There's a species of orchid called Dracula simia with flowers that look like a monkey's head

blueskiesoc, 11 months ago

Sharing my pic from a greenhouse in SoCal.

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/c733ec5e-f8d4-4e0a-a8f8-d06cf296de1f.jpeg

defaultnamespace, 11 months ago

More like mildly terrifying. No thanks monkey flowers.

blueskiesoc, 11 months ago

Invasion of the body snatchers vibe.

potato_pizzareca, 11 months ago

Looks like evil monkeys.

LillianVS, 11 months ago

It looks kinda like something an AI could generate and I feel mildly uneased by this lol

house_of_questions, 11 months ago

I just checked if this was real (yes I do that a lot :D) and omg, it is! I had never heard of it.

The wiki showed another version of this, called Orchis simia:

Orchis simia, commonly known as the monkey orchid, is a greyish pink to reddish species of the genus Orchis. It gets its common name from its lobed lip which mimics the general shape of a monkey's body.[1]

Look how adorable!

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/83adbd89-4eba-48d8-bbd6-d5935deed0fe.jpeg

wolfylow, 11 months ago

Very sweet! They remind me of the game with the plastic monkeys where you have to join them all together.

Lifter, 11 months ago

They even have little penises!

nieceandtows, 11 months ago

That’s crazy good. I wonder what the evolutionary reason behind it is.

Donny, 11 months ago

My guess is just to scare things that eat it? Idk it is super interesting