Amazing and weird plant species around the world with their description and Photos. All the carnivorous plants present in our planet Fascinating plants facts and wonders of Nature

1. Amazing & Weird Plants
Around the World
By: Walid Hashmi.

2. 1) Corpse lily :
• Botanical name:- Amorphophallus titanum
• Family:- Araceae
• Location:- Sumatra (Indonesia)
 It is the Largest Inflorescence in the
World !!! (It's not actually one big flower,
but thousands upon thousands of little male
and female flowers.)
 Due to its odor, which is like the smell of a
rotting corpse or carcass, the titan arum is
characterized as a carrion flower, and is
also known as the corpse flower or corpse
plant
 This Odor is for Attracting its pollinators
for pollination.
 It comes from the forests of Sumatra
(Indonesia).
 A mature plant can weigh about 200 pounds.

3. Male Flowers
Female Flower

4. 2) Corpse Flower:
• Botanical name:- Rafflesia species.
• Family:- Rafflesiaceae
• Location:- Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia.
 It is the World’s largest single flower !!!
 Rafflesia is a genus of parasitic flowering
plants. It contains approximately 28
species.
 The plant has no stems, leaves or roots. It
is a holoparasite of vines (Tetrastigma
vines in tropical rainforest) spreading its
absorptive organ, the haustorium, inside
the tissue of the vine.
 The only part of the plant that can be seen
outside the host vine is the five-petalled
flower.
 The flowers look and smell like rotting
flesh, hence its local names which translate
to "corpse flower" or "meat flower".

5.  The foul odor attracts insects such as flies, which transport pollen
from male to female flowers. Most species have separate male and
female flowers, but a few have hermaphroditic flowers.

6. 3) Wolffia:
Botanical name:- Wolffia species
Family:- Araceae
Location:- Native to Europe, Africa, and parts of Asia
 These are the World's smallest flowering
plant !!!
 Wolffia is a genus of nine to 11 species
which include the smallest flowering
plants on Earth.
 Commonly called Watermeal or Duckweed.
 They are Aquatic in Nature
 The flower is produced in a depression on
the top surface of the plant body.
 It has one stamen and one pistil.
 Wolffia species are composed of about
40% protein on a dry-matter basis, about
the same as the soybean, making them a
potential high-protein human food source.

8. 4) Lithops (Living Stones):
• Botanical name:- Lithops species
• Family:- Aizoaceae
• Location:- Southern Africa
 Commonly known as the living Stones.
 Some plants use toxins to avoid
being eaten. Some use thorns. A
Lithops survives by pretending to be
a rock.
 Lithops is a genus of succulent plants
in the ice plant family, Aizoaceae.
 Individual Lithops plants consist of
one or more pairs of bulbous, almost
fused leaves opposite to each other
and hardly any stem.
 The slit between the leaves contains
the meristem and produces flowers
and new leaves.

9.  The leaves of Lithops are mostly buried below the surface
of the soil, with a partially or completely translucent top
surface known as a leaf window which allows light to enter
the interior of the leaves for photosynthesis.
Translucent Surface
Leaf window
Photosynthetic
region

11. 5) Indian Pipe Plant:
• Botanical name:- Monotropa uniflora
• Family:- Ericaceae
• Location:- Udmurtiya, Asia, America
 Monotropa uniflora, also known as Ghost plant (or
ghost pipe), Indian pipe or corpse plant, is
an herbaceous perennial plant native to temperate
regions of Udmurtiya in European
Russia, Asia, North America and northern South
America.
 Unlike most plants, it is white and does not
contain chlorophyll.
 Instead of generating energy from sunlight, it
is parasitic, more specifically a mycoheterotroph.
 Its hosts are certain fungi that
are mycorrhizal with trees, meaning it ultimately
gets its energy from photosynthetic trees.

12.  Since it is not dependent on sunlight to grow, it can grow in very dark
environments as in the understory of dense forest.
 It is often associated with beech trees.
 The plant is sometimes completely waxy white, but often has black flecks
or pale pink coloration.

14. 6) Hydnora
Botanical name:- Hydnora africana
Family:- Aristolochiaceae
Location:- Southern Africa
 These plants do not have chlorophyll
and do not perform photosynthesis.
 They obtain their nutrients entirely
from a host plant.
 Hydnora africana has an enzyme
which allows it to dissolve some of
the roots of its host plants in order
to attach to them. Hydnora africana
attaches to the roots of the host and
takes some of the nutrients that it
makes from photosynthesis.
 The Hydnora grows completely
underground except for the flower.
 Its Flower has an Unpleasant smell
like Dung.

15.  Insects that pollinate the flowers do so by burying themselves in the
sepals of the flowers through the very strong fibres that hold the
sepals together.
 After the insects have been in the flowers for a couple of days, the
flower emerges and opens releasing the insects to spread the pollen to
other flowers in the area.
 H. africana produces a fruit that grows underground, taking up to two
years to ripen fully.
 Each fruit produces about twenty thousand seeds.
Fruit

16. 7) Venus Flytrap:
• Botanical name:- Dionaea muscipula
• Family:- Droseraceae
• Location:- North and South Carolina
 The Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) is a
carnivorous plant native to subtropical
wetlands on the East Coast of the United
States in North Carolina and South
Carolina.
 It catches its prey—chiefly insects and
arachnids,with a trapping structure
formed by the terminal portion of each of
the plant's leaves, which is triggered by
tiny hairs (called "trigger hairs" or
"sensitive hairs") on their inner surfaces.
 The plant's "jaws" act like interlocking
fingers or, to the insect inside, prison
bars. They do their best to restrain the
insect from escaping. Then digestive
juices break down the insect's body.

17. Trigger hairs

18. Complete Morphology of Venus Flytrap

19. 8) Tropical Pitcher Plants:
• Botanical name:- Nepenthes species
• Family:- Nepenthaceae, Sarraceniaceae
• Location: Sumatra, Borneo, and the Philippines
 Pitcher plants are several different
carnivorous plants which have modified leaves
known as pitfall traps—a prey-trapping
mechanism featuring a deep cavity.
 This cavity is filled with digestive liquid.
 The traps of these pitcher plant are nothing
but Modified Leaves.
 Foraging, flying or crawling insects such as
flies are attracted to a cavity formed by the
cupped leaf, often by visual lures such as
anthocyanin pigments, and nectar.
 The rim of the pitcher (peristome) is slippery
when moistened by condensation or nectar,
causing insects to fall into the trap.

20.  As the insect falls into the trap The lid above the cup Closes avoiding the
insects to escape.
 The prey items are converted into a solution of amino acids, peptides,
phosphates, ammonium and urea, from which the plant obtains its mineral
nutrition.
Inside of a Pitcher plant: Bees
floating in Digestive Enzymes

21. 9) Cape Sundew:
• Botanical name: Drosera capensis
• Family: Droseraceae
• Location: South Africa
 Drosera capensis, commonly known as
the Cape sundew, is a small rosette-
forming carnivorous species of
perennial sundew native to the Cape in
South Africa.
 It consists of Strap like leaves
covered by brightly colored Tentacles
which secrete a sticky mucilage that
traps any small Insect.
 When insects are first trapped, the
leaves roll lengthwise very slowly by
thigmotropism toward the center,This
aids digestion by bringing more
digestive glands in contact with the
prey.

22.  The sticky secretion also contains Digestive enzymes and Attractants in it.

23. 10) Bladder Worts:
• Botanical name:- Utricularia species
• Family:- Lentibulariaceae.
• Location:- United States
 Utricularia, commonly and collectively
called the bladderworts, is a genus
of Carnivorous plants consisting of
approximately 233 species.
 Bladderworts are found in tropical and
temperate ponds all over the world.
 Well, they are submersible floating
carnivores.
 They use little air sacs to float when
they are blooming, and then when it's not
blooming time they drift underwater like
seasonal submarines.
 They eat tiny little invertebrates that
they suck into their bladders with a
vacuum.

25. 11) Flypaper plants:
 Pinguicula gigantea is a tropical
species of Carnivorous Plants in the
family Lentibulariaceae.
 Also known as Flypaper plants.
 They grab hold of anything that lands
on their leaves and immediately start
digesting it.
 The upper surface of the plant is
covered in sticky digestive enzymes
to trap victims like mosquitoes and
gnats, but it can also absorb nutrients
from pollen.
 The leaves have trichomes on them,
which secrete a mucilage that traps
prey
Botanical name :- Pinguicula gigantea .
Family:- Lentibulariaceae.
Location:- Mexico.

26. Section of Leaf showing Trichomes with Secretion

28. 12) Dragon's-Blood Tree:
• Botanical name:- Dracaena cinnabari
• Family:- Asparagaceae
• Location:- Yemen, Africa, Socotra island.
 It is so called as 'Drogon's Blood
Tree" due to the red sap that the
trees produce looks like Blood.
 It’s a deep red, even when dried into
resin.
 The trees can be harvested for their
crimson red resin, called dragon's
blood, which was highly prized in the
ancient world and is still used today.
 Around the Mediterranean basin it is
used as a dye and as a medicine,
Socotrans use it ornamentally as well
as dying wool, gluing pottery, a
breath freshener, and lipstick.

29.  The canopy of this tree looks like an umbrella and acts like one. It
shades the roots and reduces evaporation.

30. 13) Giant Sequoia
• Botanical name:- Sequoiadendron giganteum
• Family:- Cupressaceae
• Location:- California
 Giant sequoia specimens are the most
massive trees on Earth.
 Not the tallest nor the broadest tree in the
world, but the biggest living single tree in
volume.
 The General Sherman tree is a giant sequoia
275 feet tall (almost the length of a football
field). It weighs about 1,800 tons (3,600,000
pounds), and is wide enough that a school bus
could be driven through its trunk.
 They also have very long life span.
 The oldest known giant sequoia is 3,200-
3,266 years old.

32. 14) Baobab: the Bottle Tree
 Baobab is the common name of a genus
(Adansonia) containing eight species of
trees, native to Madagascar, mainland
Africa and Australia.
 Also known as the Bottle Tree !!!
 Not only do they look like bottles, but
the trees typically store around 300
liters of water!
 They often live over 500 years!
 Baobabs reach heights of 5 to 30 m (16
to 98 ft) and have trunk diameters of 7
to 11 m (23 to 36 ft).
• Botanical name:- Adansonia species
• Family:- Malvaceae
• Location:- Madagascar, Africa, Austrailia

34. 15) Welwitschia
• Botanical name:- Welwitschia mirabilis
• Family:- Welwitschiaceae
• Location:- Namibia and Angola
 Plant with the longest lifespan
(Age)
 Welwitschia is a monotypic
gymnosperm genus, comprising
solely the distinctive Welwitschia
mirabilis.
 It is endemic to the Namib desert
within Namibia and Angola.
 Welwitschia plant consists of only
two leaves and a sturdy stem with
roots.
 It grows only two leaves no matter
how mature it is.
 -Carbon dating tells us they live
from 400 to 1500 or even 2000
years!

36. 16) Rainbow Eucalyptus:
Botanical name:- Eucalyptus deglupta
Family:- Myrtaceae
Location:- Philippines, Indonesia and Papua
New Guinea.
 Eucalyptus deglupta is a species of tall
tree, commonly known as the rainbow
eucalyptus.
 It is the only Eucalyptus species that
usually lives in rainforest, with a natural
range that extends into the northern
hemisphere, and one of only
four eucalypt species out of more than
seven hundred that do not occur
in Australia.
 It is characterized by multi-colored bark
featuring hues of lavender, blue, green,
orange and maroon which gives it a Rainbow
like appearance.

38. 17) Victoria amazonica:
• Botanical name:- Victoria amazonica
• Family:- Nymphaeaceae
• Location:- Guyana
 Victoria amazonica is a species of flowering
plant, the largest of the Nymphaeaceae
family of water lilies.
 It is the National flower of Guyana.
 The species has very large leaves, up to 3 m
(10 ft) in diameter, that float on the
water's surface on a submerged stalk, 7–8 m
(23–26 ft) in length.
 A mature lily pad can support an evenly
distributed load of 45 kilograms, or,
apparently, a baby.
 The edges bend up to avoid overlapping with
their neighbors, and the undersides are
thorny to protect against being eaten.

41. Some Amazing looking Flowers:
Bat plant
Hooker’s Lips Orchid
Flying Duck Orchid

42. Monkey Face Orchid
Passion Flowert
Dancing Girls OrchidsProtea Pinwheel

43. Bee Orchid
Snap Dragon Seed Pod Beehive Ginger

44. Thank You !!!