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WHAT’S THE MOST UNUSUAL PLANT NATIVE TO THE BRITISH ISLES?

- Chelsea Jenkins

Some plants are biological­ly unusual because they catch animals to supplement their poor diets. These include the beautiful stickyleav­ed sundews, or the bladderwor­ts with their little lobster pot-type traps for water fleas. Other strange plants have done away with leaves entirely – in some cases, roots too – and rely on other plants for their nutrients. Perhaps the most unusual native examples of these parasites are the dodders, which look like brightly coloured strands wrapped around the host plant. They puncture its plumbing in lots of places through structures called haustoria and extract the water, nutrients and metabolite­s. But if by unusual you mean very rare or exotic-looking, the lady’s slipper orchid might be a good candidate. It has big, colourful flowers and had become so rare because people dug it up that only one native clump was known to survive.

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