The Strangest Plant Ever?

The Strangest Plant Ever?

Published April 6, 2017

I’m about to introduce you to perhaps the most bizarre plant in the world. It’s a parasite that smells absolutely foul. And, that’s not even the weirdest thing about it.

I’m Anna Rothschild and this is Gross Science.

Most plants you see out in nature are leafy and green, at least for some part of their lives. That’s because they use green pigments, called chlorophyll, to harvest energy from sunlight. But the plant Hydnora africana, which lives in southern Africa, doesn’t have leaves or chlorophyll at all. So, how can it survive? Well, it’s a parasite, and it’s completely reliant on another plant, called Euphorbia.

H. africana attaches itself to Euphorbia’s roots, and begins sucking up sugars, minerals, and water from its host. The parasite grows a root system, living completely underground, until it’s ready to reproduce. At which point it grows one of the strangest looking flowers I’ve ever seen in my life. And when the flower’s mature, it bursts from beneath the soil in order to be pollinated.

But just as this plant doesn’t look like your average flower, it doesn’t smell like one either. It reeks like a rotting animal carcass. In fact, some species in the genus Hydnora actually make themselves hotter in order to increase the distance the smell travels.

The odor lures beetles and flies looking for a delicious meal of festering flesh. But when they crawl inside the flower and find no tasty treat, they can’t get back out again. There’s a sort of chamber inside the flower, and the top of the chamber closes behind the insects. The walls of the flower are also slippery, making escape even more difficult.

Over the course of about a day, the flower’s male organs mature, and the insects get coated in pollen. And at the end of this transformation, the inside of the plant gets less slippery, and the chamber opens, allowing the beetles and flies to escape. At that point, attracted by a new rotting stench, they might just find another H. africana flower and pollinate it as they tumble inside.

Once a flower is pollinated, the plant begins growing a fruit underground. And when animals eat the fruit, they spread H. africana’s seeds, starting a new generation of parasites.

Jackals find the fruits particularly yummy, but humans like them, too! And for a plant that looks and smells so foul, it supposedly tastes delicious. One scientist I spoke with told me that the fruit of H. johannis, which is a close relative, tastes like strawberry yogurt!

Anyway, for those of you hoping to grow these plants at home...you’re probably out of luck. No one has been able to germinate their seeds in the lab yet. Clearly, we have far more to learn about these strange parasites—after all, they live underground for most of their lives, making them extremely hard to find. But that makes them an excellent topic for all you future botanist out there. That is, if you can get over the scent.

Ew.

Hey guys, just a side note about how difficult these plants are to find. One related species, called H. triceps, rarely emerges from the ground at all. The flower just cracks open the crusty desert sand where it grows and lures insects below with its smell. A scientist who studies these parasites, named Dr. Lytton Musselman, told me he finds Hydnora plants using what he calls “nose botany.” Anyway, I just loved that and thought I’d share. If you liked this episode give it a thumbs up. And if you haven’t already, subscribe to Gross Science and check that little bell icon to get updated when I post. Thanks! I’ll see you soon.

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Host, Writer, Animator, Editor

Anna Rothschild

Camera, Sound

Natasha Ishak

Boom Town

Music Provided by APM

Many thanks to Dr. Lytton John Musselman for his help with this piece.

GROSS FOOTAGE AND IMAGES

Original Footage

©WGBH Educational Foundation 2017

Images of Hydnora plants

Courtesy Dr. Lytton John Musselman

Road In Summer Beautiful Forest.

Pond5/Kinomasterskaya

Sun Shining Through Green Walnut Tree Leaves, Natural Energy Hd

Pond5/viggo

Green Little Plants Growing

Pond5/Kolosigor

Euphorbia caput-medusa]

Shutterstock/Nadezhda Kharitonova

Dionaea muscipula trap

Wikimedia Commons/che

Corpse Plant

Wikimedia Commons/liz west

Rafflesia 80 cm

Wikimedia Commons/Steve Cornish (cornstaruk) from Marlow, UK

Hydnora africana Sachs

Wikimedia Commons/Julius Sachs (1832-1897)

Flickr - Rainbirder - Golden Jackal

Wikimedia Commons/Steve Garvie

HydnoraAfricanaKarasburgDistrictNamibia2002Musselman

Wikimedia Commons/Lytton John Musselman

HydnoraJohannisUmBaronaWadMedaniSudanMusselman

Wikimedia Commons/Lytton John Musselman

GROSS SFX

Cockroaches

Freesound/StateAardvark­
(used with permission from author)

Squeak Pack/squeak_10

Freesound/Corsica_S

Wink

Freesound/bennychico11

Male drinking slurping aaaaaaaaaaah small belch

Freesound/Anton

Slide whistle down 01

Freesound/joedeshon

Slide whistle up 01

Freesound/joedeshon

Flying Mosquito

Freesound/zywx

Produced by WGBH for PBS Digital Studios

POSTER IMAGE

HydnoraAfricanaKarasburgDistrictNamibia2002Musselman

Wikimedia Commons/Lytton John Musselman

Want More Info?

Bolin, J., Maass, E., & Musselman, L. (2009). Pollination Biology of Hydnora africana Thunb. (Hydnoraceae) in Namibia: Brood‐Site Mimicry with Insect Imprisonment. International Journal of Plant Sciences, 170(2), 157-163. doi:10.1086/593047
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/593047?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

More info and pictures of Hydnora from Lytton J. Musselman at Old Dominion University
http://ww2.odu.edu/~lmusselm/plant/parasitic/hydnora.php