There are some very strange things in the world. Some are fun, cute, and exciting. Some are just disturbing. Here is a quick list of plants that make my list of the ten most disturbing plants I know about.

Octopus Stinkhorn

Clathrus Archeri.
As it is a fungus, I placed it last on the list. However, this creepy plant usually looks like the tentacles of an octopus. It is said that it is edible, but as it smells horrible and tastes even worse I doubt that even those dying of hunger would want to try it. Most of these are from the place where many dangerous things come from: Australia.

Bleeding Tooth Fungus

Hydnellum peckii
Here we have another fungus which I find quite disturbing. The Bleeding Tooth Fungus is so called because the younger specimens tend to secrete this red fluid that looks a lot like blood. The tooth part of the name is because the underside of it’s cap has little teeth in which spores are made. If you are tempted to eat one, they are not poisonous but are extremely bitter. I do not want to know why someone tasted one.

Lantern Plant

The Chinese/Japanese Lantern Plant is just something that looks amazing. Its not so much scary as something I find to be a Halloween type plant. The outer area of the berry fades and becomes a skeleton like cage around the berry.

For a more spooky oriented line of thought, the Japanese collect the berries for the Bon Festival to guide the souls of the deceased.

Doll’s Eye Plant

Actaea pachypoda
This highly poisonous “White Baneberry” looks quite normal until you find its fruit (pictured). If you catch its leaves and flowers it looks like an ordinary plant. If you sneak up on it in the middle of the night it looks like the picture. Okay just kidding, but when it does fruit, the size of the white berry and the black spot do look like a doll’s eye.

Though this can easily cause cardiac arrest, early settlers and Native Americans would use the roots of the plant to sedate people, especially during child birth. The berries are the dangerous part of the plant and can cause immediate sedation of heart muscles if ingested.

Porcupine Tomato

Solanum pyracanthon
It might sound cute, but it really is not. This extremely sharp plant grows thousands of spines all over itself. Furthermore, it can grow fast and large with some dimensions being 8×8 feet. It is hard to kill, and with the speed it grows you better hope it was not introduced into your back yard. This is one plant you do not want to tangle with. Oh, did I mention the thorns are poison?

Dodder Vine

Cannibal plants? Yep, that is creepy. The Strangleweed smells its prey and attacks. Slowly, but most movement to a plant is slow. The image attached is a sample of Witches Shoelace that is next to a tomato plant, slowly coming for it to strangle the life out of it and feed off of it.

Recently we just found out that these follow the scent of plants. When wafting plant smells towards the plant it starts to follow the smell. It also has specific tastes – in the test both Tomato and Wheat were used, and it definitely liked the Tomato smell more.

Devil’s Claw

This plant looks very similar to “head crabs” from the game Half Life, which like to grab on to people and do horrible things to them. These plants grab onto the feet of anything that passes by and get carried along until they are smashed to pieces by the foot. This would not take me very long, upon noticing that kind of passenger I would quickly smash it to bits if it would not come off…