Mother Earth

Strange Plants

There are a lot of strange things on the earth and plants are no exception. I am not talking about all plants of course, just those that don't seem to fit into the mold of what a plant does, or looks like. Recently it has been found that certain spores could survive in space. This fact has to make one wonder if any of the plants on this planet are really native to some other world and got here after traveling millions of years in the dark and harsh environment of space. Some of those hardy spores might have even hitched a ride on a meteor and even fell off when it hit our atmosphere, floating gently down until landing in soil and taking up residence. As we explore space more fully we may find that some of the plants on earth are the same as some of the plants on other planets. Even if they don't look the same they might share the same DNA.

Plants seem to run in their own time. What I mean about that is that if we speed up their actions, they look more like animals than plants. It is almost like they are living in a different time frame than we are. To illustrate this point just take a look at this link that I have provided http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjWJiIYwAf0
You will see how amazing plants look when their movements are sped up.

One truly weird plant is the Rafflesia arnoldii. The flowering part of the plant produces the largest individual flower on earth. You will only find this plant in the rain forests of Sumatra and Borneo. There are plants that produce larger clusters of flowers but not produce a larger flower. The flower itself can attain a diameter of almost a meter and can weigh up to 24 pounds. The plant produces no leaves and has no roots. The flowering part of the plant produces an odor that smells like rotting flesh. Because of this smell, the plant has earned the nickname of “corpse plant”. The flower itself lasts only a few days and the buds take many months to flower and that makes the plant even harder to locate. The plants are nearing extinction as the forests disappear. Just recently it was discovered that genetically the plant is related to the same family as poinsettias, rubber trees and a few other plants.

Dracunculus vulgaris

Dracunculus vulgaris
Graphic Source: Public Domain

Another unusual giant flowering plant is the Dracunculus vulgaris. It has other names such as the Dragon Arum, Black Arum, Voodoo Lily, Snake Lily, Stink Lily, Dragonwort, Black Dragon and Ragons. It makes one wonder why these large flowering plants smell so bad doesn't it? The plant comes from the area of the Balkans extending to Greece and there it is called Drakondia. It was brought to the U.S. and can be found in Oregon, California, Tennessee and Puerto Rico. The plant is pollinated by flies which it traps for about a day and when they are covered with pollen, it releases them. The flowering part of the plant produces a large purple flower that can be as large as a couple of feet high with a long black stick like structure in the middle that is usually slightly longer than the flower itself.

Some people think that the strangest plant in the world is the Welwitschia. It looks like someone dumped a bunch of plant debris on the ground. One of the reasons that this plant is thought to be so strange, is that it lives up to 2,000 years. Can you imagine a plant that was around during the Roman era and still exists now? This plant is considered to be a living fossil. It can be found in parts of Namibia and Angola. The plant has only two leaves but they grow extremely long and wrap around. The plants has a long thick taproot. The two leaves contribute to its messy look and they continue to grow for the entire life of the plant. The plants are in danger in Namibia from collectors, but are far less vulnerable in Angola because not many people want to risk being blown up by one of the numerous land mines left in that country. Seeds can be purchased and these plants grown.

Sometimes we look at some of these plants and get the feeling that we have aliens in our midst. One of the plants that has really fascinated most of us is the Venus Flytrap. The scientific name for the plant is Dionaea muscipula. I think what fascinates us so much about this plant is the fact that it is a carnivore. Tiny hairs on the inner surfaces of the plants leaves can detect an insect or small animal and when it hits one or more hairs twice, the trap closes and all is lost. The plant does not trigger on contact with a hair once to save energy trapping something that it can not get nutrition from, such as a non living loose leaf. When one of these plants is observed in fast motion on a film, they certainly seem animal like. There are very tiny holes that allow tiny creatures to escape. It is believed that the energy used to consume a creature that small would be more than the benefit the plant would derive from eating them. Only a very small group of plants are capable of rapid movement and the Venus Flytrap is one of them. Science still does not fully understand the mechanism that springs the trap on these plants.

Why is it that there is so much more diversification among plants than people, or should we think of people as part of the greater animal family? Are all these fascinating plants and others that I didn't have room to mention, all from the earth or did some of them come here by spores or seeds floating through space? These are a couple of the tough questions that we many not be in a position to answer right now. It is true that if we consider humans as part of the animal family then we do see much greater diversity, but is it fair to lump us in with animals? As far as plants go, until we travel to other worlds, we will not know if some of the same plants we have on earth exist anywhere else.