Oops? I could have sworn I posted something just yesterday, but I guess I just thought about it.
Ok, so, this is going to be another short one, but it's going to revisit an old...topic that I stay aware of for purely scientific reasons. Australia.
Picture from Florida Seeds, link below.
That's a Green Birdflower plant that grows Hummingbirds. It's gorgeous and awesome and I totally want one and am simultaneously terrified of what way it'll kill me if I actually get the seeds to try to grow it inside. It's Australian, it obviously wants to kill me somehow.
But it's still so cool. Tell me this isn't awesome:
There is a lot of debate around why this plant grew in this particular way, including a suggestion that it's just humans seeing things, so it's still up for debate, but what isn't is that that is a bunch of hummingbirds on a stick. The general consensus is that it's just coincidence because the flower is in the right proportions for it's pollinators, and that just happens to look like a hummingbird.
Unfortunately, this is another one of those times where I have to say...there's not a lot of research about it. It's been getting a lot of attention over the last few years, so it will soon, but it's sap has been used by Aboriginals to treat eye infections, so there's probably some kind of medicinal value that will be figured out later, when it's become more common and more studied.
This picture is from Florida Seeds, seen below.
The Latin name for this lovely bird-flower is Crotalaria cunninghamii, named after the Australian Botanist Alan Cunningham who first described this flower somewhere between 1816 and 1839. It's a legume, like a bean, but still very different from the green beans you get in the store.
This pic is from Hobby Farms, link below.
As someone who has an enduring love of the zippy birds from times when I've been buzzed by them for walking outside, who has planted countless flowers in an attempt to get their attention, and who has actually held a hummingbird nest and egg shell, I tend to get really excited about things like this even if it's in Australia, so I kinda want to try growing some (I probably could, theoretically), but Australia...
Sources:
Audubon- Did this plant evolve to look like Birds?
Hobby Farms- A different Kind of Hummingbird Plant
Florida Seeds- Green Birdflower-- Mostly this for the pictures, it's got some fun ones.
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