Spitfire Tree

Spitfire trees evolved 100 million years into the future when the first trees grew on Antarctica because climate warmed rapidly. It is not mentioned what these ancestral trees are, which makes this rainforest quite controversial considering that there are no trees in the barren landscape of Antarctica. The spitfire tree appears in the documentary The Future is Wild. Eventually these trees evolved into the spitfire tree. It produces male and female flowers that hold different chemicals (if together they will explode which explains the flower genders).

It is pollinated by its symbiotic partner the spitfire bird, which it provides with chemicals. The spitfire bird must use both chemicals in order to get an explosive reaction, which forces it to pollinate the tree; each gender of flower containing a different chemical. This two flower system is not known in any present day plant, but it seems to work quite well for the spitfire tree. It also is home to the spitfire beetle, which, when in groups of four, can imitate the appearance of a flower on the tree. When the spitfire bird comes to pollinate the false flower, the spitfire beetles will snatch it up for prey.