To help me answer my research question; “How can the natural world be adapted to create magical landscapes and imaginative worlds in film sets”, I decided to gather some image references of weird and unusual plants...it brought up some unusual things.
This primordial ooze is the Bleeding Tooth Fungus. It grows in North America in coniferous forests. It is definitely an unusual looking thing- like a blog of cream saturated in blood- it’s quite sinister. If I saw one in a forest I would really have to fight the urge to poke it with a stick!
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Bleeding tooth 1 accessed 18-01-12
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Bleeding tooth 2 accessed 18-01-12
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This alien-like creature mass is the Chinese Black Bat flower. The black beauty can be kept as an ornamental house plant and gets its name from its dangling fruit that looks like hanging bats. Its mass of tentacles makes it look like an alien-spider hybrid waiting to pounce. To find one of these plants in the wild you would need to travel into the deep dark depths of the tropical forest in Yunnan Province, China. Its strangely beautiful but I wouldn't want to get too close!
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Chinese Black Batflowers 2 accessed 18-01-12
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These next two “things”are mushrooms; the Sea Anemone Mushroom and the Octopus Stinkhorn. Both of Australian origin and both look like something from an Alien film. They start of as normal looking mushrooms until their tentacles erupt out forming these alien style offspring.
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Sea anemone mushroom accessed 18-01-12
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Octopus stinkhorn 1 accessed 18-01-12
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Octopus stinkhorn 2 accessed 18-01-12
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This prickly fellow is the Porcupine tomato plant. Originating from Madagascar, this spiky fiend is covered in vivid orange razor spikes and is highly poisonous. I liked the unusual Orange spikes of this plant which makes it look quite attractive against the dark green leaves.
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Porcupine Tomato accessed 18-01-12
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This tentacle-tastic fungal infection affects cedar and apple trees. Cedar-apple Rust Fungus slowly grows on the host tree until it eventually kills it.
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Cedar-apple rusk fungus accessed 18-01-12
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Traditionally used in Chinese medicine this bizarre plant has become somewhat of a spectacle. It is unclear as to how much human interference has been involved to create this unique root structure but there certainly are many examples available claiming to be completely Mother Nature’s doing. Whatever the case, these little “fellows” are in great abundance around china and come in all forms and “sexes”.
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Chinese Fleeceflower1 accessed 18-01-12
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Chinese Fleeceflower2 accessed 18-01-12
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Chinese Fleeceflower3 accessed 18-01-12
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This final wacky plant is called Hydnora Africana. This little pest is a parasitic plant found in dry desert areas of South Africa. It attacks nearby roots and shrubs using them as a host and feeds off their nutrients and water supply. It looks like a vicious creature and apparently smells putrid. I wouldn’t want to put my hand in those jaw-like buds.
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| Hydnora Africana 1 accessed 18-01-12 |
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| Hydnora Africana 2 accessed 18-01-12 |
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| Hydnora Africana 3 accessed 18-01-12 |
Nature is...weird!!!
I think this is a clear example of how warped nature can be and how as designers we can take natures design reasonably far and still manage to make it believable. I think I need to have a go at creating some plants and adaptations of real life flora and see how I could bend it to my purposes for fantasy films.
Yes!! really weird!!! but cool!
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