Archive for the ‘Plants’ Category

Remote Island Contains Alien-Like Plant Life

Thursday, September 26th, 2013

That bizarre-looking tree in the photo above isn’t part of the latest concept art for the Avatar sequel. Nope. Called the Dragon’s Blood Tree it’s one of hundreds of strange, almost alien-like, plants that thrive on the remote Socotra Island hiding in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

Socotra Island is not only home to some of the strangest-looking plant life on the planet. It’s also home to an amazing bit of architecture and some of the rarest birds in the world and has been labeled a heritage site meaning that it will remain in its mostly untouched condition despite almost 40,000 residents.

[Bin’s Corner]

Posted in Plants, Weirdest Places | Comments Off on Remote Island Contains Alien-Like Plant Life

How Does This Plant Eat Flesh?

Wednesday, January 11th, 2012
skitched-20120111-143654.jpg

That was the challenge for one biologist who discovered that this plant, Philcoxia, was indeed consuming worms.

Yet it doesn’t seem to have any orifices to trap the organisms, or lures to bring the creepy crawlies out of the dirt to their doom. No, the Philcoxia does things the easy way. It grows sticky leaves under the ground to trap the wrigglers and slowly digests them.

Yummy.

The picture below shows a close-up of the worms trapped underground in the leaves.

[Discovery]

skitched-20120111-143913.jpg

Posted in Animals, death, Plants | Comments Off on How Does This Plant Eat Flesh?