7 Wonders of the Plant World: Bizarre Blooms
June 13, 2011 by admin · View Comments
[ By Steph in 7 Wonders Series & Nature & Ecosystems. ]
These aren’t flowers you’d give to your mother. Some smell like feces or rotting corpses, some are incredibly ugly, some are deadly while others are just strange. These 7 extreme flowers include the world’s largest, smallest, stinkiest and most dangerous. Stunning examples of the incredibly unexpected wonders that nature can serve up, the world’s most bizarre blooms entice, amaze and disgust.
World’s Largest Flower, Rafflesia arnoldii
(images via: parasiticplants.siu.edu)
Like a mutant toadstool crossed with man-eating flowers from another planet, Rafflesia arnoldii is red with white speckles and can reach up to three feet in diameter. Oh yeah, and it smells like a dead body. From the time this bizarre bloom forms a bud, exposing the pink undersides of its petals, it is disturbingly flesh-like. Then it opens to reveal itself in all of its glory, emitting an odor of decomposition to attract the flies that will pollinate it and help it spread.
Rafflesia arnoldii is found only in the rainforests of Benkulu, Sumatra Island, Indonesia and Malaysia. It’s the largest single flower on earth, and grows as a parasite on a particular species of vine, wrapping thread-like strands of tissue around its host in order to bleed it of water and nutrients.
The flower is both intensely fascinating and utterly repulsive – especially once you get close enough to notice just how mammalian it really looks, with pimply flesh covered in little hairs and pollen-producing parts that look like pustules.
Prehistoric Desert Flower, Welwitschia mirabilis
(images via: wikipedia)
It’s hideous, looking like something that died out to sea and washed up on the beach. It’s bizarre. It’s also extremely rare and incredibly unique. The Weltwitschia mirabilis is a flower – that’s right, a flower – found only in the Namib desert within Namibia and Angola. In fact, it’s the latter country’s national flower. Considered a living fossil, weltwitschia is thought to be a holdover from the Jurassic period, when such plants – called gymnosperms – dominated the landscape. Over millennia, similar plants disappeared, but welwitschia managed to survive despite drastic changes to the climate of its environment.
This plant may look like a messy pile of leaves, but it actually only has two, which continue growing throughout the life of the plant, reaching lengths of up to 12 feet. These leaves tend to become ragged and frayed over time, split by the wind and sand to resemble a larger quantity of leaves.
Fleshy Fecal-Scented Parasitic Flower, Hydnora africana
(images via: botany.org)
At first, the Hydnora africana looks like a stone, blending in on the desert floor. But then it rises and opens its terrifying maw and you know you’ve come upon something outrageously unusual. What you see of the parasite Hydnora is just the flower of the plant, most of which is hidden underground, interweaving itself among the roots of its host plant, the succulent Euphorbia. The bloom opens in three sections called sepals, revealing a cavity that stinks like feces, luring in dung beetles. This cavity becomes a temporary trap, keeping the beetles inside long enough to enable pollination. The inside of the cavity is pinkish-orange, fleshy and covered in tiny downward-pointing hairs that prevent the beetles from climbing out. Eventually, the bloom opens enough so that the beetles can escape.
World’s Smallest Flower, Wolffia angusta
(images via: wikipedia, university of wisconsin)
Nope, that’s not algae, nor is it any ordinary aquatic plant. Wolffia, commonly referred to as watermeal and misidentified as duckweed, is officially the world’s smallest flower, with each bloom weighing about as much as two grains of sand. It takes about 5,000 of these teeny-tiny flowers to fill a thimble, and they’re amazingly small when seen against the grooves in a human fingerprint. Woffia sometimes grow in colonies that form a dense-looking mat on sheltered waters. The only way to identify the exact species of a wolffia flower is to view it under a microscope.
Each wolffia flower has a single pistil and stamen and produces the world’s smallest fruit, called a utricle. It has no leaves, stem or roots, floating freely in quiet freshwater lakes and marshes. Woffia is highly nutritious, serving as food for fish and waterfowl in nature and occasionally cultivated for use as livestock feed or even human cuisine. It’s eaten as a vegetable in Burma, Laos and Thailand.
Black Bat Flower, Tacca chantrieri
(images via: wikimedia commons)
Stunningly beautiful, magnificently strange, the black bat flower – Tacca chantrieri – is definitely one-of-a-kind. Not only does it produce black blooms, which is highly unusual in itself, but those blooms are decidedly animalistic with bat-like petal ‘wings’ as well as long ‘whiskers’ that trail up to a foot long. Also known as the devil’s flower, presumably because of its color and strange appearance, the black bat flower also produces odd-shaped blooms in shades of green and purple. This tropical flower can be found in Africa, Madagascar and northeast South America.
World’s Deadliest Flower, Belladonna
(images via: cupcakes2, wikipedia)
There’s a reason that Atropa belladonna is commonly called ‘deadly nightshade’. While it may not hold the official title of deadliest flower in the world (there’s no consensus on that topic), and other flowers like oleander are similarly dangerous, belladonna is notable not only for its ability to kill but for its history and unusual appearance. This perennial herbaceous plant, native to Europe, North Africa and Western Asia, has been used for centuries as a medicine, cosmetic, poison and hallucinogen. Both the foliage and the very juicy and tempting-looking dark purple berries of this plant are highly toxic. The scientific name ‘atropa’ is thought to be derived from that of the Greek goddess Atropos, one of the three fates, who was responsible for determining a man’s death. ‘Belladonna’ is Italian for ‘beautiful woman’.
Ingest any part of the deadly nightshade and you’ll be swallowing atropine, hyoscine and hyoscyamine, substances that cause a series of worsening symptoms from dilated pupils to slurred speech to hallucinations, delirium, convulsions and possibly death. The pupil-dilating part was once considered desirable, hence the name ‘belladonna’, though prolonged usage was known to cause blindness. In Ancient Rome it was used as a murder weapon.
The Corpse Flower, Amorphophallus Titanum
(images via: wikipedia, stepnout, wayfaring.info)
It’s not enough that the titan arum stands taller than an adult male human, or that its stamen is so crazily large and weird-looking that it has earned the flower the scientific name Amorphophallus titanum (essentially, ‘giant misshapen penis’.) No. This insane flower – which also happens to be incredibly beautiful – also has to smell like the rotting corpse of a mammal left too long in the sun. Say hello to what may just be the single weirdest flower in the world.
The titan arum, which grows in the rainforests of Sumatra, is often cultivated in botanical gardens for guests to gawk and gag over. The spadix of the flower, which is the tallest part, is covered in pollen at the top and dotted with bright red-orange carpels, or ovule-producing parts, at the bottom. It has a single petal called a spathe that is pale green and white on the outside and deep burgundy-purple on the inside. Like many other species, the flower emits the scent of rotting meat to attract pollinators.
The tallest bloom in cultivation, grown at the zoological garden Wilhelmina in Stuttgart, Germany, reached 9 feet 6 inches in height.
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7 Carnivorous Wonders of the Plant World
April 11, 2011 by admin · View Comments
[ By Steph in 7 Wonders Series & Animals & Habitats & Nature & Ecosystems. ]
Death traps that seduce insects, frogs and even mice with juicy-looking flesh and sweet nectar and then melt their bodies with acids, carnivorous plants are deceptively beautiful and totally fascinating to watch. Though some botanists once thought that carnivorous plants caught insects purely by accident, we now know that they evolved a taste for flesh often out of necessity, growing in places with nutrient-poor soil. These 7 types of carnivorous plants stand out for their unusual trapping mechanisms or bizarre eating habits, like one that happily consumes the droppings of small animals.
Mouse-Eating Pitcher Plants
(images via: wikimedia commons)
Jug-like plants half-full of rainwater, acids and enzymes, pitcher plants secrete nectar along their rim to lure in prey – typically insects and the occasional amphibian. But sometimes, they have an appetite for food of a larger and meatier variety. A newly-discovered species named Nepenthes attenboroughii, named after the British naturalist and television host David Attenborough, has been known to eat not just little mice but also larger rats. Their pitchers can be as large as a football and are often found to contain giant centipedes and spiders up to four inches long.
The Beautiful and Deadly Sundew
(images via: wikimedia commons)
Covered in dewdrops that sparkle in the sun, Drosera – commonly known as sundews – are beautiful ornamental plants. They’re also deadly, attracting insects with that ‘dew’ on the tips of their tentacles and then trapping them with the sticky mucilage, releasing enzymes to digest them. It can take up to fifteen minutes for the insect to die. The nutrient ‘soup’ that is left behind by the dissolved insect is then absorbed into the leaves of the plant. All species of sundew are able to move their tentacles , bending in toward the center of the leaf to bring the insect into contact with as many glands as possible.
Pitcher Plant Eats Shew Poo
(image via: discover magazine, wikimedia commons)
The Giant Montane Pitcher plant, Nepenthes rajah, is the largest meat-eating plant in the world. It’s big enough to trap rats – though it doesn’t do it very often. But there’s another taste it prefers to that of meat: poop. Specifically, the waste of the tree shrew.
When there aren’t enough bugs around, Nepenthes rajah is perfectly happy serving as a toilet for the tree shrew. It uses nectar to lure the shrews close and then collects their waste in its giant pitcher. Scientists believe that the plant’s pitcher has evolved to this perfect tree shrew toilet size specifically for the development of this strange symbiotic relationship.
Butterworts: The Flypaper Plant
(images via: wikimedia commons, emmc)
Members of the genus Pinguicula have a special ability: trapping insects on the surface of their leaves just like flypaper, liquefying their prey and then absorbing it. Commonly known as ‘butterworts’, these plants form pretty stemless rosettes, sometimes growing a single blossom on a long stem. Many can cycle between being carnivorous and non-carnivorous depending on the season. These plants have specialized glands scattered across the surface of their succulent leaves that produce visible wet droplets, which draw in bugs like mosquitoes that are in search of water. For the unfortunate bug who chooses to land upon this little plant, struggling is not just futile, but counterproductive – it causes the insect’s body to come into contact with more sticky glands which trap it even further. Like the poo-eating pitcher plant, butterworts have learned to take what they can get: they also digest pollen that lands on their leaves.
Bladderworts: Deceptively Innocent
(images via: cascade carnivores, wikimedia commons)
They look like ordinary aquatic plants, and even have lovely little yellow flowers that sprout forth above the surface of the water. But Utricularia – also known as bladderworts or bladder traps – have extremely sophisticated traps that can even pull in slippery, wriggly prey like tadpoles. Along its long stems, generally submerged in pond water or lying in damp boggy soil, bladderworts have little pouch-like traps which, when set, are under negative pressure relative to their environment. When their ‘trapdoor’ is triggered by potential prey, the water surrounding the trap is sucked in, and when full of water, the traps ‘close’. This trapping mechanism makes it possible to catch larger prey, slowly sucking in a tadpole by its tail and ingesting it bit by bit. Mosquito larvae, nematodes and water fleas are also common prey. Bladderworts grow all over the world in virtually any wet environment, and even sometimes grow in the damp bark on trees in South American rainforests.
The Cobra Lily
(images via: wikimedia commons, marlin harms)
6 Unusual Plants And Monstrous Blooms
January 20, 2011 by admin · View Comments
[ By Marc in Animals & Habitats, Home & Garden, Nature & Ecosystems. ]
Sometimes it seems like nature has stopped surprising, and every plant and animal has become as mundane and pedestrian as the next. It’s important to keep searching at the boundaries of the plant and animal kingdom in order to keep one’s love of nature as passionate as ever. Here are some unusual and rare plants that will give your enthusiasm a boost.
(Images via sarracenia, freerepublic)
Sundews are a large family of plants (with nearly 200 members) that are varied in appearance, but all carnivorous. They are known for their dew like drops at the end of tentacles that bristle across the plant. These serve a unique purpose: to trap insects so they can be digested by the plant.
(Images via myths-made-real, 2greenacres, myths-made-real)
Plants known as “Doll’s Eyes” are named for the disturbing berries that crop up once a year. These small white berries have small marks that appear like pupils, giving the plant an… interesting… appearance.
(Images via foyupdate, bbc, botanicalgarden)
Titun Arum plants are exceptional mostly for their incredible size. They have the largest inflorescence (shoot where flowers are formed) of any plant species. The flower is also known by the carrion smell it emits.
(Images via wikimedia, friendsschoolplantsale, theoceanviewnet)
Nightblooming Cereus flowers grow in deserts with incredibly low water levels, and because of this they can only afford to bloom at night, one or two nights a year.
(Images via indonesia-spots, amazingfacts, amazingfacts)
Rafflesia is a type of plant that parasitically attaches to the roots and vines of other plants, and is mainly visible because of its large flowers, which can weigh up to 22 pounds. These flowers are notable for looking and smelling like rotting flesh, which attracts pollinating flies.
(Images via moplants, coloradocarnivorousplantsociety)
The American Pitcher Plant populates the eastern seaboard of the United States and supplements its nutrition by trapping and digesting insects in its large, steep stem.
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Tortured Trees: Brutal Bonsai Bondage Art Series
September 10, 2010 by admin · View Comments
[ By Steph in Art & Design, Nature & Ecosystems. ]
The trees writhe and twist as if in pain, the branches bent in seemingly unnatural ways. It almost seems cruel, the metal contraptions that squeeze and pull each plant resembling nothing more than torture devices. And so they are – ‘Bonsai Series’ by artist Shen Shaomin has some not-so-subtle things to say about how humans interfere with nature.
The plants are like prisoners to his work, says Shen. The Beijing artist put the live, green plants into cage-like metal structures that bind them and restrict their growth. Along with the plants, Shen displayed a collection of antique-looking metal tools used to distort the plants.
According to ArtZine China, Shen sought to “critique the notion of relentlessly constructing artificial beauty regardless of price in Chinese society.” Some of his inspiration came from the archaic Chinese tradition of ritual foot-binding, though Shen sees the mistreatment of plants as even crueler because the plants are unwilling participants and the damage is done under the pretense of enjoying nature.
Investigating the technique of bonsai, Shen was shocked to learn how practitioners cut the center of the tree trunk open to twist and scar them so they appear older, “penetrating the intestine, smashing the stomach.” The plants were hacked, burnished and scorched in such a way that reminded Shen of surgical operations carried out on humans. Bonsai forcibly changes plants into unnatural, abnormal shapes that people somehow find beautiful.
“Today what we feel and know as Nature has become something artificial, technical, and sociological. Men are fabricating an artificial world of their own according to their personal interests.”
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Deadwood: 30 Scary, Creepy & Bizarre Trees
September 7, 2010 by thegreenchildrenfoundation · View Comments
[ By Steve in History & Trivia, Home & Garden, Nature & Ecosystems. ]
As the most majestic members of the plant kingdom, trees loom large in human history, culture and psychology. They also can be quite frightening, whether standing proudly alone or massed limb to limb in damp, gloomy forests. The 30 scary, creepy & bizarre trees presented here show nature’s other, darker side… and you’d better hope their bark is worse than their bite!
A Face Only A Mother Woodpecker Could Love
(images via: Johnny & Aggy, Behind The Bins, Cmifbpics and Dawn Ulmer)
“If you go down in the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise…” and a Teddy Bear’s Picnic would be more than welcome after coming face to face with any one of these trees. Though merely the products of natural growth and decay or action by birds and animals, these distressingly anthropomorphic trees look much more sinister than that.
(images via: Brothergrimm, Digital Fibers and Campaigning For Health)
This spooky screaming tree (above, left) found guarding a trail in Hither Hills State Park near Montauk, New York, is unamused by your shenanigans… or anything else, it seems.
(image via: Digital Photography School)
It appears the weatherbeaten old woodsman above suddenly popped into the picture like the photobomb squirrel. Of course, the tree hasn’t “popped” anywhere all through its long existence beside a road in rural Ontario, Canada.
It’s Alive… And Hungry!
(images via: S Kessler)
Trees have the uncanny ability to “absorb” most any solid object that they may come in contact with. How long would it take for a tree to grow around a tombstone like the one above, found in a Quebec, Canada, graveyard has done? Figure on the better part of 200 years if one takes the early 19th century dates on this and other nearby gravestones into consideration.
(image via: Oddee)
The bamboo or banyan tree above appears to be protectively safeguarding a stone head of Buddha. The head formerly graced a temple in the cosmopolitan Thai city of Ayutthaya but was shifted to its current location in 1767, when the city was attacked and nearly completely destroyed by an invading Burmese army.
Where Is Your God Now?
(image via: IMAC Education)
In this Tree vs Temple cage match, the winner is obvious – and having a name like Strangler Fig doesn’t hurt the Arboreal Avenger’s cause one bit. Many of these trees above are over 400 years old while the temple complex at Angkor Wat in Cambodia is over 1,000 years old. The trees continue to grow while the temple… not so much.
(images via: IMAC Education)
The spooky doorway above might look familiar to moviegoers as it was featured in one of the Lara Croft movies.
Twisted Trunks, Blanched Branches
(images via: Sandra’s Scribbles, Lizette Fitzpatrick, Castleworks Inc. and Rob McMillan)
Sometimes trees don’t need any supporting context to look scary, they do just fine all by themselves. he examples above owe their contorted, some might even say tortured appearance to a combination of age, weather and disease. Nothing evil or satanic here… hey, where did everyone go?
(image via: Magic Surf Bus)
The gnarled and gnarly specimen above lords over all and sundry in the Vale Royal Woods, Northwich, England – a frightening location if there ever was. If there’s a North Witch in Northwich, this is probably where she hangs out.
Strange Fruit
(images via: Pigeon Has Pants, Parody Files and US Election Atlas)
Maybe some of our unease in the presence of scary trees lies not in history as a whole, but in one’s personal journey from child to adult – a journey fraught with thrills and chills more often than not Made In Hollywood. Take that childhood favorite, The Wizard Of Oz… and the frightening forest of angry apple trees.
(image via: CoverUps)
If you tell your kids “we’re going apple picking!” one bright, clear autumn day and they look away fearfully, now you know why.
They’re Here…
(images via: Topless Robot and KH Pinson)
It’s quite a jump from 1939′s special effects to 1982, the year the movie Poltergeist grabbed pop culture with a dead man’s grip… sort of like the way the Evil Tree in the Freeling’s backyard gripped young Robbie.
(images via: Paranormaland and AMC TV)
Well, it was better than being stuck in the bedroom with the Evil Clown, amiright?
Sleepy Hollow’s “Tree Of The Dead”
(images via: Eclectric Dragonfly, Your Daily Tree and For The Love Of Movies)
As creepy as the apple trees from The Wizard Of Oz were, they don’t hold a candle to the strikingly scary Tree Of The Dead from Tim Burton’s inspired take on Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleep Hollow”, written in 1819. In Burton’s 1999 redux simply titled Sleepy Hollow, Johnny Depp plays Ichabod Crane, a naive yet dedicated police constable sent from New York to solve a spate of grisly murders in the small upstate village of Sleepy Hollow. Solve them he does, though not without a near-fatal encounter with the Tree Of The Dead.
(image via: Cheezburger.com)
Even without the Headless Horseman (played by the inimitable Christopher Walken) or his gruesome hoard of disembodied heads, the Tree Of The Dead evokes shock and horror on a number of levels. And no, this is one case where NO more cowbell is required. Oddly enough (or maybe not, if you know Tim Burton’s style), a very similar scary tree makes an appearance in Burton’s remake of Alice In Wonderland.
Jumpin’ Juniper!
(image via: Paludario)
Even Tim Burton would stand in awe before the time-blasted tree above… though not too close, just in case. Bleached by scabrous moonlight and bent by decades of shrieking, frigid mountain winds, the ancient juniper above struggles to live on – perhaps in hopes of gaining some revenge.
Little Photoshop of Horrors
(images via: Paludario)
The photoartist Paludario has a gift for twisting visual reality ever so slightly, just enough to scare the willies out of us!
(image via: Paludario)
Looking like some gigantic robot crayfish from Hell, the above symmetrical rendering brings out a truly monstrous side to what originally appeared to be merely and old tree that had lost its leaves… aha, but that’s just what it WANTED you to think!
Who Was That Masked Mangrove?
(images via: Mouseplanet and The Fun Times Guide)
You say your neatly manicured, lushly landscaped, archetypical suburban front yard needs a little scarification? Tree Faces are a cool way to, uh, put a face on your tree – or trees, if you’ve got more than one. If you’ve ever worked a Mr. Potato Head, then Tree Faces are a cinch. Just make sure the tree you’re working on doesn’t already HAVE a face… talk about awkward.
(image via: The Fun Times Guide)
Most of the DIY scary tree faces you tend to see around Halloween time are of the Disney-scary variety – that is, somewhat frightening but mainly family friendly. The tree face above bends the rule just a little, though, because some folks like a little Capital H Horror with their horror.
(image via: Zuza Fun)
Whether you did or did not enjoy watching these freaky trees, at least some comfort can be taken in the fact that they can’t watch you back. Don’t, er, quote me on that.
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A Look Inside: Spectacular X-Ray Nature Photography
August 11, 2010 by admin · View Comments
[ By Delana in Art & Design, Nature & Ecosystems. ]
The natural world is full of surprises and hidden beauty. It’s so easy to simply walk right by countless amazing things every day without noticing just how many wonders are all around us. That’s part of the inspiration behind Hugh Turvey‘s X-ray art. He looks inside the things most of us ignore, taking an inside view of the natural world and inspiring a truly delightful sense of wonder.
Hugh Turvey is fascinated by the idea of X-ray specs: those novelty glasses often advertised in the back of comic books. The idea that one can put on an accessory and suddenly see a deeper truth appeals to Turvey and inspires his art. He likens X-ray art to the movie “The Matrix;” specifically, when Neo is suddenly able to perceive his real environment.
Although Turvey isn’t the first artist to use X-rays as art, he is one of the most well-known and respected. His art depicts familiar items in wholly unfamiliar ways. Turvey’s X-ray photos reveal hidden characteristics of ordinary things; sometimes amazing qualities can be found in the most unassuming objects.
Originally trained as a designer and art director, Turvey didn’t discover his passion for photography until he was grown. He retrained in his new craft with master photographer Gered Mankowitz and began experimenting with the X-ray art that would later become his hallmark.
These colored X-ray pictures help us get a closer look at the complex beauty of the natural world. Flowers which look so uncomplicated on the surface reveal their hidden inner structures; plants that may look plain and boring with the naked eye take on an exotic and truly wonderful quality when seen in this new way.
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Literal Lawn Chairs: Grass Sofas Brighten up British Summer
July 30, 2010 by admin · View Comments
[ By Delana in Art & Design, Home & Garden, Nature & Ecosystems. ]
Summer means more time spent outdoors in the sun, but the National Trust of Great Britain found that British families are spending an average of 43 hours per week inside and on the sofa. That’s a grand (or not-so-grand) total of 13 weeks per year. To get people out of the house and into nature, the National Trust has unveiled ten huge grass sofas in locations all across the UK. There are no TVs, no laptops – just unique spaces for quality outdoor family time.
The massive furniture was grown in about a month using all natural materials: straw bases covered with blankets of green, growing grass. These peculiar outdoor living rooms all consist of a sofa and a coffee table, letting British families get out of their homes but still spend time together in a familiar setting.
The growing living rooms were placed in a handful of picturesque natural locations, with some even making appearances in town centers. The National Trust endeavor uses humor rather than stern authority to coax families out into the beautiful British landscape this summer.
(all images via: Inhabitat)
Relaxing on a sofa in the sun, in some of the UK’s most beautiful outdoor spots, might be the best way we can think of to spend the summer. With a mug of tea and a plate of biscuits, a family outing to one of these living rooms would make for a splendid afternoon.
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Wood Carving: Trees as a Medium
July 15, 2010 by admin · View Comments
[ By Marc in Art & Design, Nature & Ecosystems. ]
Unless you’ve been to a logging competition, you probably haven’t seen someone with a large chainsaw creating a beautiful piece of art out of a dead tree, but you may have stumbled upon their handiwork in the woods or sitting outside a boutique. When a tree dies (or sometimes, while it’s alive), these tree carvers are able to take the remains and turn it into something beautiful. Here are some of the most gorgeous examples of tree carving:
(Images via treefellers, ronaldhanko, cimba7200, bruce aleksander and dennis milam)
Those who take up tree carving are typically nature lovers, and spend a lot of their time in the outdoors enjoying nature, and practicing their art. It’s unsurprising, then that animals feature heavily in tree carving subject matter. The most common tree carving tends to be a giant bear, rough hewn out of a large tree and left in the lobby of a ski lodge. Large hawks and Pelicans, and even fish leaping out of imaginary water, are just a few of the more intricate animals also chosen.
(Images via ajft, fields of view, gary and kathy, neilio, lndshlf72, treefellers)
Human faces are difficult to carve because everyone is a well attuned critic, since we’ve all been studying faces since we first opened our eyes. Despite the difficulty, the idea of an old wise tree man, or beautiful and intelligent tree woman, is incredibly common, and by far the most intriguing tree carving subject matter.
(Images via ksgirl, chigmaroff, linda, jafproject)
People are difficult to carve because they’re tall, bipedal, and typically have some sort of tool or implement lying around; not to mention the fact that we’re evolutionarily geared to be able to tell what is right or wrong about a person’s face, making everyone much more critical. The difficulty doesn’t stop tree carvers, however, and many create monuments to famous individuals from trees that have been around since they still walked the Earth.
(Images via gizmodo, coasttocoastam)
It’s surprising when a tree carver’s subject matter is something besides a jumping salmon or wise-eyed old man, but that can make it even more enjoyable. Above are two such examples; an arcade machine and an alien, defying you to pass by without studying them even more intently than you would a depiction of a large bear.
(Images via halle0909, the eggplant, trying to keep still, jaana-mari, simon lawrence, lwh1970)
A tree carver has to work with the shape and size of the tree he’s working with, and this can spur creativity in a direction maybe the tree carver didn’t even expect. They may reveal symbolic elements, or even the secret door to a dwarve’s underground abode, or even create an area meant for meditation on nature. Whatever the tree carver decides, if they have the skills, it will become awe inspiring.
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No Green Thumb? 13 Healthy Hard-to-Kill Houseplants
June 21, 2010 by admin · View Comments
[ By Steph in Home & Garden. ]
You’ve got a dark apartment, a busy schedule and a seeming inability to water plants with any regularity. Are you just hopelessly black-thumbed, doomed to live a plant-free existence in a home with poor air quality forever? Not if you choose super-hardy, hard-to-kill houseplants that can withstand poor lighting conditions and go for long periods without water. These 13 houseplants are tough as they get, thriving in spite of all kinds of neglect.
Hen and Chicks
(image via: knottyboy)
These adorable little succulents are the perfect plants to place in a sunny window, but other than meeting their high light requirements, ignoring your “hen and chicks” plant could be the best thing you do for it. So named for its curious growing habit, sprouting ‘babies’ around the main plant, Sempervivum only needs to be watered regularly during the spring and summer – the rest of the year, you can water it just once a month! Keep it in well-drained soil made specifically for succulents.
English Ivy
(image via: koishikawagirl)
With its variegated leaves and long trailing vines, English Ivy is a beautiful houseplant that’s also super easy to care for. Place it in a draft-free well-lighted spot in your home and mist it with a spray bottle to keep the soil evenly moist and the leaves free of pesky spider mites, and this plant will be happy for a long time. It even thrives under fluorescent light, making it a great option for the office.
Dracaena Marginata
(image via: 40.degrees.above.dada)
Tall and tree-like, spiky Dracaena Marginata plants come in a wide range of colors and sizes, some with dramatic striped leaves in shades of lime green or red. These air-cleaning plants, which are among those found by NASA to clear formaldehyde, only need a medium amount of light, so they can be placed near but not directly in the sunlight of a window. They’ve got low water needs, so you’d really have to neglect them to cause them harm.
Split-Leaf Philodendron
(image via: wikimedia commons)
The Monstera Deliciosa plant – also known as the Split-Leaf Philodendron or the Swiss Cheese Plant – is the kind of houseplant that makes a big impact with minimal work on your end. With characteristic perforations on its broad oversized glossy leaves, this houseplant will grow relatively large as long as it’s kept within eight feet of a bright, sunny window. Water it every 7-10 days and it will reward you with lush growth for years.
Christmas Cactus
(image via: wikimedia commons)
These plants have such long lives, they can be passed down from generation to generation – the very same plant! Despite its name, the Christmas Cactus doesn’t belong to the same family as most of the desert cacti you’re familiar with – but it does bloom around Christmastime. During the spring and summer, water the plant thoroughly and then let the top inch of soil dry out before watering it again – and water it even less frequently in the fall and winter months. For a profusion of holiday blooms, keep it in a sunny draft-free spot during the day and in total darkness in a cool room at night.
Jade Plant
(image via: chefranden)
Like “Hen and chicks”, the Jade Plant is a member of the succulent family and requires very little water, but its fat little leaves protruding from thick stems make it quite an interesting plant to look at. It only needs moderate sunlight – putting it in an east or west facing window is best. You should let the soil dry out completely between waterings – overenthusiastic watering will only kill it!
Chinese Evergreen
(image via: southern living)
Got a warm home and a tendency to forget about watering your plants? The Chinese Evergreen might be just what you need. This tropical plant does need to be kept above 55 degrees Fahrenheit at all times, but that’s not too tough if you’re among the majority who keep their homes climate-controlled year-round. Southern Living calls Chinese Evergreen the easiest houseplant of all, particularly because its low light needs mean it can go just about anywhere in your home and it only needs to be watered when the soil is dry.
Spider Plant
(image via: bsabarnowl)
Total noob at keeping houseplants alive? No problem, if you start with this super-easy, non-fussy hanging plant. The Spider Plant or Chlorophytum comosum grows fast, has attractive striped foliage and sprouts little “babies” that hang down from the basket. It’s pretty laid back about lighting, so place it where it will get a moderate amount but not in direct sun. Allow it to dry out in between waterings.
Peace Lily
(image via: audreyjm529)
Peace Lily flowers may be simple, but they’re elegant – and easy to keep going for much of the year, as long as you give this houseplant the small amount of attention that it requires. While the Peace Lily is a heavy drinker, it prefers its waterings to be well spaced out so it’s actually a good idea to wait until the plant droops slightly before soaking its soil with water. Keep it in indirect sunlight, and make sure your kids and cats don’t get to it – it is toxic.
ZZ Plant
(image via: wikimedia commons)
Zamioculcas zamiifolia – otherwise known as the ZZ plant – has pretty much everything you can ask for from a house plant. It can handle low light, needs very little water, withstands changes in indoor air conditions and will stay green and glossy even if you forget to care for it for a little while.
African Violet
(image via: wikimedia commons)
The African Violet’s ubiquity in homes across the world doesn’t make it any less of a beautiful plant. The key to keeping them looking picture-perfect? Leave them alone. Once you decide on a spot to keep them in, don’t move them – they get used to the light levels in that spot and have a tough time adjusting. Don’t water it until the soil feels dry to the touch, don’t get water on the leaves and don’t oversaturate the soil. The easiest way to do this is to pour some water into the plant pot’s saucer and let the roots wick it up from there.
Cast Iron Plant
(image via: wikimedia commons)
Dust? Heat? Cold? Dim lighting? All of these are no problem for the aptly named Cast Iron Plant or ‘Aspidistra Elatior’, native to China and other countries in Asia. It’s tough, with leathery foliage that is nonetheless pleasant to look at, growing upwards to about 24 inches long. You’d literally have to try to kill this plant. But if you want it to look its very best, give it indirect sunlight, a warm room to bask in and keep its soil evenly moist.
Pothos
(image via: joshua kulpa)
Perhaps the most popular houseplant of all time, Pothos is a total no-brainer to grow. It’s not unusual to see trailing pothos vines stretching from a high-hung pot all the way to the floor. Once the top inch of soil is dry, thoroughly water the Pothos, drenching the entire root ball, and then pour off the extra water. Because they like the same temps we do, they’ll be comfortable in most homes. Just keep them out of direct sunlight.
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Captivating Creatures: 12 Spectacular New Species
June 7, 2010 by thegreenchildrenfoundation · View Comments
[ By Steph in Animals & Habitats, Nature & Ecosystems. ]
Isn’t it amazing that centuries of human exploration still haven’t come even close to discovering all of the life that exists on this planet? Treks into undisturbed jungles and unfathomably deep reaches of the sea have brought to life a curious cadre of new-to-us species in recent months from a long-nosed tree frog to a fish that walks on its ‘hands’. We even unearthed a new relative that might put us one step closer to solving the mystery of human evolution.
Pinocchio Tree Frog
(image via: conservation.org)
No lie: this new long-nosed tree frog was nicknamed Pinocchio by scientists when it leapt into the campsite of researchers studying new species in the previously untouched Foja Mountains of western New Guinea. Also discovered on this trip were a giant wooly rat, the smallest kangaroo ever and a gargoyle-like gecko with yellow eyes.
World’s Tiniest Seahorse
(image via: guardian)
What is it about tiny creatures that makes us squeal in delight? Seahorses get cuter than ever with the discovery of the Hippocampus satomiae, which is smaller than the average pinkie nail. Named for Satomi Onishi, the diving guide who collected the first specimen from a reef in Indonesia, this species carries its teeny-tiny 3mm young in its pouch.
Bug-Eating Slug
(image via: sci-tech-news)
Sea slugs are exclusively vegetarian, dining on the rich buffet of algae that’s plentiful in virtually every body of water – at least, that’s what scientists thought before they discovered the Aiteng Sea Slug, which has decidedly carnivorous tastes. Found in a muddy mangrove forest in the Gulf of Thailand, this slithery little critter is the head of a whole new family of bug-eating slugs.
Killer Sea Sponge
(image via: the atavism)
They night not have eyes, stomachs, or a nervous system, but sea sponges are still animals, and though most of them float placidly along, absorbing bacteria and algae from the water, this one’s a killer: it’ carnivorous. Chondrocladia turbiformis, which resembles a mushroom, uses a strange balloon-like structure to capture its prey. It may be new to us, but this sea sponge has probably been hiding in the depths of the oceans for at least 150 million years – unusually shaped ’spicules’ found on the sponge have been noted in marine sediments from the Jurassic period.
Fish that Walk on Their Hands
(image via: andrew maver/science daily)
You might call handfish lazy, but maybe they just like the feel of sand under their hands. That’s right – hands. Instead of swimming, handfish scuttle along the sea floor on fins shaped like hands. Nine new species of this unusual fish have recently been found off the coast of Australia, including the “Pink Handfish” and “Zeibell’s Handfish”, but they may not be around for long. Handfish are extremely vulnerable to environmental changes like water temperature and pollution, so they’re disappearing fast.
Globetrotting Worms
(image via: pierre de wit/science daily)
For a lowly worm, the Grania sure does get around. Four new species of this marine-sand-dwelling annelid worm were discovered in March 2010 at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and also discovered a previously unknown but related Grania all the way in Scandinavia. “Species that were previously regarded as the same may prove to have a completely different function in the ecosystem, and have different tolerance of environmental toxins, for example. It is obviously important to know this in order to be able to take the right action to protect our fauna,” says scientist Pierre De Wit of Gothenburg University.
Bioluminescent Green Bomber
(image via: livescience)
We humans may have found a way to produce light where there was none, but some sea creatures have been doing it on their own for millennia. As if bioluminescent marine life weren’t fascinating enough already, there are new finds like the swima bombividiris variety of the green bomber, a deep sea worm that releases bright green glowing “bombs” to distract hungry fish who come too close.
Tim Burton Seaweed
(image via: cbc.ca)
When researcher Bridgette Clarkston found a bright red, unusual looking seaweed, the first thing she thought of was director Tim Burton and the colorful worlds he creates in his films. As it turned out, the seaweed was previously unidentified and in need of a name, so Clarkston could think of nothing more fitting than “Euthora timburtoni“.
Antarctic Animals that Look Like Plants
(images via: discovery)
The line between plants and animals seems to be getting finer all the time, with two new Antarctic species that look like undersea greenery but are actually marine invertebrates. Discovered in the Eastern Weddell Sea, Tauroprimnoa austasensis (A) and Digitogorgia kuekenthali (B) are brand new (to us) examples of rare organisms known as sea whips or sea fans. What makes them even more unusual is the fact that such creatures are usually found in the tropics, not in frigid polar waters.
Tree Mouse
(image via: conservation.org)
It may not be strange looking or terribly unusual, but who can resist the cuteness of a fuzzy little mouse that climbs trees? Pogonomys sp. nov. was discovered by the same researchers who found the ‘Pinocchio’ long-nosed tree frog in a remote area of New Guinea.
New Tree-Swinging Human Ancestor
(image via: discovery)
A new species of tree-swinging, three-foot-tall humans was discovered in South Africa in May 2010 with the unearthed remains of Homo gautengensis. This species had big teeth for chomping on plants and probably hung out in the trees a lot to escape predators. It emerged over 2 million years ago and died out about 600,000 years ago. Homo gautengensis puts in doubt the theory that an April 2010 species discovery, Australopithecus sediba, could be the missing link between apes and humans, since the two species existed during about the same time in roughly the same area of Africa and Australopithecus sediba is the more primitive of the two.
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