Friday, July 29th, 2005 - 5:41 PM

A Tragic Botanical Tale

This is my photo documentary of a pretty little plant’s journey to the dark side.

Check out this pretty plant. Wouldn’t it be nice to have one of these in your garden? (Hint: Probably not.)

Evil Plant - Stage 1

Before long, the flower starts looking more like this. It’s still pretty, but past its prime. It doesn’t help that the photo is overexposed.

Evil Plant - Stage 2

After that, it moves on to this stage of development. If you look closely at where the flowers used to be, you can see some little seed pods forming. These innocent looking seed pods are pure evil, as will be revealed soon.

Evil Plant - Stage 3

In this photo, the seed pods have grown a bit, and anyone who has encountered a mature seed pod from this plant is likely to recognize it as the Darth Vader of seed pods, even though it’s still in its Episode 2 Anakin stage.

Evil Plant - Stage 4

At this point those soft little protrusions are starting to wilt, forming interesting little curvy barbs FROM HELL! Its journey to the dark side is nearly complete.

Evil Plant - Stage 5

After this it dries and turns into nature’s velcro — a dark brown egg-shaped seed pod that grabs onto any fabric or fur that touches it. Once it attaches to you, it hangs on until it gets to your house, where it builds a giant space station and kills us all.