Tuesday 18 March 2014

Mysterious superwhatevers #5

They've thinned out lately, but here's a small new crop of "mysterious superwhatevers", weird plants and animals used as minimally relevant teasers for health product ads (this batch mostly appears as part of crass monetizing of local newspaper sites).

Firstly, we have "One weird trick to relieve joint pain". This one's a stock photo of the massive fruit of Kigelia - the Sausage Tree ("The fresh fruit is poisonous and strongly purgative; fruit are prepared for consumption by drying, roasting or fermentation ... The tree is widely grown as an ornamental tree in tropical regions for its decorative flowers and unusual fruit. Planting sites should be selected carefully, as the falling fruit can cause serious injury to people, and damage vehicles parked under the trees").

 Another "One weird trick to relieve joint pain". This is a stock photo, rotated 90 degrees, of "Potato tubers of native variety from the Andes, Peru". They're one of the interesting purple-fleshed heritage varieties (see a cut example at Native variety of Potato Tubers); similar cultivars occasionally turn up in our local grocers.

One weird trick to relieve joint pain" again. This one's just a stock photo of lychees: Tasty litchi, by Olga Vasilkova.

On a different note, I'm seeing this one a lot lately: "Eat THIS ... Kill High Blood Pressure" - or in some ads "New Testosterone Booster Takes GNC By Storm" or "Eat This, Never Diet Again" (what a versatile creature).  This comes from another stock photo, Jellyfish on Palm ("Small transparent round jellyfish with red lines and dark brown tentacles on palm"). I haven't been able to identify the species.

Another "Eat This, Never Diet Again": as far as I can tell, it's a malformed tomato; it looks as if the fruit was been damaged in early growth, and that kicked off regrowth along the split. The image originates with a blog post - Weird fruits and vegetables.

"Eat This, Never Diet Again": the previously-mentioned Finger Lime (Citrus australasica) continues to do the rounds, though this time in close-up.

"Boost testosterone with one trick" - maybe a date?

Update: no. An anonymous commenter has identified it as "bottarga" - cured fish roe. Thanks! See more images.

More to follow.

If you missed the earlier compendiums, see The mysterious superfruit / Mysterious superfruit #2 / Mysterious superwhatevers #3 / Mysterious superwhatevers #4.

- Ray

6 comments:

  1. thanks for the source of the gacky jellyfish photo - it's been driving me nuts, trying to figure out what it is!

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  2. last one it's cured fish roe (bottarga)

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  3. OMG thank you for the "Jellyfish on palm" I've been wondering WTF that was for months!!

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  4. THANK YOU FOR THIS POST. It's a frickin jellyfish

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  5. Thanks for identifying the jellyfish. I kinda thought that's what it was but I wasn't sure. Now why a diet pill company uses a jellyfish in their ad is beyond me, lol.

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