Friday 6 February 2015

Creature 129: Dracula simia

A flower that looks like a monkey's face

Today I don't really feel like writing,  which leaves me two choices.  I can post an Orchid or a Nudibranch, both taxa are so weird looking you will never get sick of seeing new species. They also speak for themselves with their weird appearance so I don't need to write much.

Description:
So this orchid is called Dracula simia the specific epithet simia meaning monkey. Their common name is the monkey's face orchid, and once you have seen it the etymology of it will be obvious:

The main pollinators of these are various butterfly, and if you look at them from the right angle you can kind of see how they might be mimicking a butterfly.



Distribution:
Monkey's face orchid is endemic to the Mediterranean region and Western Europe, but it is widely all over the world as an ornamental plant.

Classification:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Angiosperms
Class: Monocotyledon
Order: Asparagales
Family: Orchidaceae
Genus: Dracula
Species: Dracula simia

Image Links:
http://www.boredpanda.com/flowers-look-like-animals-people-monkeys-orchids-pareidolia/?image_id=flowers-look-like-animals-people-monkeys-orchids-pareidolia-7.jpg
http://gardenofeaden.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/how-to-grow-monkey-face-orchids-from.html

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