A picture of a little-known and mysterious plant that resembles a tiny emerald-green owl with an angry face has won a global photography competition While it may look like a bird, the picture is in fact of a parasitic plant and was snapped by Photographer Chatree Lertsintanakorn at at a wildlife sanctuary in Thailand. The photograph triumphed over thousands of other entries to the World Nature Photography Awards this year, each one highlighting the astonishing and mysterious beauty of the natural world. Easy to miss if you're not looking in the right places, the plant, known as the "Phisawong Ta Nok Hook" - or "mysterious owl eye" in English - spends most of its life underground, growing by the base of trees to around only 2 to 8 millimetres in length.
Only once it is fully grown does it sprout up above the soil revealing its strange looking, bird-like body. The photographer who captured the picture of this aloof plant only found out about it..
. (Image: Chatree Lertsintanakorn/WNPA).
