ANIMALS, with drowned rats
being mostly the victims.
Obviously, if it can trap rats, it can also occasionally trap small vertebrates such as
frogs, lizards, or even birds that accidentally fall in.
However, these cases most likely involve sick animals and certainly isn’t the norm.
Insects, and particularly ants, are its normal prey.
Although this plant is most famous for trapping and digesting animals, what’s really interesting
about this plant is that its pitchers are also host to a large number of other organisms,
which are thought to form a symbiotic association with the plant.
Many of these animals are so specialized that they actually can’t survive anywhere else
except on these guys.
2 – Hydnora Africana
The Hydnora africana is a plant that’s native to southern Africa.
This is another plant that uses let’s just call it, interesting odors, to attract things
it’s looking for.
The genus name comes from the Greek word for truffle and the word africana means exactly
what you’d expect, that the plant is from Africa.
The plant grows underground, except for the very distinctive looking pink flower that
emerges above ground.
So that odor I was talking about?
Welllll basically this flower emits an odor of poop to attract its natural pollinators,
which are dung beetles and carrion beetles.
Yep, beetles that love to play in and collect poop.
The flowers act as temporary traps, retaining the beetles that enter long enough for them
to pick up pollen.
These plants don’t have chlorophyll, so they don’t perform photosynthesis.
In case you guys forgot, chlorophyll is essential for photosynthesis, which is the process in
which plants get energy from the sun.
Instead these guys get their their nutrients from a host plant.
They have an enzyme which allows it to dissolve some of the roots of its host plants in order
to attach to them.
After attaching to the roots of the host, these plants then go ahead and take some of
the nutrients that the host plant makes from photosynthesis.
This sounds like a parasitic relationship to me, but hey, that’s just me.
In the case that you can get over that smell it gives off, this guy does produce a fruit
that grows underground that’s similar in taste and texture to a potato.
The fruit takes its sweet old time to ripen, by taking up to two years to ripen fully.
1 – Venus flytrap
The Venus flytrap is a carnivorous plant native to the East Coast of the United States in
North Carolina and South Carolina!
How many plants are actually carnivores?!
Its structure can be described as a rosette of four to seven leaves, which arise from
a short stem.
Each stem reaches a maximum size of about one to four inches, depending on the time
of year.
The plant's common name refers to Venus, the Roman goddess of love.
The genus name, Dionaea, refers to the Greek goddess Aphrodite, while the species name,
muscipula, is Latin for "mousetrap".
The Venus flytrap catches its prey, mainly insects and arachnids, by trapping them with
an enclosing structure formed by each of the plant's leaves, pretty much like closing an
envelope!
When an insect or spider crawling along the leaves touches a hair, the trap prepares to
close, snapping shut only if another contact occurs within approximately twenty seconds
of the first touch.
Really, do these plants know how to count or something?
Most carnivorous plants selectively feed on specific prey, and the Venus flytrap isn’t
any different.
Its prey is limited to beetles, spiders and other crawling arthropods.
The Venus flytrap isn’t just going to trap whatever!
The requirement of the 2 step triggering in its mechanism serves as a safeguard against
wasting energy by trapping objects with no nutritional value.
The Venus flytrap will only decide to begin digestion after five more different stimuli
to ensure that it caught a live bug worthy of its time and energy!
Here’s what’s next!