Nature is full of some truly bizarre and weird creates and these include plants. There are nearly 300,000 species of plants on earth, and it is not totally surprising to find some very strange ones among them. Here is a piece on some of the strangest plants in the world.
1. Kauri Tree (New Zealand)
This tree is located on the Kauri Coast in New Zealand, and it is revered as one of the biggest trees anywhere in the world. This tree can reach more than 50m in height with the trunk girths reaching up to 16m and can live for well more than 2,000 years. This coast in New Zealand is the home to some of the biggest and last remaining kauri trees in the world.
2. Baobab Tree (Madagascar)
This is an alien-looking tree that is found in the low-lying zones of Australia and Africa. This tree grows in some of the driest places on earth, but it is specially adapted to the area so much so that it can even provide shelter, water and food to humans and animals. When it rains, the tree can store and absorb enormous quantities of water inside its immense trunk. This allows it to produce a very nutritious fruit during the dry season. It is for this reason that the tree is known as the ‘Tree of Life’. These trees can grow to reach truly massive sizes.
3. Rafflesia Flower (Indonesia)
Here is an exceedingly rare and exotic flower found mainly in southeast Asia. It is speckled in appearance but fiery red in color and can be more than three feet in diameter, weighing more than 20 pounds. The most astonishing thing about this parasitic plant is that it smells so bad that many have called it the corpse flower.
4. Hydnora Africana (South Africa)
This is another parasitic plant which has established itself as one of the strangest plants in Africa. As it does not have any chlorophyll, it appears like a fungus and is devoid of leaves or stems even though it has flowers. Hence, one is only able to know it is not fungi once the flower opens. The buds of these flowers develop below ground. The locals harvest the plant for medicine, food and even as a source of tannin.
5. Vegetable Sheep (New Zealand)
These are big shrubs seen in the mountains of South Island in New Zealand. They were given the name because of the way they look – they have a woolly and cushion-like appearance which allows for warmth and protection.
6. Quiver Tree (Namibia)
It is also known as kokerboom, and it is seen in the very arid areas of South Africa and Namibia. In these places, the plant offers shelter and food for various birds, mammals, and insects. The plant is known to the locals as quiver trees as the bark and branches are utilized by the locals of the Kalahari Desert to make quivers used in the arrows. These plants are exceedingly rare to spot.
7. Halfmens (South Africa)
This plant is located at a height of 400 to 1,000 meters above the seal level. It is cactus-like tree and that explains all the spines, then it has a crown of big leaves that pile on an elongated trunk. This tree can be seen in the drylands of South Africa or the southern ends of the Namib Desert.
8. Utricularia Gibba (Global Distribution)
This is also known as the floating or humped bladderwort, and it is a perennial aquatic herb full of yellow summer flowers. It is found in various parts of the globe especially in boggy waters, but many will be shocked to know that it is a carnivorous plant, and it devours tiny animals. It is specially adapted to boggy areas where it uses sacs for trapping small animals and insects. This plant is seen in various parts of the globe with the notable exception of Antarctica.
