July 3, 2019

This Strange Plant Has Flowers with Petals Shaped Like Hummingbirds

By Jessica Stewart on June 26, 2019



When Redditor Octopus Prime posted this photo of an unusual looking plant, the internet caught fire. In the palm of someone’s hand, what appears to be an origami hummingbird is actually a flower. Instantly, everyone was wondering where this plant came from and what benefit it received from looking like a bird. Luckily, fellow Redditor SolitaryBee—a post-doc scientist studying flower evolution—was able to help shed some light on the situation.

The plant in question is known as the green flowerbird or regal flowerbird. Crotalaria cunninghamii is the stunning plant’s scientific name. It’s a member of the legume family that includes chickpeas and alfalfa. The perennial shrub is native to inland northern Australia, where it thrives along sandy dunes. Its ties to Australia are quite ironic, considering that no hummingbirds live there.

Many commenters associated the flowers’ shape with an adaptive evolutionary development. But, as SolitaryBee helpfully pointed out, this couldn’t possibly be the case. “The fact that the flower looks like a bird to humans cannot have evolved adaptively because as a signal receiver, there is nothing humans could have done to increase the fitness of individuals that evolved this signal (to look like a bird),” the scientist commented. “Unless indigenous Australians in arid Australia bred or traded the plant because it looks like a bird.”



Flower Shaped Like a Bird
Photo: Botanic Gardens & Parks Authority

Indigenous Australians did prize the flower, but certainly not for its ornamental value, which (as SolitaryBee points out) would have been considered a waste of resources. Green flowerbird has medicinal usage and Aboriginal people use it in an eyewash to treat infections.

More:
https://mymodernmet.com/crotalaria-cunninghamii-hummingbird-flower/

Add earlier articles:

Adorable Succulents’ Leaves Look Like Tiny Dolphins Jumping in the Air
By Sara Barnes on March 31, 2017



More:
https://mymodernmet.com/senecio-peregrinus-dolphin-plant/

And:

Tiny Succulents Grow as Adorable Rabbit-Shaped Plants in Japan
By Sara Barnes on March 13, 2017



More:
https://mymodernmet.com/rabbit-plant-japan-monilaria-obconica/