Flowers are disgusting, filthy, badasses

2026-08-14

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Quackery and Catfishing. Fake news doesn’t only happen on the human internet. Welcome to nature’s dark web.We didn’t TRY to make a spooky and disturbing episode... we just wanted to talk about plants with DUCK in the title. But oh boy, these flowers are savage! One of them has become internet famous for a detox that could literally kill you. Another catfishes its pollinators by pretending to be (and even feeling like) the ‘private’ parts of a female fly! Nature isn’t safe from this algorithm.

Quackery and Catfishing. Fake news doesn’t only happen on the human internet. Welcome to nature’s dark web.

We didn’t TRY to make a spooky and disturbing episode... we just wanted to talk about plants with DUCK in the title. But oh boy, these flowers are savage! One of them has become internet famous for a detox that could literally kill you. Another catfishes its pollinators by pretending to be (and even feeling like) the ‘private’ parts of a female fly! Nature isn’t safe from this algorithm.

Featuring:

Tim Entwisle – Author, The Sceptical Botanist. Former CEO of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne
Katherine Isoardi - Associate Professor, University of Queensland. Senior Staff Specialist Emergency Physician and Clinical Toxicologist
Julie Radford - Threatened Species expert
Gareth Prosser – Professional Voice Over Artist whose wife roped him in

Production:

Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer
Sarah Prosser, Producer
Mastering Engineer, Harvey O’Sullivan

This episode of What the Duck was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung people.

Find more episodes of the ABC podcast, What the Duck?! with the always curious Dr Ann Jones exploring the mysteries of nature on ABC Listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll learn more about the weird and unusual aspects of our natural world in a quirky, fun way with easy to understand science.

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