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The ‘Bunny Succulent’: Adorable plant that looks like it has bunny ears
08.01.2017
11:03 am
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I’m always looking for something easy to grow in my home as I don’t really have much of a “green thumb.” My friend on Facebook, Kevin, hipped me to a plant nicknamed the “Bunny Succulent ” or as it’s scientifically known, the monilaria moniliformis or monilaria obconica. The adorable plant resembles bunny ears and comes in blue or green. I dig the blue one. It would make a nice addition to my workspace.

Apparently they’re rather easy to care for, but they do need full sun to light shade. One thing I have learned about caring for succulents is to never overwater them. Their roots tend to rot easily.

So if you don’t have the time, money or the poop-scooping energy to raise a real bunny, here’s the next best thing. No fuss, no muss, no shit pellets all over the place…

You can buy the Bunny Succulent seeds here at the Blue Fire store for $4.51. They’re also sold on Amazon


 

 

 
h/t Kevin!

Posted by Tara McGinley
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08.01.2017
11:03 am
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New carnivorous plant named for H.R. Giger is beautiful (in a vagina dentata kind of way)
04.06.2015
01:04 pm
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Rarely do we here at Dangerous Minds get a chance to report on the fast-paced (?) world of botany, but rarely is a gorgeous new cultivar of carnivorous plant named for H.R. Giger! This beautiful (if a little monstrously vaginal) specimen of Nepenthes—or “pitcher plant”—was only recently registered with the International Carnivorous Plant Society by photographer and horticulturist, Matthew M Kaelin, who explains the plant’s name in his submission:

I named this plant Nepenthes ‘H.R. Giger’ in October 2014 in memory of the recently passed Surrealist Artist from Switzerland who is perhaps best-known for creating the Alien creature for director Ridley Scott’s 1979 film “Alien”, which earned him an Academy Award for the Best Achievement in Visual Effects for his designs of the film’s title character, the stages of its lifecycle, and the film’s extraterrestrial environments. As the innovator of the nightmarish “Biomechanical” style, he had a long and well-respected career as a globally influential fine artist in the disciplines of painting, sculpture, industrial design, and interior design. When viewed extremely close and at an angle, the intersection of the peristome teeth and the lid spikes of the cultivar create a frightening alien landscape akin to those imagined by the late H.R. Giger (Fig. 6). This, and because the plant is darkly colored and has such a nightmarish appearance, I feel that it would be a fitting tribute to name the cultivar for the late visionary genius Hans Ruedi Giger.

For your scientific edification: pitcher plants are vines, and tend to climb up trees or sprawl close to the ground—the H.R. Giger cultivar has grown over six feet long, but could grow up to 30. Pitcher plants normally eat insects, but can also consume small vertebrates. Kaelin also notes that the flowers smell “like a pile of dirty sweatsocks”—charming!

And a fitting dedication to a master of body horror brilliance!
 

 
More after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Amber Frost
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04.06.2015
01:04 pm
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Talk to your plants: They’re listening
06.08.2012
03:03 pm
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“Huh? I can’t hear you. Hey, can the rest of you blabbermouths please keep it down?”

We know that plants are light-sensitive, can “feel” wind and “smell” certain chemicals that might make them react in a certain way, but now scientists are wondering if plants can hear sounds as well.

Or maybe “hearing” isn’t the right word to use, just the best we’ve got, currently. Perhaps they’re utilizing an entirely different sort of sensory perception that we’ve just not yet discovered?

From New Scientist:

A team led by Monica Gagliano at the University of Western Australia in Crawley placed the seeds of chilli peppers (Capsicum annuum) into eight Petri dishes arranged in a circle around a potted sweet fennel plant (Foeniculum vulgare).

Sweet fennel releases chemicals into the air and soil that slow other plants’ growth. In some set-ups the fennel was enclosed in a box, blocking its chemicals from reaching the seeds. Other experiments had the box, but no fennel plant inside. In each case, the entire set-up was sealed in a soundproof box to prevent outside signals from interfering.

As expected, chilli seeds exposed to the fennel germinated more slowly than when there was no fennel. The surprise came when the fennel was present but sealed away: those seeds sprouted fastest of all.

Gagliano repeated the experiment with 2400 chilli seeds in 15 boxes and consistently got the same result, suggesting the seeds were responding to a signal of some sort. She believes this signal makes the chilli seeds anticipate the arrival of chemicals that slow their growth. In preparation, they undergo a growth spurt. The box surrounding the fennel would have blocked chemical signals, and Gagliano suggests sound may be involved.

Here’s where it gets really wild:

In a separate experiment, chilli seeds growing next to a sealed-off chilli plant also consistently grew differently to seeds growing on their own, suggesting some form of signalling between the two.

Doesn’t all of this imply some level of sentience as well?

Below, Walon Green’s pioneering 1979 science documentary, The Secret Life of Plants, with a soundtrack by Stevie Wonder.
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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06.08.2012
03:03 pm
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Plants know their siblings, but strangers are seen as rivals
11.03.2009
06:03 pm
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Fascinating research from the University of Delaware reveals that plants recognize their siblings, but “fight” with strangers. Who knew?

Back in 2007, Canadian researchers discovered that a common seashore plant, called a sea rocket, can recognize its siblings ?

Posted by Richard Metzger
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11.03.2009
06:03 pm
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