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Articles on Beating around the bush

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Even the slightest touch of a D. moroides leaf can cause excruciating pain. An intense stinging, burning pain is felt immediately, then intensifies, reaching a peak after 20 – 30 minutes. Marina Hurley, Author provided

‘The worst kind of pain you can imagine’ – what it’s like to be stung by a stinging tree

Depending on the species, touching a stinging tree can be like 30 wasp stings at once or being burnt with hot acid and electrocuted at the same time.
Idiospermum is otherwise known as “idiot fruit” or ribbonwood. via Wikimedia Commons

It’s hard to spread the idiot fruit

In a few idyllic parts of Queensland grows the idiot fruit, a tall tree with intricate flowers and some of the largest seeds in Australia.
To grow tall enough to reach the canopy, a species of screw pine unique to Lord Howe Island has evolved its own rainwater harvesting system. Matthew Biddick, CC BY-SA

The Lord Howe screw pine is a self-watering island giant

How a species of screw pine unique to Lord Howe Island has evolved its own rainwater harvesting system that allows it to grow tall.
Pilostyles are only visible when their fruit and flowers erupt out of their host plants. The Conversation/Wikipedia

The mysterious Pilostyles is a plant within a plant

Only when flowering is Pilostyles visible externally, the flowers erupting from the stems of its host like a weird botanical Alien.
Wollemi pines once covered prehistoric Australia. The Conversation/Wikipedia

Wollemi pines are dinosaur trees

Wollemi pines have survived for hundreds of millions of years. Once covering Australia, they now survive in a few isolated spots – but they’re coming back in a big way.

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