Is That Socotra Island or an Alien Planet?
- 11 years ago
Socotra Island is home to some pretty weird species. One reason is that Socotra’s native plants and animals have had to do some serious adapting over the years.
Socotra Island is home to some pretty weird animal and plant life, which could raise some questions about which planet it’s really on.
It looks more like a 1960s Star Trek set than an island a couple hundred miles off the coast of Yemen.
Likely because Socotra’s native plants and animals have had to do some serious adapting to keep up with the island’s brutally hot and windy conditions, making many of them completely unique to the locale.
Once the destination for Egyptians and Greeks looking for frankincense, aloe, and the red sap of the dragon’s blood tree, the island is now mostly visited by devotees of the weird.
And looking part like an umbrella and part like a gigantic mushroom, the dragon’s blood tree is certainly weird.
Another eye catching yet eyebrow-raising specimen is Socotran desert rose, which resembles a gargantuan, misshapen root vegetable wearing a tiara of pink flowers.
With 90 percent of its reptiles existing nowhere other than the island, they’re bound to be the subjects of some fierce lore. One endemic chameleon is fabled to render voiceless anyone who hears its hiss.
Socotra Island is home to some pretty weird animal and plant life, which could raise some questions about which planet it’s really on.
It looks more like a 1960s Star Trek set than an island a couple hundred miles off the coast of Yemen.
Likely because Socotra’s native plants and animals have had to do some serious adapting to keep up with the island’s brutally hot and windy conditions, making many of them completely unique to the locale.
Once the destination for Egyptians and Greeks looking for frankincense, aloe, and the red sap of the dragon’s blood tree, the island is now mostly visited by devotees of the weird.
And looking part like an umbrella and part like a gigantic mushroom, the dragon’s blood tree is certainly weird.
Another eye catching yet eyebrow-raising specimen is Socotran desert rose, which resembles a gargantuan, misshapen root vegetable wearing a tiara of pink flowers.
With 90 percent of its reptiles existing nowhere other than the island, they’re bound to be the subjects of some fierce lore. One endemic chameleon is fabled to render voiceless anyone who hears its hiss.