Top 5 spooky flowers for Halloween
Halloween is traditional a time for conjuring up make-believe horrors and gory sights, but nature often comes with the most spine-chilling specimens without any help at all.
Here we have found our top 5 spooky flowers that are sure to fit in perfectly with your Halloween celebrations this year.
Tacca chantrieri – The Bat Orchid
This unusual plant stands out due to its almost-black colour and long tendrils and obviously it gets its name from its resemblance in shape to the flying mammal. Native to the tropical forests of Yunnan Province, China, this plant also grows in white and brown varieties.
Monotropa uniflora – The Ghost Plant
Also known as the Corpse Plant or Ghost Plant, Monotropa uniflora is actually a parasitic organism and can survive with no natural light whatsoever. It survives by absorbing nutrients from a host plant and, due to a lack of chlorophyll, is often completely white in colour.
Harpagophytum – Devil’s Claw or Grapple Plant
The Grapple Plant is found in the eastern and south eastern parts of Namibia, Southern Botswana and the Kalahari and gets its common name from the claw-shaped seed pods that fall onto the ground. Large hook-like protrusions stick up from the pods and snag the legs of passing animals in order to spread the seeds across distances.
Solanum pyracanthon – Porcupine Tomato
Native to Madagascar, this plant is extremely invasive and has now spread to many other parts of the world. As it is part of the family of plants that includes nightshades, it is also highly toxic if eaten and warns any predators of this fact by growing large red spines along its leaves.
Hydnellum peckii – Bleeding Tooth Fungus
The Bleeding Tooth Fungus which, as you can imagine, is an inedible fungus that produces a bright red secretion as it grows, which resembles blood. The seepage is actually a pigmented juice that is has anticoagulant and antibacterial properties and also comes in yellow, white, brown and orange colours.