Science fiction has produced some amazing alien creatures, moving beyond the restrictions of reality to stretch our imaginations into the improbable and impossible. Sometimes, those most unrealistic monsters can be put into our own backyards.
Polynoid has released an animated video (for the fictional Korean Strange Plant Research Institute) that visualises the growth and development process of a fake plant called the Parco Pistris.
The video presents a strawberry species that grows by devouring earthworms and other prey, sucking them up into its cluster of teeth with a tentacled tongue and tearing them apart, inch by inch. The strawberry has toxins normally found in snakes to dissolve the worm’s body, using it as fuel to grow and thrive.
It smells sweet, like a strawberry should, but the scent is actually created by the worm’s decomposing body. It also looks plump and red, so animals will want to eat it. Why would the fruit want to be eaten? It’s all part of its mission to divide and conquer. You see, the red fruit that looks like a strawberry isn’t actually a berry, it’s a digestive system.
The seeds on the surface are the real fruits, waiting to be swallowed up by a bird. Since the birds can’t digest them, they’re instead vomited up somewhere else so they can go on making more evil killer strawberries.
The plant might be fictional, but the video makes it feel all-too real. And it could give Ridley Scott some inspiration for the latest Alien film. Face Huggers are one thing… but a killer alien strawberry? No one would suspect it. Check out the video below, if you dare.
[Vimeo]