Often eaten by jackals, an animal closely related to dogs, coyotes, and gray wolves, hydnora africana is also known as jackal food.
Jackal food is a primitive and parasitic flowering plant found in southern Africa.
The flowers emit a smell similar to poop to attract and temporarily trap pollinators like dung beetles.
The trapped beetles will enter long enough to collect pollen that they will eventually spread to other flowers. Sometimes the insects are trapped for several days until released by the flower.
The fruit of the plant takes around two years to grow underground. The fruit is similar in texture and taste to a potato.
Jackal food can be used as food and medicine.
It tastes sweet once cooked and can be found as an ingredient in southern African dessert recipes.
It is also an astringent and has been used to treat acne, diarrhea, dysentery, and urinary issues.
Jackal food likes to grow on euphorbia plants like Medusa’s Head aka Euphorbia caput-medusae.
With the scientific name hydnora Africana, jackal food looks like a fungus and gets its scientific name from the Greek word hydnon meaning fungus-like.
Read more:
https://botany.org/home/resources/parasitic-plants/hydnora-africana.html
https://pza.sanbi.org/hydnora-africana
Image sources:
Seth, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hydnora_africana_29537922.jpg