1. The plant that eats birds and rats
Popular among collectors, pitcher plants produce relatively cute-looking hanging vessels which attract flies and drown them in digestive fluids (less cute). But unfortunately for birds, frogs or small mammals living in Borneo, Nepenthes rajah is big enough to swallow much bigger prey, even if this is not its precise intention.
With pitchers up to 41cm tall and holding 3.5l of fluid, the sweet nectar within them tempts creatures to drink, where they slip on the slick surfaces of the plant and fall to their doom.
2. The flower that pretends to be dead meat
The succulent carrion plant, Stapelia gigantea, has large, star-shaped flowers with reddish-brown patterns that look – and smell – like rotting flesh. They evolved specifically to attract a particular type of native southern African blowfly. Thinking the flower is a carcass, the flies land to lay eggs and, in the process, pollinate the plant.
3. The parasite that can sniff out the tastiest victim
The dodder vine or Cuscuta is a parasitic plant which grows worldwide and is seeded via bird droppings directly onto host plants, where its roots cut into branches and extract food and water.
Intriguingly, the dodder vine has very specific tastes and, once established, will grow deliberately towards the most nutritious victims. A key 2006 study found that seedlings of Cuscuta pentagona grew directly toward the scent of tomato plants, ignoring less apparently tasty plants nearby.
4. The orchid that uses sex to attract bees
Ophrys sphegodes, commonly known as the early spider-orchid, mimics the shape and scent of the female solitary mining bee to pull in randy male pollinators. In fact, the flower’s labellum (lip petal) resembles the size, colour and hairy texture of a female bee’s abdomen.
When the male mining bee inevitably falls for the orchid’s charms, it pollinates the flower in the process. This means the plant, which grows across Europe, can achieve pollination without having to go to the effort of producing nectar. It’s a very different kind of honey trap.
5. The deadly carnivorous plant that weaponises maths
How does the Venus flytrap, Dionaea muscipula, know the difference between a raindrop and a tasty meal? Incredibly, it uses maths. Inside each of its infamous traps are tiny trigger hairs, which tell the plant when to snap its jaws shut and again when to release digestive fluids.
It will only shut when there are two touches within 20 seconds, and after that, it waits for five more touches before releasing digestive fluid. This allows the plant, which is native to the coastal plains of North and South Carolina in the USA, to be sure it has captured a juicy insect rather than, for example, a drop of rain.
6. The ghost that steals sugar
All plants use sunlight to create the sugars they need to grow through a process called photosynthesis. But the spookily white ghost pipe plant, Monotropa uniflora, doesn’t have chlorophyll, the green pigment that makes the process work. Instead, its short, stubby roots tap into the mycorrhizal network surrounding the roots of trees in shady, moist forests across North and Central America and Asia, where they steal the sugar they need to grow.
7. The fruit that’s full of dead, decaying wasps
The poor fig wasp is so eager to reach the flowers of figs that it often gets swallowed up in the process. The fruit of the fig is actually a syconium – a closed structure containing multiple tiny flowers, which the wasp pollinates by crawling inside a tiny hole.
Unfortunately, once there, the wasp (Blastophaga psenes in the case of the common fig, Ficus carica) often finds itself unable to get out again, and is broken down by the enzymes inside the fruit. But don’t let this put you off your figgy pudding – most edible figs grown for human consumption are parthenocarpic, which means they develop without fertilisation (or bonus insects inside the fruit).
8. The vine that strangles its host
Pity any tree that falls victim to the strangler fig, Ficus aurea, commonly found in tropical forests across Florida, the West Indies and Central America. Its powerful roots thicken and wrap around its host plant, competing fiercely for water, nutrients and light until the host loses the fight and dies. Eventually, the fig becomes a self-supporting tree, hollow at the core where its host once stood.
9. The shape-shifting vine that imitates its neighbours
Boquila trifoliolata, a shape-shifting vine found in temperate rainforests of Southern Chile and Argentina, can mimic the size, shape, orientation and leaf-stalk length of host plants as it grows through the jungle. In fact, it mimics not only the plant it is growing on but also those that are just nearby. This allows it to blend in with its neighbours and reduce the risk of being eaten by passing animals – but scientists are still debating how it manages to do this without being able to see.
10. The flower that watches the sun
Think plants stay still? Think again. The common sunflower, Helianthus annuus, found in domestic gardens across the world, can move its young, developing flowers up to 180 degrees through the course of the day to follow the sun – then move them back at night, ready to face the sunrise.
