Sometimes it seems like nature has stopped surprising, and every plant and animal has become as mundane and pedestrian as the next. It’s important to keep searching at the boundaries of the plant and animal kingdom in order to keep one’s love of nature as passionate as ever. Here are some unusual and rare plants that will give your enthusiasm a boost.
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Sundews are a large family of plants (with nearly 200 members) that are varied in appearance, but all carnivorous. They are known for their dew like drops at the end of tentacles that bristle across the plant. These serve a unique purpose: to trap insects so they can be digested by the plant.
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Plants known as “Doll’s Eyes” are named for the disturbing berries that crop up once a year. These small white berries have small marks that appear like pupils, giving the plant an… interesting… appearance.
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Titun Arum plants are exceptional mostly for their incredible size. They have the largest inflorescence (shoot where flowers are formed) of any plant species. The flower is also known by the carrion smell it emits.
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Nightblooming Cereus flowers grow in deserts with incredibly low water levels, and because of this they can only afford to bloom at night, one or two nights a year.
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Rafflesia is a type of plant that parasitically attaches to the roots and vines of other plants, and is mainly visible because of its large flowers, which can weigh up to 22 pounds. These flowers are notable for looking and smelling like rotting flesh, which attracts pollinating flies.
(Images via moplants, coloradocarnivorousplantsociety)
The American Pitcher Plant populates the eastern seaboard of the United States and supplements its nutrition by trapping and digesting insects in its large, steep stem.



