I don't post enough on plants, so I thought I'd bring you a parasitic one. Say hello to Balanophora fungosa, a parasite that feeds on tree roots. But at least this plant tries to give back to the world by sprouting blossoms. Each flower stalk bears thousands of female flowers (which resemble grains of dust) but only a couple dozen male flowers.B. fungosa is on several lists of unwanted plants. I can't find much about what they do to tree roots, but I imagine that they are the tree equivalent of toenail fungus. I'm glad toenail fungus doesn't send up flower stalks.
Ok, officially yucky! Looks almost human, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteI'm about to get crude here in a min.. so I apologize in advance...
ReplyDeleteBut it looks a whole lot like uhm..... weird testicles. o_O
THANK YOU, LISA L! I was trying not to say the same thing! Somebody put a Speedo over that thing!
ReplyDelete--TwoDragons
If that looks like testicles, you ladies have been lookin' for love in all the wrong places...
ReplyDeleteI agree, Anonymous, proper testicles don't look anything like this. I'm someone who sees all sorts of inappropriate resemblances in otherwise perfectly appropriate things, too, but I see nothing testicle-esque here...
ReplyDelete