With Faces Like These, Who Needs Costumes?

Voodoo lily

Most of the year, it sits innocuously among the other shrubs, all pretty green leaves. But come time to bloom, the voodoo lily produces a blood-purple blossom that stinks to high heaven and is pollinated by flies, beetles and other not-so-pretty insects, says Brian Parsons, director of conservation at Ohio's Holden Arboretum. (Thanks to Tish King at www.ruralramblings.com for the very buggy photo.)

I've found several types of voodoo lilies and different scientific names. Consensus for this one seems to be Dracunculus vulgaris. It thrives in Florida in partial to full shade.

Doll's eyes

Need an extra pair - or dozen - eyeballs? They're the fruit of the Actaea pachypoda, also called white baneberry, a member of the buttercup family. "It's more of a northern plant that needs a cold winter in order to do well in a garden," says Brian Parsons, who shot this photo.

It has been spotted in just one county in Florida: Liberty, in the Panhandle.

Ghost orchid

Chances are slim you'll run into one of these spirits lurking in your backyard, though you'd be lucky if you did. This very rare orchid grows in the wild on an old cypress tree in Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Naples. When Florida's Polyrrhiza lindenii blooms, it draws spectators from all over the country.

Corpse flower

Amorphophallus titanium is a giant in a big family of stinkers - they don't all look alike, but most smell like rotting flesh. They're in the genus Arum, same as the voodoo lily. This bloom was photographed at Stephen F. Austin State University Mast Arboretium in Nacogdoches, Texas, but other corpse flower varieties are fairly common here.

Society garlic

There's nothing like garlic to keep a vampire - and deer - at bay. Although garlic doesn't produce cloves, it does provide lots of blooms from spring through summer. And it smells like garlic, so some people plant it to keep deer out of their gardens. It likes full sun and is drought-resistant. Just don't bring it inside for a flower arrangement (unless you really like the smell of garlic.)

Pumpkin on a stick

If you're more into cute than creepy, you need Solanum integrifolium, a little pumpkin tree! Actually, it's an ornamental eggplant, though lots smaller than the supermarket variety. It's popular in florists' fall arrangements and Asian stir-fry dinners. This one is a descendant of mystery seeds propagated by Anne Pidgeon of Colorfield Farms in Wimauma.

Penny Carnathan