What are some strange plants?

Answer 1

There are many strange plants. Cycads are a group of plants known as living fossils. They evolved after the spore bearing ferns but before the flowering plants. The most commonly grown is Cycas revoluta, known as the sago palm even though it is not a palm. Cycads bear leaves that resemble both ferns and palms, but they reproduce with large central cones similar to those of a pine tree, indicating their close relationship to the conifers. Datura and its cousin Brugmansia are two genera of large Trumpet flowered nightshades that are most beautiful in the evening and early morning hours. Datura, with its upward facing flowers is known as jimson weed, and made famous at the Jamestown colony where English soldiers mistakenly consumed its potent alkaloids which drove them crazy before nearly killing them. The Brugmansia flowers face downwards on more tree sized plants. Both contain atropine and other very dangerous drugs which have long been used in medicine. Century plants are species of genus Agave, a New World native succulent that is found primarily in Mexico and the Southwest. It does not live for a century but averages from ten to thirty years while the mother plant produces pups around the base. When her culminates life with an enormous flower stalk topped with flowers, she will die, but the pups remain to take her place. These too will flower and die in their own time. Tequila is made from the agave plant, and the worm in the bottle is the larvae of a pest that destroys the plants. Mullein is a weed of Europe that came with Colonials to infest American shores. Species of genus Verbascum produce flat, soft, fuzzy leaves are about the size of a human foot and have long been used to line the inside of shoes for insulation or to cushion a hole. They produce a very tall flower stalk that was once used by the Romans as a torch, thus it was once called Roman candle or candle wick. The dragon tree is a native of the Canary Islands off the west shore of Africa where these fat trunk succulents can reach a great age. Their sap is bright red and when dried was carried back to Europe by Venitian traders and sold as true dragon's blood used by medicine and diviners in various potions. This inspired the botanical name, Dracaena draco, and today these trees can be found in frost free coastal communities of the southern states and California.