Aug 08 2012

Botanical Wednesday: Baseball!

Categories:

See? It’s a plant that looks like a baseball! And on Friday, the Minnesota Atheists Regional Conference will be sponsoring a baseball game in St Paul, the Mr Paul Aints vs. the Amarillo Sox. You should come. Here’s the schedule for the meeting: Dave Silverman, Hector Avalos, Ayanna Watson, Robert Price, Teresa McBain, J. Anderson Thompson, and me. Probably no baseball plants, though. They’ve been wiped out in the wild.

(via WebEcoist)

This post has no tag

21 comments

Skip to comment form ↓

1

lanceleuven

8 August 2012 at 5:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Well I’m glad for the explanation about the baseball game sponsoring. At first I thought PZ was being flippant about using this wonderful plant as a baseball. It seemed a strange sentiment to come from the keyboard of a biologist!
2

Ben Goren

8 August 2012 at 5:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

This is a member of the Lithops genus, no? Any chance for a bit more specificity…?

Cheers,

b&
3

Paulino

8 August 2012 at 5:45 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Who are you trying to fool? This is a terrestrial sea-urchin!!
4

Ms. Daisy Cutter, Vile Human Being

8 August 2012 at 5:54 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Probably no baseball plants, though. They’ve been wiped out in the wild.

The Chicago Cubs of botany.
5

Tethys

8 August 2012 at 5:54 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Convergent Evolution in action.
The baseball plant is Euphorbia obesa.
6

Tethys

8 August 2012 at 6:02 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Here is another example of convergence. The Sand Dollar Cactus Astrophytum asterias. Evolution is just amazing.
7

paulburnett

8 August 2012 at 6:03 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Yes, it is a Euphorbia obesa – I have one in my cactus and succulent collection that’s 12 or 13 years old.
8

adamk

8 August 2012 at 6:10 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

The plant does not look at all like a baseball.

It’s probably a triffid.
9

Glen Davidson

8 August 2012 at 6:16 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Odd idea to camouflage a baseball like that. But then again, what right to they have to always expect a bright white ball?

Glen Davidson
10

ChasCPeterson

8 August 2012 at 6:31 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

keep your eye on de ball
11

SC (Salty Current), OM

8 August 2012 at 6:35 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Gorgeous. Looks like an ocean plant (or animal)!

By the way, sunflowers.
12

otrame

8 August 2012 at 6:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I am a sucker for succulents. That is a beauty.
13

gijoel

8 August 2012 at 6:49 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Honestly it looks like a facehugger will burst out of that thing and try to make sweet love to your mouth.
14

Ben Goren

8 August 2012 at 7:33 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Tethys, paulburnett, thanks. Somehow it’s not surprising that, if it’s not a living stone that it should be Euphorbia….

b&
15

peterh

8 August 2012 at 7:49 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

M. C. Escher would be entranced.
16

faehnrich

8 August 2012 at 7:52 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

That’d be cool to grow a baseball, but Cleveland would do better with growing a team that’s actually decent.
17

georgemontgomery

8 August 2012 at 8:12 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Looks like it could be a pope’s hat…
18

blindrobin

8 August 2012 at 8:18 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

That is no plant, it’s a fossilised tribble.
19

jakc

8 August 2012 at 8:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I go with Triffid.
20

johnharshman

8 August 2012 at 11:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

To me, it looks like an echinoid. Except for the extra ambulacra; should be only 5.
21

ChasCPeterson

9 August 2012 at 9:09 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

More plants that look like echinoids (that can’t count). Cactus this time.