Fantastic Flora: The World’s Biggest, Baddest, and Smelliest Plants
1 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION THE BIG CHAPTER 1 SUPERSIZE LEAF BOLIVIAN WATER LILY CHAPTER 2 FANTASTIC AND GIGANTIC TRAVELER'S PALM CHAPTER 3 A LONG WAY UP GIANT SEQUOIA THE BAD CHAPTER 4 IN THE DEAD OF THE NIGHT DEADLY NIGHTSHADE 8 11 21 35 CHAPTER 5 PLANT WITH A BANG SANDBOX TREE 43 CHAPTER 6 ROOT CAUSE OF DEATH WHITE SNAKEROOT 53
THE SMELLY CHAPTER 7 STOP AND SMELL THE GINKGO GINKGO CHAPTER 8 A PAIN IN THE NOSE 63 EASTERN SKUNK CABBAGE 73 CHAPTER 9 OF CORPSE IT SMELLS BAD DEAD HORSE ARUM 83 THE EXCEPTIONALLY STRANGE CHAPTER 10 COME A LITTLE CLOSER VENUS FLYTRAP CHAPTER 11 A STONE OR PLANT LIVING STONES CHAPTER 12 IF IT LOOKS LIKE A DUCK FLYING-DUCK ORCHID GLOSSARY 124 SOURCE NOTES 127 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 127 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 128 INDEX 129 95 105 115
Introduction Rumble It's the sound of your stomach begging for food You might wander into the kitchen to grab a snack Brrr It's your body shivering when the temperature drops Maybe you snuggle into a sweater But what about plants When the going gets tough plants don't have the same options as us humans They need a savvy way to survive in all kinds of conditions Limited nutrients The coldest cold the driest dry Cracks in sidewalks Murky water or a moderate fire Pests that want to eat them to death When plants face a problem it's not like they can run away or pack up and move somewhere else That's why plants thrive using brilliant and bizarre adaptations They use these features to help them succeed no matter what the environment throws at them Some have thorns to discourage hungry predators Others
scam their way close to helpful pollinators so they can reproduce Some ask for insect assistance using chemical signals Wherever you look plants are masters at survival With a focus on some of the biggest the baddest the smelliest and the strangest plants around the globe the facts you'll encounter encounter may seem a little unnatural They're not Plants can't talk or walk and don't have a brain protected inside a bony skull but they've figured out how to flourish In this book you'll meet plants that eat meat and one dead horse arum that pretends to be meat with a smell of rotten flesh that's so rank you'll want to plug your nose Crane your neck back to marvel at plants taller than a twenty story building crouch down to unearth plants smaller than your toenail Find out how and why certain plants live for centuries or generate enough heat to melt snow Uncover bold vegetation that disguises itself to look like something else Have you ever seen plants that look like stones As you leaf through this book you'll discover the wildest plant traits Exploding seeds Fireproof trunks Deadly berries Adaptations so strange you'll need to know more Get ready to dig into the sensational science of plant survival
