TAMPA - Long before human beings interjected their own brand of weirdness into the world, Mother Nature was already in high gear. Many of the oddities she’s cranked out over the eons are prehistoric and long gone.
But there's still plenty for us to look at with amazement and wonder.
Here are seven of the strangest plants in the world:
Rafflesia arnoldii
Found in the rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo , the Rafflesia arnoldii produces the largest individual flower on earth.
The flower can grow up to three feet across and weigh up to 24 pounds.
It's a parasitic plant that attaches itself to a host plant and feeds off of it for nutrients and water.
And boy, does it smell. Rafflesia arnoldii emits an odor similar to rotting meat to attract insects for pollination purposes.
This plant is rare and hard to find. The flower takes months to develop and only last a few days when in full bloom.
Titan Arum
Here's another real stinker.
Also found in Indonesia , the titan arum is known as the "corpse flower" for its awful smell of rotting meat.
The titan arum can grow up to 10 feet in circumference, reach heights of 7 to 12 feet and weigh up to 170 pounds.
Unlike the equally bad-smelling rafflesia arnoldii, the titan arum is not a single flower, technically speaking. It is formed by a cluster of much smaller flowers, called an inflorescence .
Lithops
Lithops is a succulant plant native to the hot, dry regions of southern Africa. In ancient Greek, Lithos means stone and ops means like...therefore, 'stone-like.'
They are commonly called 'living stones.'
What makes lithops so interesting is the coloring of the leaves. They're not green. Instead, you'll find them in various shades of brown, grey and cream with dark patterns and red lines.
The appearance serves to disguise the plant in its surroundings.
Lithops does produce flowers. Click the slideshow (above) to see them in bloom.
Can you grow them yourself? You bet.
As one writer puts it, as long as you "give them sufficient light, good ventilation and resist the temptation to keep watering them, there are few problems."
Hydnora africana
Hydnora africana is also native to southern Africa. It's a parasitic plant, attaching itself to the roots of other plants (from the Euphorbiaceae family ).
This scary-looking thing actually grows underground. The only part visible to the eye is a fleshy flower that emerges above the ground.
Hydnora africana has a kind of one-up on those other plants that stink like dead flesh. This one smells like feces...and for good reason. The odor attracts natural pollinators, dung beetles , and carrion beetles .
The flower traps insects for a while and then releases them when it fully opens.
Wolffia angusta
Wolffia angusta is among the smallest flowering plants on Earth. They are aquatic plants and are sometimes called watermeal.
They have no roots and look like bits of cornmeal floating on the water.
The 38 species of Wolffia angustas are distributed throughout the world and are typically found in temperate, tropical regions tropical regions.
And they're edible.
Wolffia species contain a fair amount of protein, much like the soybean. They have historically been eaten as a vegetable throughout Asia.
The entire plant body of the angusta is less than one mm long (less than 1/25th of an inch).
Victoria amazonica
This is not your typical frog lily.
Victoria amazonica grows leaves up to ten feet in diameter on a stalk more than 26 feet long. It can hold a whopping 300 pounds (a good-sized human being).
It was discovered in 1801 and caused quite a stir in Europe when it was introduced in the mid-1800's as the 'giant water platter.' Victoria amazonica was named in honor of Queen Victoria.
This lily is native to the Amazon River basin. The flowers, about the size of soccer balls, are white the first night they are open and then turn pink the following night. The flowers are pollinated by scarab beetles .
The plant has quite the defense mechanism. It's covered with flesh-piercing spines. Only the roots, flower and upper surface of the plant are spine-free.
The victoria amazonica is cultivated and raised in other parts of the world, including England and Florida.
Welwitschia mirabilis
Welwitschia mirabilis was discovered by an Austrian naturalist who explored Africa in the 1859. Friedrich Welwitsch said it was the most amazing plant he had ever seen. It grows along the coastline of the Namib Desert .
Welwitschia mirabilis has quite a life span. It lives 1,000 - 2,000 years off of roughly an inch of rain per year and another two inches of yearly moisture provided by ocean fog.
Two permanent leaves appear after germination and continue to grow throughout the plant's life. The leaves can grow as long as 13 feet and usually become split into strap-shaped sections. This often hides the fact that there are only only two leaves.
It's considered by many to be one of the oddest plants in the world.
The plants are rare, partly because of collectors, and are found in Angola and Namibia. The plants apparently fare better in Angola because of a high concentration of landmines in that country, which tends to keep collectors on the other side of the border.
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