Oct 20 2011

Botanical Wednesday: I’m pretty sure it’s from Mars

Categories:

Organisms

by PZ Myers

(Also on Sb)

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36 comments

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1

Glen Davidson

20 October 2011 at 1:22 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I like this image of same. Looks like a great gaping maw. Info at the site, too, like that the flowers are growing from the surfaces of the roots.

I think it’d eat Martians.

Glen Davidson
2

wholething

20 October 2011 at 1:28 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

A great gaping maw? I saw female genitalia.
3

Daniel Schealler

20 October 2011 at 1:30 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I have a sudden urge to plant one of these in a green pipe.
4

DobermanGuy

20 October 2011 at 1:41 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Cantaloupe vagina!!!
5

Rev. BigDumbChimp

20 October 2011 at 1:42 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Man eating Cantaloupe. RUN!
6

ChasCPeterson

20 October 2011 at 1:43 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Really? I’m getting a distinct Venusy vibe.
7

Philip Legge

20 October 2011 at 1:55 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

With those cilia lining the edges of the maw I’m getting a freaky vagina dentata vibe.
8

Ichthyic

20 October 2011 at 1:58 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

so… the pod people contained inside these things have already escaped?
9

Atheist Aaron

20 October 2011 at 2:01 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Kind of like a deflated beach ball.
10

feralboy12

20 October 2011 at 2:05 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Whatever it is, I’m just going to back away slowly.
11

you_monster

20 October 2011 at 2:05 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Shai-Hulud
12

Matthew Hodson

20 October 2011 at 2:23 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

The rare giant earth lobster emerges claws first.
13

Autumn

20 October 2011 at 2:34 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I thought it was a stinkhorn. I guess one never stops learning.
14

Father/Brother/Nephew/Cousin/ex-Mother-in-Law Ogvorbis, OM: Independently-Minded Baboon

20 October 2011 at 2:37 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I get a whiff of Sauron’s Unblinking Eye.
15

A3Kr0n

20 October 2011 at 2:49 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Mmmmmmm… Melon on a stick!
16

scarina

20 October 2011 at 2:52 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

When does the facehugger explode out of it?
17

andyo

20 October 2011 at 3:35 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

How subliminal. Well played, god. Well played.
18

MikeM

20 October 2011 at 3:53 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

It’s Audrey II!

Little Shop, Little Shop of Horrors!

Feed me!
19

MikeM

20 October 2011 at 3:56 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2733546496/tt0091419

Dead-ringer. Where’s Rick Moranis when you need him?
20

Echidna

20 October 2011 at 5:10 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Stinky parasite.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydnora_africana
21

uncle frogy

20 October 2011 at 5:13 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

according to Wikipedia it is a parasitic plant and the flower which we see here has the tantalizing odor of feces. it would go rather well with stinkhorns and Stapelia and varities of Arums and similar plants. it would give a new meaning to the beauty of “god’s flower creation”

uncle frogy
22

Merridol

20 October 2011 at 5:16 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

So cool. And it’s a stinky scent mimic, too. Attracts dung beetles wherever it’s planted, according to Glen Davidson’s link.
23

UpAgainstTheRopes

20 October 2011 at 5:18 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

@wholething

A great gaping maw? I saw female genitalia.

You must have the must the most amazing anxiety dreams from having seen(or despite having seen) the movie Teeth
24

Marella

20 October 2011 at 8:45 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

So not edible then?
25

Gregory Greenwood

20 October 2011 at 11:13 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Marella@ 24;

So not edible then?

At a guess, no. By the look of it, if bitten, it might bite back.
26

Birger Johansson

20 October 2011 at 11:48 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

“I’m a mean green mother from outer space, and I am bad”

I want a GM, nonparasitic version I can plant in rows around my house to keep burglars away. That version would not be limited to smell as offensive strategy (hint; acid for sap, stronger cilia around the maw).
27

Antiochus Epiphanes

20 October 2011 at 11:57 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I loves you, PZ. When Cthulhu returns, may you be the first one devoured!

For those who don’t know, parasitic plants are the most interesting thing in the world. The close realtive of this plant Hydnora tricepscompletes its entire life-cycle underground…from seed to flower. It is completely bad-ass!

I’m so freaking happy right now, I’m going to go do some work.
28

kc

20 October 2011 at 12:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

i think i’ve seen this in an o’keefe painting before. no?
29

Hillary Rettig

20 October 2011 at 1:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Feed me, Seymour!
30

jennyxyzzy

20 October 2011 at 1:54 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I don’t know what it is, but I think I need one for Halloween
31

peicurmudgeon

20 October 2011 at 2:00 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

From Mars or Venus?
32

Jaime

20 October 2011 at 2:56 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

“Venus and Mars are alright tonight…”
33

nazani14

20 October 2011 at 3:17 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

It reminds me that I will need to bring in my jack-o-lantern before going to bed on Halloween, so that I can make delicious pumpkin curry the next day. Last year the raccoons beat me to it.

I’m deeply saddened to see that some of you think it looks anything like lady-bits. (The Dodge Ram logo, however, looks a lot like cervix/uterus/fallopian tubes.)
34

Hercules Grytpype-Thynne

20 October 2011 at 3:51 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Didn’t one of these explode and kill a redshirt on Star Trek TOS?
35

Amy

20 October 2011 at 8:09 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

We have all kinds of weird and wonderful plants in South Africa!

And this also apparently has some interesting uses: “The fruit is delicious when baked on a fire and has a sweetish taste. Jackal food is used in a series of Cape dishes as recorded in the recipe book of Betsie Rood, Kos uit die veldkombuis (Rood 1994). One of the recipes describes how the fruit pulp can be mixed with cream to make a delicious dessert. The fruit is extremely astringent and has been used for tanning and preserving fishing nets.”

http://www.plantzafrica.com/planthij/hydnorafric.htm
36

Monado, FCD

21 October 2011 at 12:57 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

It looks like a vegetable version of a comb jelly. I thought it might be something in an aquarium.