I love that one - probably should look into getting some for lawn decor. Anyone who played Nintendo games back in the 80s probably can ID it pretty quickly.
In a similar vein and getting back to the fake coloring again, here’s another goodie. I’ve included my favorite review with this one:
What’s sad is that there are people who know so little about nature that they could actually fall for this.
One of the strangest recent nature hoaxes I have seen recently is the narilatha flower, which supposedly looks like a nude woman. It seems very surprising that anyone could really think this was real:
Notice how demurely she covers herself so that the pictures will not be banned from Facebook.
But here’s the bigger surprise: the hoax seems to have been based on a real flower: the orchid Habenaria crinifera, which really is called narilatha:
Based on the many disappointed ratings from “verified customers” who couldn’t get the “seeds” they received to grow it seems enough people fall for these fake plants to keep these scammers in business.
There are Peter Peppers (no relation to Peter Piper), which sometimes resemble male genetalia, so I can see why people would fall for these hoaxes!
This is just sad…
Unreal, this stuff should be criminal. There that guy in Toronto who cover his property with plastic lawn, yupe, bad enough to put lawn in the first place, now they put plastic one, and then they are wondering why their property flood in the spring.
The female figures reminds me of medieval depictions of Mandragora.
That would have to be an express delivery!
that is a peeled orange…
Unfortunately, desecration of nature for the sake of human convenience, aesthetics and profitability has been something that has been ongoing for centuries
One of the advents of popularity for Strawberries began when scientists figured out how to extract salmon genes which code for their bright red colours during spawning migrations, and inject it into Strawberry epidermis to make the fruit redder and more appealing. In the chronology of technological advancements, this already happened quite a while ago but is still one of the scarier ways us humans like to pervert nature for our own ends
Don’t get me started on designer babies (humans and animals)!
It’s a mandarin.
Welllll… there are grafted cactuses that look like that – a Gymnocalycium mutation lacking chlorophyll, grafted onto a green Hylocereus to keep it alive – but you can’t grow the grafted combination directly from seeds.
Oh this brings back memories! I received a packet of sea monkeys for my birthday when I was quite young, and the “sea monkey people” illustrations on the box really freaked me out. I didn’t actually use the kit for years because of this. A couple years later, I went to my cousin’s place, and he also had sea monkeys - and I found out they were actually these super cool little shrimpy things, not the freaky humanoid beasts on the box!! So I immediately set up my kit when I got home. Unfortunately I didn’t follow the instructions very closely, I substituted the “water conditioner” packet with water from an established freshwater aquarium - not realizing that one, the “water conditioner” packet contains salt, as Artemia require saline water, and two, that packet actually contains the eggs (the “eggs” packet is mostly blue dye, to make the nauplii, which have already hatched by the time you add the “eggs” packet more easily visible, for the illusion of “instant life”). So I waited. And waited. And no sea monkeys hatched. I was pretty disappointed, and after two months and no sea monkeys hatching, I thought the eggs must have been too old and no longer viable, so I dumped the water.
People not only buy grafted cacti - we’ve had a few stolen from the greenhouse during plant sales. Apparently they are a “must have” item for some folks. I don’t think a grafted mandarin orange would be quite as satisfactory though.
Fun fact: that’s actually not a plastic flower, but a dried strawflower, a species that has papery petal-like bracts that can last and remain colorful for years after the flower has died and open and close depending on ambient humidity (which can fool some people into thinking the flower is alive).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerochrysum_bracteatum
I read a forum thread where someone emailed the supplier that grows cacti and succulents to be sold at garden centers and asked them why they glue on strawflowers, and they got a response that the growers typically resent doing it (especially since the glue is hard to remove and damages the plants) but its been demonstrated that adding the fake flowers increases sales so its required by the big box stores they supply.
but you could eat the evidence, if you were quick ;~))
People in general tend to prurience, and can see phallic imagery in most anything cylindrical and pointy, especially if it has a knob at the end. The picture in that article looks less like male genitalia than the fake narilatha looks like a nude woman.
