I nominate:
1. Trigger plants (Stylidiaceae - Australia). They slap pollinators
with their reproductive parts to effect pollination.
2. Resurrection plant (Selaginella)- desert species and eastern
epiphytes. Yes, they look dead until you add water.
3. Epiphytic Bromeliads (in general) because they are so obviously cool.
4. Rafflesiaceae includes one of the worlds largest (Rafflesia
arnoldii) and smallest (Pilostyles thurberi) flowers (The second one is
a plant that lives entirely inside the stems of desert shrubs - except
for the flowers).
5. Ophrys speculum orchids for their pseudocopulation pollination system.
6. Marine flowering plants like Zostera and Thallasia (sea grass)
because they represent weird evolutionary transitions back to the ocean,
they are some of the only plants that flower and are pollinated
completely under water, and they have some of the largest pollen grains
(long, thread-like).
7. Vallisneria seems like an ordinary aquatic plant, but it has a weird
pollination system where male flowers break off and float on the water
surface like little boats. The female flowers stay attached on long
stems and open on the water surface. Male flowers are then drawn to the
females as the water surface is depressed by surface tension around the
females.
8. Basal Angiosperms (water lilies such as Nymphaea, Brasenia, Nuphar)
because they like leftover dinosaurs from the deep evolutionary past of
the flowering plants.
9. Buzz pollination plants like shooting star (Dodecatheon) and
Melestoma because they are also cool. Steve Buckman did an awesome
analysis of that demonstrated the physics of pollen ejection from the
anthers and then electrostatic charges that sicks the pollen to the
pollinator's body.
10. Gnetum, which is classified as a Gymnosperm but is really a
transitional group because they have double fertilization that is more
like the Angiosperms. Some species are also used as herbal remedies in
China.
11. Wild ginger (Asarum) because they are one of the only plants that
is (might be) ant pollinated.
12. Touch-me-not (jewel weed - Impatiens) and other plants with
projectile seed dispersal.
Yeah, and there are plenty of others, but there are a few I can think of
right off.
Mitch Cruzan
On 8/15/2011 4:25 PM, Benjamin Blonder wrote:
Hi everyone,
I'm about to embark on a middle school teaching project where
students will learn about a really odd species of plant - they'll
investigate its natural history, adaptation, etc., then make a
presentation to the class on their findings.
I'd like your help with the names of some of your favorite weird
plants - especially charismatic ones are particularly welcome. I'm
hoping to have a list of about 50 in the end. Some examples of the
kinds of plants I'm imagining: Welwitschia, Amorphophallus, Nepenthes,
Hura...
Once enough suggestions come in, I'd be pleased to summarize the
names to the list.
Thanks!
Benjamin Blonder
University of Arizona
