Known as “dog food”, Hydnora Africana is a parasitic plant that is considered one of the strangest in the world.

Relatives of this plant often hide underground, absorbing nutrients from the host plant’s roots. The plant grows underground, except for a flower that emerges above the ground and emits a dung-like smell to attract natural pollinators, dung-eating bugs, and scavenging beetles.

The plant body of this family is reduced to the maximum, consisting only of roots and flowers. The flowers act as a temporary trap, trapping invading beetles long enough for them to be filled with pollen. Hydnora Africana lives mainly in coastal areas from South Africa to southwestern Angola.

The flowers of Hydnora africana are thick and succulent.

The plant is pollinated by insects such as beetles of the family Dermestidae or hoverflies of the family Calliphoridae, which are attracted by the stench of the flowers. The non-toxic edible fruit has fragrant flesh that attracts animals such as porcupines, monkeys, jackals, rhinos and armadillos, as well as humans.

The flowers are thick and succulent. The part of the flower above ground is tubular with three holes opened by three structures named botanically as perianth segments , which can be temporarily called “petals and sepals” or sepals. “tepals” (tepals).

The flower of Hydnora africana, when first opened, will reveal very strong white hairs along the inner edge of the “sepals” . The gaps between these “stems” are only large enough for a bug to enter. And although a beetle can get inside the flower, it has difficulty finding its way out of the flower because of the hairs blocking it.

This causes the beetle to stay inside Hydnora africana long enough for the beetle to be covered in pollen or to pollinate the pistil at the base of the flower tube. After the bug has been in the flower for a few days, the flower will open releasing the insect to spread the pollen to other flowers in the area.

Hydnora africana produces fruit underground and takes up to two years to fully ripen.

Hydnora africana is pollinated by insects by providing them with food, which is the prey inside the “wings” . After feeding on the prey, the trapped beetle will fall to the anthers on the flower tube, where it continues its delicious pollen-eating “party” while also unintentionally collecting pollen thanks to its filaments. white hair on the body.

Hydnora africana produces fruit underground, and it takes up to two years to fully ripen. The fruit has a taste and texture similar to potatoes, and can be up to about 8 cm in diameter. This fruit is often used by local people as medicine to treat diseases related to the kidneys, bladder, dysentery and acne.