Of course I have a bunch of really important things to do - like catch up with my movies - but I'm not going to let you guys down. In fact thanks for all of you who kept checking back with the blog (hint hint Palo Alto).
Anyways, let's get down to business. Since I had a good time this weekend (nature rules) here's a short list of plants. It'll be something like the extinct animal post, only with flowers.
Number one almost extinct plant on the list is Medusagyne oppositifolia.
It's endemic on Mahé - which is an island for those who were wondering. They are also called jellyfish plants because their flowers resemble the tentacles of the animals. Their sad story is that they are mostly unable to germinate each other in their current wild conditions. They can reach about 10 meters high, with leaves of about 8 centimeters.
On to the next one: Rafflesia magnifica. I believe I posted something about this one in the past, but no matter.
This flower is endemic to the Philippines, and it's threatened by some stupid people who want to build a road over its habitat. It's the largest flower that is still in existence, and it lives as a parasite. It doesn't have stems, leaves or roots at all, and it smells like rotting flesh. and even with the smell I wish I could once see once from close. It looks beautiful.
The Astelia waialealae lives in Hawaii.
It's so endangered, it only has 26 of its species remaining. Its habitat is near a swamp on the island of Kaua'i, and it's endangered because of habitat loss and wild pigs running amok.
Let's see another interesting one: the Titan Arum.
It's actual name is amorphophallus titanum (which pretty much means huge penis). It's not exactly the largest flower in the world but it's almost there. It lives in Sumatra, and just like the Rafflesia it smells like rotten flesh. It was discovered in 1878 - much earlier than the Rafflesia which was first noted in 2005. But if it's true that hey smell that bad I don't exactly understand why they weren't discovered earlier. If I would live in a place where a stench that bad appeared every single year like clockwork I would probably investigate.
all right guys, that's pretty much it for today. If you're interested in more than these though, here's an amazing internet site that has a huge list of endangered species from all over the world: http://www.arkive.org/
