Belly button plant
 

Only in Canada, eh...
Details and photos here. I don't know how much fiction is involved here, but it is pretty funny. It's also a sobering commentary on camping hygeine.

That's mildly disgusting, but amusing. As an experienced camper, I've never had a problem taking at least a complete sponge bath every day, and if I'm near a river, I'll always jump in for a swim - even a brief icey one. A person can stay clean if they feel like it. This person is either good at photo-shopping or else a total pig. :dead:

Or found a convenient seedling, a bit of lint, and installed it for the photos.

Of course, the story comes from Coast to Coast, good for entertainment, usually not good for reliable reporting ...

I say hoax hoax hoax! GROSS

http://www.biologie.uni-hamburg.de/b...Cycle_body.htm

This is a link to "fast plant" info. These are used in science labs fron grade school thru college to study everything from germination to genetics due to their very rapid life cycle. This particular plant can germinate and reach a stage where true leaves have begun to emerge in only 6 days, much like what has appeared to have happened based upon the pics in the article. However, I am convinced it's a hoax because
1) who the hell has that much belly button lint?? and 2)if it's been in there a week without showering, it looks awfully fluffy and clean to me. like, straight out of the dryer lint collector...3)this dude's shirt would have been rubbing on the plant as it was germinating, squishing and deforming it. the leaves would not be opened nicely as they are in the photos. 4) light is required for leaves to produce chlorophyll (green pigment). if this guys sweater had enough holes in it to allow enough light thru, the plant would have poked thru these holes and he would have noticed it. if no or very small holes, then the leaves would be a very pale green or yellow due to lack of sunlight.

Gross. this is sick and wrong on so many levels. BUT it reminds me of a storybook that I had as a kid where there was a little girl who refused to take a bath. Her mother planted radish seeds in the dirt that collected on her. Once they sprouted, she finally decided to take a bath and they ate the radishes for dinner. it was actually a really cute book. i now need to find it and add it to K's collection.

I thought the green leaves looked a little funny for something that grew inside a belly button under a shirt

Cool, fresh sprouts on your camping trip. ;)

LabRat, I think that was a Mrs. Pigglewiggle story. There was a whole series--Mrs. Pigglewiggle always came up with clever ways to make children do the things they didn't want to do.

I remember when I was little we would keep extra belly buttons in the navel reserve.

Yes. Great series of books. Read them to the kids at bedtime. Loved all the clever "cures".