Not all flowering plants delight people. Some representatives of the terrestrial flora with one look can inspire horror, and the smell of disgust.
Hydnor African
This plant is not at all like a flower. Most of all, it resembles a mushroom. The name "gidnor" is translated from Greek and means "mushroom". Hidnor lives in South Africa, where there is little water. The plant grows underground and is an underground stem that sticks to other plants and draws juices from them.
And only once every few years, when there is enough water, a hydorn pushes a peculiar flower out. It is gray on top and bright orange inside when it blooms. When fully opened, it emits an unpleasant, putrid odor, which attracts various insects. Pollinating it, beetles and flies become easy prey - because the flower is carnivorous.
After the hydorn has bloomed, insects lay their larvae in it. And the locals use the pulp and seeds to prepare various culinary dishes. It turns out that hydorn is quite edible.
Rafflesia Arnoldi
This largest flower in the world has no stem, leaves, or even roots. But the rafflesia itself is simply huge - its blooming bud can reach 1 meter in diameter.
You can see it extremely rarely: it grows only in certain places, and does not have an exact flowering period. And the flower lives only 3-4 days. Aborigines call rafflesia a dead lotus. The reason for this is the disgusting smell of rotting meat that produces a flower.
This "aroma" attracts huge flies to it, which pollinate rafflesia. After such a short flowering period, the plant slowly decomposes, turning into an unpleasant black mass. After some time, its fruits are formed at this place, which some animal can spread over the area, accidentally stepping on it.
Amorphophallus
A rather unusual plant has many strange names: snake tree, cadaveric lily. They are associated with its appearance and form, as well as an unpleasant cadaveric smell. The flower is one huge petal that surrounds a huge "ear". This is one of the largest flowers in the world 2.5 m high and 1.5 m wide.
The smell of the plant attracts pollinating insects. True, the pollination process does not always occur, so the flower most often propagated by children and processes. There are many types of amorphophallus. Some of them, smaller in size and not smelling so bad, are grown even in room conditions.
Welvichia
This amazing plant can hardly be called a flower. After all, it grows very slowly. The oldest Welvichs are over 2,000 years old. The flower has one large long root, but there are many leaves, they are flat and wide, and consume moisture directly from the air.
Over the entire life of a plant, only two leaves grow, over time they get confused and tear, grow and twist. Adult velvichia becomes like a huge gray octopus lying in the desert.
The flowers resemble cones, just like in a Christmas tree or pine, and in female plants they are larger. Velvich-like plants are no longer found on the planet.
Venus flytrap
An exotic carnivorous plant that looks and lives unusual. In nature, it grows on scarce soils, so it has adapted to extract the necessary nutrients for itself by catching insects. The leaves of the flycatcher look like small jaws, green, sometimes slightly red inside, with thin hairs along the edge.
Each leaf "hunts" 5-7 times, then dies, giving place to a new "hunter". Unlike other predator plants, this flower gives off a pleasant aroma. It even emits a bluish glow for bait insects. Interesting fact: if the caught insect is too large, the flytrap opens the wings and releases it.
Nepentes
Another predator plant belonging to the genus of vines and growing in the tropics. The graceful jugs, which are a trap for insects, are not flowers, but mutated leaves. Inside they stand out fragrant pleasant nectar.
Insects that fly in the smell, sit on the edge of the nepentes and slide inside. The jug slams on top of the lid. And below is a sweet liquid that digests the victim in 8 hours, leaving only a shell from it. Large flower specimens successfully absorb not only insects, but also toads, small birds, and even rodents.
