Plants

Weirdest Plants
Amazing Plant
Feeding Off Roots
Sunlight Not Necessary
Camel's Foot Climber
Living Houses
How Trees Cope with the Cold
Beautiful And Useful
Seed Power
Dreaded Flowers
A Strange Friendship
Lotus Lore
A Valley of flowers
The Delectable Durian
Red for Safety
Touch Me Not
Eco-Friendly Oil
Crazy Plant
The Civet fruit tree
The Toughest EucalyptusTree
Mutual Benefits
The Plant Clock
Desert Curiosity
In Search of Water
Keep Off!
Kicking Trees!
Velcro Plants!
The Quiver Tree
Helicopter-like Seeds
The New Beginning
Growing From A Bud
The Stranglers
Two-In-One
The Garden of Algae
Ivory Substitutes
Crying Trees
The Largest Seed
Most Expensive Spice
Passion Flowers
Daffodils Dance the Twist!
Dancing Leaves
The Tallest Flowering Tree
The Super Fruit
The White Dhup
Lighthouse of the Pampas
Exploding Leaves
The Titan Arum
Plant Guide
War Paint
The Dragon's Mouth

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The Garden of Algae

Sea slugs don't have shells to protect them from predators. Those that feed on corals protect themselves by taking on the colour of the corals.
Corals get their colour from the algae inside their body tissues. When a sea slug eats a coral, the algae is separated from the tissues in its stomach. The slug is able to take out the live algae from its stomach and put them over the long tentacles that sprout from its back. The algae, being the same colour as the coral, provide a perfect camouflage for the sea slug.
One species of sea slug, living in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, is able to stimulate the captive algae to proliferate. When the algae start growing, the slug develops extra tentacles along its flanks so that the algae can spread out and grow into large colonies.

The algae colonies hide the slug beautifully and at the same time provide it with sufficient food for sustenance and the slug does not have to depend on the coral any longer.

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Last updated on :8/12/2005