Here’s a bit of a contrast to the beautiful spring blossoms.

A pair of sinister mug-shots.

I don’t remember running across these before, but apparently they’re quite common.

“Devil’s Urn” or Urnula craterium.  (Based on extensive research for almost ninety seconds on the internet.)

One article indicates that if you blow into the cup, it may spray out a cloud of spores with an audible hiss.

Any volunteers?

In the original Star Trek, there’s an episode called “This Side of Paradise,” where some alien flowers spray spores onto the colonists from Earth, and establish a symbiotic relationship, giving them all perfect health.  The spores also cause Spock to fall in love & be happy, for the first time in his life.

So, everyone is healthy & happy & in love, and no one sees much point in flitting around space in a giant tin can, bothering the natives.  Luckily, Captain Kirk is there to save everyone from this horrible fate, and evacuates the planet, so everyone can get back to being normal humans, staring at computer screens all day and paying taxes.

If you remember, it was after this episode, that Sulu and Chekov started referring to a “Captain Buzzkill,” and Scotty suddenly couldn’t ever get the transporter to work right, and kept leaving Captain Jerk, sorry, Kirk, stranded on hostile planets.