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In late November 2022, a Reddit user posted an picture of a plant that resembled, for lack of a better comparison, a vagina (or, more precisely, a vulva, the exterior portion of the female sexual anatomy). Although it looks like something created by the brains behind the 1986 horror comedy Little Shop of Horrors, the plant is real. The scientific name for it is, as the Reddit post states, Hydnorra africana, more commonly known as jackal food. In a post about the curious plant on its Facebook page, the American Museum of Natural History, in New York City, described the plant as a parasite that siphons nutrients off its host plants. Native to Africa, the plant's flowers first grow underground, then surface after a heavy rain. Once above ground, the flower gives off a carrion-like stench to attract insects that help pollinate it. The fruit of jackal food, which is similar to a potato, attracts a different crowd: animals like jackals, porcupines, and moles. This being Snopes, we have previously reported on genital-like plants, perhaps the most popular being this penis flytrap plant.
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