Most Beautiful Rapidly Moving Plants

Squirting Cucumber

Ecballium elaterium, also called the squirting cucumber or exploding cucumber, is a plant in the cucumber family. It gets its unusual name from the fact that, when ripe, it squirts a stream of mucilaginous liquid containing its seeds, which can be seen with the naked eye. It can move rapidly thus a rapid plant movement. It is native to Europe, northern Africa, and temperate areas of Asia. It is grown as an ornamental plant elsewhere, and in some places it has naturalized. It is suspected to provide food for the caterpillars. This plant, and especially its fruit, is poisonous. In the ancient world it saw use as an abortifacient. In Turkey, the fresh fruit juice of this plant is directly applied into the nostrils for the treatment of sinusitis as a herbal / folk remedy.

Impatiens

Impatiens containing over a thousand species is a vibrant World of Busy Lizzies, Balsams, and touch-me-nots. Some species are annual plants and produce flowers from early summer until the first frost, while perennial species, found in milder climates, can flower all year. Regardless of their lifespan, the largest impatiens grow up to about 2 meters tall, but most are less than half as tall. The leaves are entire and shiny; their upperside has a thick, water-repellent cuticula that gives them a greasy feel. These plants derives their scientific name Impatiens and the common name “touch-me-not” in reference to their seed capsules. When the capsules mature, they “explode” when touched, sending seeds several meters away. This mechanism is also known as “explosive dehiscence”; thus having a rapid plant movement.

Orchidaceous

Orchidaceae, commonly referred to as the Orchid family, is a morphologically diverse and widespread family containing a number of beautiful dazzling flowering plants that possess rapid movement due to their strong highly specialized pollination behavior associated  to them. Orchids generally have simple leaves with parallel veins but are well known for the many structural variations in their flowers. In orchids that produce pollinia, pollination happens as some variant of the following. When the pollinator enters into the flower, there are a series of contractions and relaxations as that of a muscle occurs with the flower seen by naked eye and similar activity occurs when the pollinator enters another flower thus pollinating it. The possessors of orchids may be able to reproduce the process with a pencil, small paintbrush, or other similar device.

Witch Hazel

Witch-hazel (Hamamelis) are deciduous shrubs or (rarely) small trees growing to 3–8 m tall, rarely to 12 m tall. They are popular ornamental plants, grown for their clusters of rich yellow to orange-red flowers which begin to expand in the autumn as or slightly before the leaves fall, and continue throughout the winter.  The horticultural name means “together with fruit”; its fruit, flowers, and next year’s leaf buds all appear on the branch simultaneously, a rarity among trees.H. virginiana flowers in the fall of the year. The flowers of the other species are produced on the leafless stems in winter, thus one alternative name for the plant, “Winterbloom”.Each flower has four slender strap-shaped petals 1–2 cm long, pale to dark yellow, orange, or red. The fruit is a two-part capsule 1 cm long, containing a single 5 mm glossy black seed in each of the two parts; the capsule splits explosively at maturity in the autumn about 8 months after flowering, ejecting the seeds with sufficient force to fly for distances of up to 10 m, thus another alternative name “Snapping Hazel

Trigger plant

Stylidium (also known as triggerplants is a genus of plants that derive its name from Stylos, which refers to the distinctive reproductive structure that its flowers possess like a column or a pillar. Pollination is achieved through the use of the sensitive “trigger”, which comprises the male and female reproductive organs fused into a floral column that snaps forward quickly in response to touch, harmlessly covering the insect in pollen. They have beautiful flowers, and although species of the genus represent a very diverse selection of plants but  most easily identified by their unique floral column, in which the stamen and style are fused. The column also commonly called a “trigger” in this genus typically resides beneath the plane of the flower.

Sensitive Partridge Pea

Chamaecrista nictitans (Sensitive Partridge Pea, Small Partridge Pea or Wild Sensitive Plant) is a herbaceous species of legume widely distributed through the temperate and tropical Americas. It is an annual plant capable of rapid plant movement—its leaflets fold together when touched.

Colors of Sea – 6 Beautiful Worms, Corals and Mushrooms

Seas and oceans are breathtakingly beautiful part of this world. They are full of life, colors, appeal, and attract art and nature lovers. Deep colored water, lovely and marvelous fish, amazing corals, worms, mushrooms and sea animals of brilliant colors make the nature lovers and photographers dive in to relish and savor beauty of this wonderful and magnificent part of the world.

1. Light Bulb Tunicate

Light Bulb Sea Squirt (Scientific name: Clavelina Lepadiformis) is a colonial sea squirt. The transparent tunic of the worm shows the yellow or white internal organs. This gives them the glow of a light bulb and hence they got their name. They are mostly found along the Norwegian Coast. Their colonies can also be seen in the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and in the Mediterranean Sea. They sit together with a loose binding at the base. They are cylindrical and have a 4cm long elongation. They grow in late winters and reproduce in summers.

2. Christmas Tree Worms

Christmas Tree Worms (Scientific name: Spirobranchus Giganteus) are small, tube-building  worms belonging to the family Serpulidae. These attractive corals come in a variety of colors ranging from yellow and orange to blue and white. They are widely distributed throughout the world’s tropical oceans. The worm’s multicolored spirals actually are highly derived respiratory structures. It lacks specialized appendages for movement or swimming and does not move outside it’s tube. They have two beautiful crowns which give them Christmas tree appearance and hence they got their name. These crowns are specialized mouth appendages of the worm. They are very sensitive to disturbances. Even a shadow causes an instant reaction. It’s tube is it’s home.

3. Bubble Coral

Bubble Corals (Scientific name: Plerogyra Sinuosa) are beautiful and extinct water filled bubbles and this property gives them their beautiful name. They need light to inflate and expand. When they expand during daytime, they look like bubbles, pearls or grapes. It has a hard skeleton which is visible when they deflate. These corals are extremely fragile and puncture with touch. Care should be taken while handling and collecting them because of their long tentacles. They are mostly found in the Red Sea, Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.

4. Open Brain Coral

Open Brain Coral (Scientific name: Trachyphyllia Geoffroyi) is an oval shaped heavy skeleton with a conical base. These are also known as Folded Brain or Crater Coral. They are large polyp stony (LPS) with usually 2 to 3 polyps. The beautiful corals are red, yellow, brown, green or blue in color. It has a shape of number 8 or an hour glass shape. Tentacles come out of the mouth at evening and serve the protection purpose. The are up to 80 mm in length with 2 to 3 mouths. It is photosynthetic and requires no feeding. The red ones need less lightning than the green ones. They are easy to be collected as they prefer attaching their body to reefs, shells and dead corals.

5. Cup Coral

Cup corals (Family name: Dendrophyllidae ) are beautiful corals produced in deep water. They are non-reef building species and live on zooplankton. They extend beautiful translucent tentacles at night. Cup corals are found in extremely cold water throughout the world. Cup corals are also known as flowers of the sea and are famous due to their brilliant colors and bouquet formation. They usually take the formation of cups and plate. This coral makes its own outer skeleton of limestone.

6. Finger Coral

Finger Corals (Scientific name: Porites Compressa) are beautiful corals resembling fingers also known as Commonly referred to as Thin Finger Leather Coral, Knobby Finger Leather Coral, Devil’s Hand/Finger Leather Coral, Dead Man’s Finger Coral, Bushy Soft Coral, Chili Pepper Coral, Cabbage Leather Coral, Trough Coral, Sinularia Finger Thick and Lobed Leather Coral. They are naturally found in a number of shades including brown, tan, yellow, green, pink and gray. They originally belong to Indian and Pacific Ocean. These unique corals have an average size of 1-2 inches. They take their nutrition from an algae with the name of zooxanthellae. This algae hosts within its body and depends on photosynthesis.  They also take their nutrients from micro plankton. Their appearance mainly depends on the strength of the ocean currents.

5 Deadliest Creatures of the Amazon

1. Mosquito

With all these strong, sharp-toothed animals in the list it’s amazing that the deadliest creature award should go to something that’s tiny enough to squash in your hand. But the mosquito carries deadly diseases with it, such as malaria and so is the most dangerous animal in the rainforest. If it bites you, it can pass the disease directly into your bloodstream and, if you’re not vaccinated, it can kill you pretty quickly.

What’s worse is they’re becoming cleverer. A repellent called Deet, which is widely used by tourists to ward them off, is no longer as repellent as it used to be, thanks to the mosquito evolving a resistance to it. So, on your next trip to the Amazon, avoid the jaguars, don’t swim too close to the caiman and most importantly pack your mosquito net!

2. Jaguar

You’ve got to love an unfussy eater. And the jaguar is certainly unfussy – its diet consists of 87 different animals, from deer to mice and it’s safe to say it’s opportunistic in its hunting habits. It would definitely try and kill any human that wandered across its path.

It’s a rare type of feline in that, along with the tiger, it enjoys swimming. So don’t think that jumping on the nearest boat and rowing away will help – it’ll just follow. They like to live in the rainforest and are the biggest cats in the Western Hemisphere (in the world, only lions and tigers are bigger). So, they’re big, merciless and utterly carnivorous. Yet, they look so beautiful and it’s tragic that they are nearing threatened status because of the destruction of their habitats. Efforts should be made to save the rainforest jaguar from extinction, even if they would never choose to spare your life.

3. South American Rattlesnake

The Amazon is teeming with all kinds of snakes, but the rattlesnake is one of the deadliest to humans. Rattlesnakes are said to be responsible for 9% of all serious snakebites in Latin America and the look of the bites varies according to the species of snake, which has led to at least one death after Southern-Brazilian doctors failed to recognize a Northern-Brazilian snakebite (cited in Mark O’Shea’s book ”Venomous Snakes of the World“). They live in the savannah regions of the Amazon, as well as other parts of South America. One native that’s probably best avoided…

4. Brazilian Wandering Spider

This creature has the distinction of being the world’s most venomous spider (in the Guinness Book of Records) but the edge is taken off its scariness slightly but the fact that there’s an effective antivenom available to counteract the very, very toxic venom. So as long as it bites you near the antivenom, you’re fine! In fact, one study suggested that in a third of all bites, it doesn’t even deposit the venom and in another third, it only deposits a small amount. Practically a teddy bear, then!

Although it’d be hard to explain that to the British grocery clerk who found one in a box of bananas in Gravesend in 2008. The store was closed until animal officers arrived to take the spider away and humanely put it down. It was deemed “too dangerous” to go near photographers. Poor thing clearly wandered that bit too far!

5. Poison Dart Frog

One of the most distinctly “Amazon”-looking creatures, and one of the deadliest. Their bright colors are specifically designed to ward off predators and look unappetizing. The name “poison dart frog” comes from the use of their poison on blowdarts by humans, although only a small proportion of frogs are used for that purpose.

The frogs are tiny but deadly. One type – the golden poison dart frog – is only 2in long, but contains enough poison to kill 10 men. Attempts are being made to synthesize the poison for medicinal uses, but so far it’s not available commercially. One day, we might just see poison dart frog venom painkillers on the shelves though!