Nature is a beautiful thing, but it also has that weird scary side that we don’t like to be reminded of. We’d rather walk through a nice green forest than notice the big spiders crawling all over the trees. But even when it comes to the less obvious parts of nature, like plants, there can be some freakishly weird things going on.
Let’s take a look at some of Mother Nature’s flora creations that turned out being a bit … odd.
Flying Duck Orchid
As the name aptly reveals, this is an orchid where the plant looks like a flying duck. This plant is mostly found in Australia, which means there’s probably seventeen footlong spiders in the immediate vicinity and I already feel bad for all the male sawflies the plant is trying to attract. It looks nice though, kind of like someone put an origami duck on a small plant.
Red Butterfly Wing
In terms of weirdness, this plant just has leaves that look like a butterfly in flight. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t have seen that if nobody mentioned it first. It’s a southeastern Asian plant and is often used as a medicinal herb in certain communities.
Octopus Stinkhorn
Another name that this plant is known by is the devil’s fingers. That may sound a bit ominous, but the plant also looks ominous so it fits. It was originally only found in Australia but humans doing what humans do best brought it all over the world. This plant is also the perfect botanical Russian roulette item as it’s edible in some stages of its growth and poisonous in others.
Bee Orchid
The Ophrys Apifera, as they called it in Italy a millennium ago, is essentially a plant that looks like a bee is sitting on top of it. This is all part of this plant’s elaborate strategy to lure in male bees so they would transfer pollen in an attempt to copulate with the plant. If that’s not weird enough, the plant also mimics the actual scent of female bees.
Parrot Flower
This plant is nothing short of absolutely gorgeous and the flower looks like a parrot. It’s a very fragile plant that is rare and difficult to grow and because of that is actually prohibited from export. If you want to see it in the wild, you’ll have to go to Thailand, Burma or India and hope you get lucky.
Monkey Orchid
Yes, this orchid looks like an angry monkey screaming at you. This plant actually looks so much like a monkey that often times people seeing it on photo think it’s photoshopped. It’s a central American plant that often grows in mountainous areas, and for some reason smells like a lovely orange.
Dove Orchid
Yes, orchids have all the ridiculous shapes. This one actually looks like a dove for some reason, and is mostly found in central America. Sadly because of how unique the plant looks, people have been taking them away as a memento and this has caused the plant to be in danger of extinction. This is why we can’t have nice things, people.
