10 Disturbing Plants That Should Not Exist

Original source : http://www.unmotivating.com

Posted : September 2014

Author : Charlene

Nature never ceases to amaze. Well, these particular plants don’t really “amaze”. They more “creep the ever living sh*t” out of us. Unless you’re okay with plants that can bleed, or plants that can literally trap your feet as you walk past them. We thought this was stuff you would see in a horror film, but you will be very surprised to know that just because you see it in a movie, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. These plants have some very scary signature appearances and traits, and you don’t want to mess with them. No, really! If you ever see these plants, RUN the other way!

10 Bleeding Tooth Fungus

They are listed as ”inedible,” which implies that someone attempted to eat one at some point. On the other hand, the bloodlike substance has anticoagulant and antibacterial properties. It’s nature’s next penicillin! All you have to do is lick it. Go ahead.

9 Chinese Black Batflowers

It is kept as an ornamental plant by gardeners who prefer to cultivate nightmares, and have the balls to live in the presence of a plant that looks like it crawled out of a Bosch painting and wants to plant its young in their head.

Their dangling fruit even looks like bats sleeping upside down, as pictured above.

8 Doll’s Eye

At best, this thing looks like the plants you’d find on some hostile alien world. At worst, it looks like eyeballs on bloody stalks, tied together by their stems like the deranged trophy of some serial killer, used to mark the grave of half a dozen victims.

It’s called the doll’s eye plant, also known by the equally unsettling name “white baneberry.” Just in case you were actually thinking of eating this thing, those eyeballs are highly poisonous. Obviously.

7 Sea Anemone Mushroom/Octopus Stinkhorn

They start out looking like traditional Mario-style ‘shrooms, but that’s just so they can gain your trust. Once they mature, they “erupt” their red tentacles of smelly horror to attract flies, which then transport their ”gleba” to another location to reproduce, which is about the closest thing to the plot of a Lovecraft story that you’ll find in reality.

6 Devil’s Claw

Devil’s claws are kind of like those little thistle burs that get stuck to your clothes when you walk through a field, except instead of being tiny, mild annoyances, they look more like some unholy spider beast from some twisted American McGee version of our childhood. They come from Arizona, where they are used by Native Americans to weave baskets.

The horrifying seed pods are designed to latch on to the feet of passing animals, which will then transport them to another location before crushing them underfoot and releasing the seeds.

5 Porcupine Tomato

Did we mention that it spreads quickly, and can reach 8 feet tall by 8 feet wide in a relatively short amount of time? What we’re saying is that you should be careful stepping out your front door in the morning, because you never know when a toxic, razor-filled hedge may have sprung up in the middle of the night.

4 Cedar-Apple Rust Fungus

CARF is a fungal infection that attacks, you guessed it, cedar and apple trees. It produces globular fungal balls anywhere from a 1/4 inch to 2 inches in diameter and inflates “spore horns” when the weather gets wet, transforming it into the Koosh ball from hell. Or, if you prefer, gummy Cthulhu.

3 Buddha’s Hand

Buddha’s hand is a citrus fruit popular in China and Japan for its strong fragrance. It fails as a fruit since it’s pretty much all zest and no pulp, but it has other uses, such as being a feature in Stephen King’s fruit basket centerpiece.

2 Chinese Fleeceflower

The Chinese use this plant in their traditional medicine for kidney health, strong bones and hair restoration, and as a mild laxative, and it’s … Hey, wait a second …

OK, weird, it’s a root that looks like a little dude. But that’s a rare, onetime fluke, right? It’s not like that’s what this species typically looks like or anything.