16 weird plants that seem more supernatural than natural

1. Bleeding heart, Lamprocapnos spectabilis

Native to Siberia, northern China, Korea and Japan, bleeding heart gets its name from its heart shape and distinctive white tips, which resemble droplets.

The first specimens of this species were introduced to the UK in the nineteenth century by botanist Robert Fortune. They bloom in springtime.

2. Cockscomb, Celosia argentea var. cristata

This bushy plant has dense, brain-like flowers nicknamed wool flowers or brain celosia.

Despite its unsettling appearance, cockscomb has a rich history in traditional medicine and has been used to treat everything from headaches to menstrual cramps.

3. Japanese blood grass, Imperata cylindrica

Cogon grass, or Japanese blood grass, earns its name from its blood-red spikes. A perennial plant, it’s popular with gardeners for its bold colour.

But beware – any variety of cogon grass without the red tips is highly invasive. It’s also very flammable, burning at higher temperatures than native grasses, which can lead to wildfires.

4. Witches’ hair, Cuscata

Witches’ hair, Cuscata, is also known by the equally spooky name of strangleweed and the less scary name dodder. It’s a genus of over 200 different parasitic plants.

Cuscata is native to tropical climates but also appears in temperate areas – including the UK. It’s often identifiable as a mass of green, brown or orange spaghetti-like substance hanging from other trees.

This plant lacks chlorophyll so it needs to feed from other plants – not unlike a vampire – to reproduce. Even stranger, Cuscata can identify the plants around it based on smell alone.

5. Basil, Ocimum basilicum

This popular kitchen herb may be more commonly associated with sauce than sorcery, but this hasn’t always been the case.

Victorian floriography – the practice of assigning codes to flowers to send messages via bouquets and arrangements, also called the language of flowers – associates basil with hatred. This link comes from the ancient Greeks who felt the plant’s leaves resembled a basilisk’s opening jaws.

Perhaps you’ll pause before sprinkling your friend’s pizza with this hateful herb next time…

6. Belladonna, Atropa belladonna

Belladonna or deadly nightshade is an extremely toxic herb that, when eaten, causes delirium, hallucinations and eventually death.

Belladonna literally translates to ‘beautiful lady’. During the Medieval period, women used the berries’ juice to dilate their pupils to appear more attractive – do not try this! Deadly nightshade has also been the poison of choice throughout history and literature. Its reputation led to the belief that witches could use it to fly.

Belladonna belongs to the Solanaceae family, also known as the nightshades. This group also includes tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplants.

7. Wolf’s bane, Aconitum

Wolf’s bane is the name of a genus of flowering plants in the Ranunculaceae family.

Identifiable by its beautiful flowers, wolf’s bane is a fast-acting poison that can result in nausea, vomiting, paralysis, breathing and heart problems before killing you. It was used to create poison arrows in China and like belladonna, was a popular poison in ancient Rome.

Wolf’s bane got its name from when it was used to poison wolves and panthers in the eighteenth century. As fact often blurs into fiction, this use has morphed in popular culture, where ’s often shown to be an effective werewolf deterrent.

8. Hemlock, Conium maculatum

The extremely hardy, poisonous hemlock is an invasive plant that can grow to heights of 2.4 metres.

Its seeds and roots are especially poisonous. In ancient Greece, hemlock was used to poison prisoners, including the philosopher Socrates.

If being deadly wasn’t enough to put you off, hemlock also has a repulsive smell which can be carried on the wind.

9. Carrion plant, Stapelia gigantea

The carrion flower, also known as the toad flower, is a flowering plant native to the desert regions of Tanzania and South Africa. It earns its name from its absolutely repulsive smell.

The carrion flower releases a rotting-flesh odour to attract flies to pollinate it. In fact, the plant smells so terrible that scientists are working on ways to use it as a human appetite suppressant.

10. Cobra lily, Darlingtonia californica

Arguably the cutest of the spooky entries in this list, the cobra lily or Californian pitcher plant is a carnivorous plant that grows in bogs.

Its name comes from its tubular top, which resembles a cobra’s hood, while its forked leaf looks like a tongue.

The plant traps insects by luring them in through the hole on the underside of it’s hooded leaves. Once the prey is inside, light shining through the translucent hood prevents it from finding the exit. Downward-pointing hairs inside ensure the insect’s trip is one-way.

11. Corpse flower, Amorphophallus titanium

Not to be confused with the carrion plant, the corpse flower is another plant that reeks of rotten bodies when it blooms.

Corpse flowers can take five to ten years to bloom for the first time and may take another two to ten years to bloom again – so smelling one is a rare experience.It has the largest unbranched inflorescence – a group of flowers on a main branch – that can reach heights of up to three metres.

Bonus fact – its scientific name, Amorphophallus titanium, derives from the Greek for ‘giant, misshapen phallus’.

12. Venus flytrap, Dionaea muscipula

The Venus flytrap may be the most iconic of the carnivorous plants. Its uncanny, seemingly sentient nature has influenced pop culture, including Pokémon, The Day of the Triffids and Little Shop of Horrors.

Charles Darwin once described the plant as “one of the most wonderful in the world”, though it’s unlikely their insect prey would agree. The plant uses sweet nectar to attract flies. When one lands and triggers the fine hairs within the trap, the plant closes around the fly and digests its soft tissue with an enzyme.

13. Black bat flower, Tacca chantrieri

Flowers tend to be colourful to attract pollinators, but this and the next entry lean to the dark side.

The black bat flower has large black flowers that measure 30 centimetres and sprout ‘whiskers’ which reach 70 centimetres in length. It’s found primarily in southeast Asia and prefers forests and valleys in shady areas.

14. Colocasia esculenta ‘Black Magic’

The unusually-coloured leaves of these taro plants are specifically bred for their appearence.

Also known as black elephant ears, a name that isn’t quite as spooky, this evergreen plant can grow up to 1.8 metres tall. Black Magic is fairly easy to grow, so it could be the perfect Halloween addition to your garden.

15. Doll’s eye, Actaea pachypoda

White baneberry is known as doll’s eye. The black stigmas in the white berries make it look like a cluster of eyeballs on stalks.

If this banesberry’s creepy appearance wasn’t enough to ward you off, it’s also poisonous to humans. It causes an immediate sedative response in muscle tissue.

Birds find the berries harmless and are the main way the plant’s seeds are dispersed.

16. Ghost plant, Monotropa uniflora

The ghost plant gets its nickname from its unusual colouring. This species has no chlorophyll – the green pigments in plants that are involved in photosynthesis.

Thanks to the ghost plant’s symbiotic relationship with fungi, it doesn’t need to photosynthesise. Instead it gets its nutrition through parasitism. This gives it an ethereal glow and the ability to grow in the darkest of forests.