Plants that SCARE you!

Okay, everybody, I want to know if there are any plants or parts of plants (flowers, seed pods, etc.) that scare you guys and why. I like most plants, but some are just plain creepy! I'll give you my list and hope others will add on from there. Hopefully we can have a pretty long "creepy plant" list made up by Halloween. If you have pix or can link to pix in the Plantfiles, that will be even better. Okay, here are some of mine. I'll probably think of more later.

Dried lotus seed pods. I don't know why, but just something about the shape and the holes and the seeds really creeps me out!
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/911/index.html
The last photo from JJsGarden, ACK! I'd NEVER hold one of those things in my hand! ICK!

Dinnerplate dahlias. My mom had one planted right by the porch. I thought it was going to start talking to me, it was so big. The flowers were bigger than my head! LOL! My dad was afraid of it, too. We snuck out and killed it at night, LOL! ;P
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/127294/index.html

Passion flowers... they just look creepy, almost alien-like! Do I need to say more? LOL!
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/1189/index.html

Okay, those are my big three, but I have more. Anyone else get kinda creeped out by certain plants?

~Kristy

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Most of the carnivorous crew - I just start to feel empathy for the bugs. What a horrible way to go...

Helleborus, Hellebores.... besides the name, they're weird looking....I'm afraid I'll have to buy some !
And whatever shrub type rose, it looks amazing, clusters of little roses all over the place; I helped somebody prune them one time, they make cactus seem cuddly by comparison

Mother of Thousands (Bryophyllum daigremontianum) http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/13918/

I rented a house that had these all over the back yard... the PF pics, don't do it justice. My husband insisted it was alien in origin and I was pretty sure he was right.

Ipomoea cordatotriloba - a wild pink morning glory that popped up all over my yard this year! They are everwhere else too where I live in Summerville .. I discovered the proper name for what it's doing to my hedge rose is swarm. There will be no way I can iradicate this since it's everywhere. I try though by pulling off seed pods and flowers when I see them. I'm terrified of what next year will bring.

X

My aunt has an " Easter Egg Bush" which has what looks like eggs hanging all over it. For some reason, it just doesnt appeal to me at all. I am not scared of it, it just looks strange to me. Sandy

YEAH THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS PLANT. It had a personality a lot like me and I could see the trecheraous nature of such a plant. "Feed Meeeeeee"

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Grape ivy. It looks so innocent, but when you're not looking it will reach out those tendrils and strangle anything and everything it can get them around. It'll go after anything that stays still long enough.

Shelf Life, yeah, that Mother of Thousands is pretty scary looking. Is it also called Queen's Tears or something like that?

I'm glad I'm not the only one who is afraid of some plants, hehe.

Also add to my list: the inside of poppies with that hairy pod thing, ICK! LOL!

~Kristy

Datura seed pods. Those things are wicked.

I'm not saying that you are wrong about Passion flower blooms - but I grew up with that plant growing wild here and there on the farm, and I would pick the blooms, pull a few petals, and, voila! I'd have a dancing ballerina to play with!

Now, if you want to talk about that *beautiful* wisteria - I could tell you stories that would stand your hair on end! I have had people come to visit in the Spring and actually say that they didn't know that Pine trees bloomed - I'm talkibg 70 to 80 foot trees that the wisteria has taken over!

Here's what I wrote in a dmail to another DGer about a plant that I have, called Bear's Breeches (Acanthus hungaricus). I'm still weirded out by this experience and I find it can give you a good poke if you handle it without gloves.

" I had this plant sitting in a pot for several weeks now, waiting it's turn to get into the ground. I picked up the pot and this "thing" flew off of it and sailed past my head and onto my shoulder. So the pot goes "whoopee" into the air and I start doing the screaming funky chicken trying to get the "thing" off me. Now the pot landed upright on the ground (don't know how I managed that) and the "bug" was on the grass and not moving. Oh good, at least it's dead I thought, so I get a stick and start poking it to turn it over to see what kind of bug it was. It looks like a moth I'm thinking but strange it hasn't a normal head like one. Then it dawns on me......it's not a bug.......it's an expired bloom from the plant!!! What a complete and utter moron I am but I swear it looked like a bug. Then I find myself looking around to see if anyone saw me."

And I still don't like the dead blooms on this one, lol!

edited to add link:
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/1945/index.html

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This message was edited Feb 13, 2007 5:53 PM

POISON IVY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Poison oak!!!!

This doesnt actually scare me..I just found it interesting. My hubby has a new camera and was working on his macro setting and getting some pics. He took this one of a plant of mine. It looks like a monsters mouth with discolored teeth!! Just thought I would share it!

Erynne - that's histerical! ROTFLMAO!!!

And tgif - you should see the fear in the eyes of my DH when he sees or even hears
someone mention wisteria. When he bought his first house, the previous owner had
planted a wisteria in the front to grow into a frame over the front porch (for shade). He
said he trimmed & trimmed and then whacked & whacked some more but that vine
had its mind made up on total takeover of the block. He cut it down & kept the base
twined around one of the poles in his garage as a trophy I think. All I ever saw of it
was this. That wisteria sure did instill fear in him!!!

Tam

Erynne, I'm still laughing!!!

I just don't care for the huge white hydrangea blooms. They look so heavy and then they start to turn brownish. Not my favorite.

Turbosbabe, love that picture!

Sally

Not one of more graceful moments, lol..

Wild Parsnip (Pastinaca sativa) for me. I see that plant and feel the need to "suit up". What it can do to you can put Poison Ivy, Poison Oak, and Poison Sumac to shame.

I've done the funky chicken dance as a result of a few expired blooms landing on me. They always seem to sneak up and catch me by surprise and before I know it, they attack with no mercy. I feel for ya Erynne.

Just noticed this thread - and it has reminded me - it's "Round up time" (not a get-together - a nasty plant destruction), Got to go spray for awhile.

BURDOCK - both for the way it can take over an entire pasture when you are not looking, and for the way the wind whistles through it all winter long. If I could re-do the world to suit my liking, the first thing I'd erase is burdock.

Ahhh yes. The inspriation for velcro wasn't it?

Something worse than poison ivy is Virginia Creeper. The plant contains oxalates (the components of kidney stones, by the way. OUCH). When you handle the plant, which climbs quickly, the oxalates can fall of the plant and imbed into your skin. It can creep a rash worse than poison ivy. YOu don't treat it the same way you do poison ivy rash, altho the two rashes look identical. And only a prescription drug will stop it if it gets out of hand.

I never worried about it before, pulling up, barehanded, little tendrils that would spread across the ground. I'd get a small rash on my fingers but nothing major. This year, while I wasn't looking, the invading vine grew up the back of my house, all the way up to and across roof! I sprayed it with Roundup/2D4 mix. And it appears dead. But I'm still afraid to go handle it because the oxalates will still fall off the vine. I'll have to wear a mask, hat, gloves, long sleeves, goggles, etc. to cover every inch of me. And I still worry it will get on me. The oxalates can get in my clothing and later on me as I handle the clothing.

I've had poison ivy 3 times this year. But VA creeper scares me more and I'm still trying to devise a strategy to get rid of it because I don't wanna touch it with a 10 ft pole.

I never knew that about virginia creeper! I'm always getting rashes and assumed it was poison ivy.
I now ALWAYS wear gloves. I have a tan line at my wrist but it really cuts down on the rashes & itchies.

Thanks for the tip on Virginia Creeper! I'll be more careful.
Tam

Poison ivy and Virginia Creeper blend in so well together its hard to tell them apart...I was clearing an area of the yard that I thought was just VC but PI was in there w/ it and I was covered from head to toe, eyes swollen shut, and miserable for a good 3 wks. There's a homeopathic remedy made by Hyland's called "Poison Ivy/Oak Remedy" and it works GREAT!!!

I'm itching just reading about that dogmansis!

I HATE the Seed Pods from the European Hop Hornbeam Tree.
I tried gathering Seeds from it and suddenly I started itching and burning all over.
It is just like Insulation. Flying all over and everywhere it landed I was on fire, burning, and scratching. I had to scrub and scrub to get it off me.
NEVER AGAIN Will I try to gather THOSE SEEDS

deadheading daylilies.....they are the slimiest, most horrible feeling spent flowers. Not that it will stop me. Just feel like your grabbing a slug when you go to grab for one....gets me everytime.