This Strange Plant Has Flowers with Petals Shaped Like Hummingbirdss...

When Redditor Octopus Prime posted this photo of an unusual looking plant, the internet caught fire. In the palm of someone's hand, what appears to be an origami hummingbird is actually a flower. Instantly, everyone was wondering where this plant came from and what benefit it received from looking like a bird. Luckily, fellow Redditor SolitaryBee—a post-doc scientist studying flower evolution—was able to help shed some light on the situation. The shape of the Crotalaria cunninghamii flower is actually owed to a common anatomical trait of legumes. Many have Papilionaceous flowers, which are characterized by irregular clusters of five petals and a large upper petal known as a banner. While Darwin hypothesized that the unusual shape developed under the selective pressure of bee pollinators, this doesn't mean that bees themselves think they're pollinating birds. If that was the case, the plant would never have survived.