#weird plants

[bornulhuu]

Various organisms of planet R'haub. The planet's extremely nutritious soil has caused the plant evolution to go into hyperdrive. Allowing them to adapt active life styles and intelligence

[botanybyyen]

We're taking a break from bryophytes this week to look at Grevillea rosmarinifolia (Proteaceae), aka the rosemary grevillea. And buckle in, because I have a *lot* of photos to share. The above is a mature, open flower while....

...these are opening flowers! This Grevillea is native to south-eastern Australia it is also a common horticultural plant, with a huuuuge variety of cultivars and hybrids in production.

Plants are usually a shrub of 0.3-2m with dense, and very prickly, foliage. Flowers are a typical Grevillea flower (they have tepals and a pollen presenter) with the wild forms being red-pink.

Flower buds are green instead of white. They change colour as they mature.

This specimen, which is from a plant growing on campus, also had pink pollen! Very exciting indeed. The pollen on this pollen presenter had the most perfect impression of the anthers I've ever seen.

Like, look at that. Gorgeous.

For those that don't know, Grevillea anthers dehisce pollen onto the pollen presenter before the flower fully opens.

And another reminder, Grevillea pollen is triangular!

And for anyone who's stuck around this far, here's a present for you. A little sap-sucker (Hemiptera) nymph hiding in the crook of an immature flower. I see these guys all the time on Grevillea. They must make great homes.

[natureisthegreatestartist]

What's this? Skeleton flowers (Diphylleia grayi), whose petals appear transparent when wet. When the petals dry out, they look like regular flowers again. Bizarre and beautiful, yes?

[keytobeing]

pink and green exotic plants and flowers

[withdreamsofhereafter]

Tasmanian fungi photographed by Chris Herbert (x)

[los-plantalones]

GUYS ITS MY FAVORITE ALMOST SPRING EVENT

The return of the weird little stinky dudes who produce their own heat and smell like rotting onions in a rubber sack with hints of weed and bad compost

I love you skunk cabbage never change 💚

[alyrawalhorn]

"Hanging in Emptiness"

Branches are the body, nerves are the connection... connection with an alien, dangerous, and terrifying world. From birth to death, frightened souls hang from the branch, gazing into the oppressive silence ☆

oil on canvas, 2026

[intrepideternal]

20 days of growth on this Kew Gardens Amorphophallus titanus, literally meaning “penis-shaped giant” inflorescence.

The tree looking thing is actually an herb! It has no bark, and is succulent. The “leaves” are technically all a single leaf, which photosynthesizes for around 4 years to store up enough energy in an underground corm (tuber) that produces a giant inflorescence. The “flower” you see is technically just a structure for thousands of small interior flowers. There are female flowers deep inside the purple lettuce-y looking “spathe”. The big spike is called a “spadix”, and as the flies are attracted to the rotting-flesh scent the flowers produce, they walk down over the male flowers to the female flowers, thus depositing the pollen and completing the pollination cycle. Here at Kew, we need to conserve the biological wealth of the gardens, and therefore will facilitate pollination by cutting a hole in the spathe to hand pollinate the flowers. Despite the harmful reputation, the scent was not so strong today, however, after the ~48 hour period of blooming, it may smell worse. I will be back tomorrow to check!