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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
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« Stop using the lens of your preconceptions | Main | I have landed! »
More articles by PZ Myers can be found on Freethoughtblogs at the new Pharyngula!
Botanical Wednesday: Knobs erupting from the ground!
Category: Organisms
Posted on: March 10, 2010 6:48 AM, by PZ Myers
Life ScienceTrackBacks
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://scienceblogs.com/mt/pings/133308
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Comments
Posted by: Khantron
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March 10, 2010 7:00 AM
I saw some of these in the UW greenhouse. They look better with more appropriate pebbles.
Posted by: MikeFuckingG
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March 10, 2010 7:20 AM
I had one of these once. I killed it with too much water. Once in a blue moon is too often.
Posted by: Odonata
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March 10, 2010 7:30 AM
There is even a video set to music about lithops.
Posted by: F
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March 10, 2010 7:36 AM
I thought they looked like fancy leather ottomans.
Very cool. Must look them up a bit.
Posted by: richarddmorey
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March 10, 2010 7:40 AM
They look like little hooves. Maybe someone buried an six-legged antelope upside-down...
Posted by: nonsensemachine
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March 10, 2010 7:45 AM
They look like penis heads. Plus, "knobs."
Posted by: NewEnglandBob
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March 10, 2010 7:46 AM
Maybe add a little fresh pepper, mushrooms, garlic and olive oil. Serve with crusty toast.
Posted by: Paul Burnett
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March 10, 2010 7:48 AM
The tops are windows - the photosynthetic surface is inside the "leaves" - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithops. Good selection of pictures of Lithops and relatives at http://lithopswhatnots.blogspot.com/.
Posted by: Modoc
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March 10, 2010 7:50 AM
Ha! I've owned these before. They're hard to keep alive, because you have to be VERY careful to not over-water them.
I called them butt-plants.
Posted by: bbgunn071679
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March 10, 2010 7:51 AM
Those knobs look a little polished. Hey, wait a minute....
Posted by: llewelly
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March 10, 2010 8:04 AM
I don't care for them. They are prim, snobby lips which are withholding secrets.
Posted by: cypress
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March 10, 2010 8:10 AM
Someone run for the slotted screwdriver!
@NewEnglandBob: your recipe would be perfect if you just added a bit of bacon...
Posted by: sparganium5
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March 10, 2010 8:28 AM
Aaah, one of the plants that inspired me to be a botanist.
Posted by: DLC
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March 10, 2010 8:37 AM
"da same ta you with knobs on it! "
Posted by: E.V.
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March 10, 2010 8:40 AM
"feeeeeed meeee, Seymor" -AudreyII
Posted by: Sven DiMilo
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March 10, 2010 8:45 AM
stone-faced
Posted by: Wendy
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March 10, 2010 8:55 AM
I wonder if my husband can come home for lunch....
Posted by: E.V.
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March 10, 2010 8:58 AM
a cousin, perhaps?
Posted by: David Marjanović
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March 10, 2010 9:05 AM
Have been called "living stones".
Comment 16 explains what Lithops means.
Posted by: SC OM
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March 10, 2010 9:15 AM
Succulent!
Posted by: Butch Pansy
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March 10, 2010 9:32 AM
I've grown them for years. I used to summer them outside (here on the West Coast of California it rarely rains from March til November) until the local Steller's Jay population developed a taste for them. Even giving them a pebble-strewn landscape didn't help, so now they're behind glass year-round. I've moved into Scrub Jay country recently, but I'm not giving them a shot at them, either.
Mimicry plants (and animal) are fascinating. Use your imagination to see the pix at the link to see another South African plant (there are some tough neighborhoods down there!) that hides as a blob of bird shit: Anacampseros ustulata (among others). http://www.picsearch.com/info.cgi?q=Anacampseros&id=FCWq4QSAxdEpyXIvjof6V8gwdb5omGOdE77qrtHVhtc&start=81
Posted by: Reginald Selkirk
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March 10, 2010 9:32 AM
Cloven hooves! It's the mark of Satan, it is.
Posted by: chuckgoecke
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March 10, 2010 9:58 AM
I guess if one could demonstrate that they chew their cud, they might be halal.
Posted by: otrame
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March 10, 2010 10:13 AM
Pretty babies. I love me some succulents. I grew a few of these from seed. They are so cool. But I agree that they would look better with brown gravels.
Posted by: boygenius
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March 10, 2010 10:26 AM
Meh.
I much prefer buttons over knobs. ~8-)
Posted by: briclondon
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March 10, 2010 10:34 AM
They have flowers too . . .
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bric_uk/263069506/in/set-72157607451204945/
these are at Kew Gardens
Posted by: Ritchie Annand
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March 10, 2010 10:51 AM
I have tried desperately to keep these things alive the three times I have had them. I took the "don't overwater" mantra to heart and they still died - ostensibly of underwatering, faster than any of my regular plants. Perhaps they need more constant but minimal waterings than regular plants need watering?
I have to give up on these beautiful things, and I love exotic plants. Perhaps someone knows the right trick.
Posted by: octopod
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March 10, 2010 11:12 AM
Aw! They look like they want a kiss.
Posted by: Pikaia
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March 10, 2010 11:29 AM
Lithops are easy to grow as long as you are very sparing with the water. In spring they produce new leaves, and they should not be watered until the old leaves have completely shrivelled. If the tips of the leaves bulge upwards then they are bloated and should not be watered till the tops are flat. Once a year is adequate!
Posted by: Butch Pansy
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March 10, 2010 11:59 AM
Yeah, they're very seasonal. Here in California that means a teaspoon of water at a time after they've absorbed their old leaves in the late spring, never wetting the soil completely. They subsist mostly on water from fog, in the wild.
Posted by: Pacal
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March 10, 2010 12:13 PM
Well at least it doesn't look like a clit this time.
Posted by: Glen Davidson
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March 10, 2010 12:34 PM
Be careful that the IDiots don't gobble them!
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p
Posted by: brotheratombombofmoderation
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March 10, 2010 12:40 PM
For some reason, the pictures reminded me of this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleshlight
Posted by: dNorrisM
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March 10, 2010 1:04 PM
#22 Just dont smoke them:
Devil's foot
Posted by: https://me.yahoo.com/a/SaqGVG0xvJEQVwURVamS3DTCdvov0BLhXK1jOsYPPJQ-#b4893
|
March 10, 2010 1:20 PM
They look like they're about to burst out into a little a cappella singing to me. I imagine they're going to sing "Because."
MikeM
Posted by: Berdesdan
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March 10, 2010 1:58 PM
I remember hunting these as little kids with a Botanist / Dentist (Dr. Graham Williamson, worth looking up if you are interested in plants of the Richtersveld). There is an interesting plant called the Stapelia (looks kinda like a starfish). http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Stapelia_variegata.jpg
Brings back some very cool memories. Thanks.
Posted by: Pikaia
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March 10, 2010 2:22 PM
Stapeliads have amazing flowers, here is a gallery of photos.
http://www.cactus-mall.com/stapeliad/picture1.html
Posted by: hje
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March 10, 2010 2:28 PM
Growing some from seed for the first time--one baby lithops so far. Very cool--but harder to keep healthy than most succulents.
Posted by: Zernk
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March 10, 2010 2:29 PM
Loves me some lithops. I think of them everytime I see my doggie's paws.
I first saw them in a little indoor living space for a tree crab. My friend said he wanted a low-maintenance pet, and the lithops fit right in. If you don't ignore them, they turn goopy and die.
Posted by: Berdesdan
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March 10, 2010 2:37 PM
Interesting thing about the Stapeliads is that they smell like rotten meat to attract their pollinators (flies). Another cool desert flower is the echidnopsis:
http://images.google.ca/images?q=echidnopsis&rls=com.microsoft:en-ca:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7ACAW_enCA343CA344&redir_esc=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=7_SXS77zK5PusgO22vg_&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CA8QsAQwAA
Posted by: Dr. Matt
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March 10, 2010 3:30 PM
The species in the photo is Lithops aucampiae. The plants are immature, probably about 2-3 years old from seed (they have adult coloration, but in all but the one at upper left the leaves are partially fused across the "face," a juvenile characteristic).
Posted by: jcmartz.myopenid.com
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March 10, 2010 3:33 PM
Off topic:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100310/ts_alt_afp/usreligioneducationscience
Posted by: Egaeus
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March 10, 2010 4:31 PM
@42 Don't do that! Now my brain hurts!
Posted by: Haley
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March 11, 2010 12:42 AM
@42
At least they accept the asteroid impact at the kt boundary, even if they get the date wrong by about 65 million years and think that humans were alive when it happened. ha.
Posted by: bignose.whitetree.org
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March 15, 2010 6:04 PM
There are six knobs. Six! Just like the six fine-tuned physical constants of the creationists. Are you sure you didn't get a peek at Richard Dawkins's notes for his 2010-03-14 talk, where he re-states that "The divine knob twiddler would himself have to have been at least as improbable as the settings of his knobs."?
Posted by: bignose.whitetree.org
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March 16, 2010 1:35 AM
For those of us lucky enough to have attended (and for those who will later view video of Richard's 2010-03-14 talk), I think he might understood better why "divine knob twiddler" was so funny if he knew that, to Australians, "knob" conjures up images very similar to the photograph in this article.
So, with that imagery, to imagine the "divine knob twiddler" hits a rather more earthy tone than the "tuner" he switched to for the rest of the talk :-)