What on earth?

[alpines]

Does anyone have any idea what on earth this is?

[Lori S.]

Limonium suworowii?

[alpines]

I thought it was more of a succulent type Lori but it's not something I've ever seen before. A friend sent me this photo asking if I could ID it. Obviously I couldn't. Thanks for your input.

[Maggi Young]

No idea, but suggest visit to Doctor as soon as possible.........

[Pascal B]

Some Sanguisorba species?

[ThomasB]

This reminds me of Celosia argentea spicata. Maybe a somewhat weird growing plant?

[alpines]

Well thank you everyone for your suggestions. I'm trying to get more details or a better photo but it's certainly got me mystified.

[Lori S.]

Photos of Limonium suworowii:
http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.silene.be/assets/catalogue/20091212165753.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.silene.be/en/catalogue/details/psylliostachys-suworowii&usg=__gbIgcHBx7mSAsnbOLbp2wsLgilI=&h=500&w=500&sz=88&hl=en&start=13&zoom=1&tbnid=Y8ElTu_PemrSKM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=130&ei=Et-yTv2mC4TbiALm-cVK&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dlimonium%2Bsuworowii%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:*:IE-SearchBox%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1

http://www.gardenworldimages.com/Details.aspx?ID=47424&TypeID=1&searchtype=&contributor=0&licenses=1,2&sort=REL&cdonly=False&mronly=False

http://www.google.ca/search?q=limonium%20suworowii&rls=com.microsoft:*:IE-SearchBox&oe=&redir_esc=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi
The photo in question looks like a bouquet made up of the flowerheads.

[Maggi Young]

Shorter link for Lori's first example : http://www.silene.be/en/catalogue/details/psylliostachys-suworowii ....
but I think the spelling should be Limonium suwarowii   ( according to Kew plantlist!)

[alpines]

That first photo definitely looks like the one I posted. Thank you and well done Lori. Very much appreciated. I can sleep at night now !!!!

[Oron Peri]

It is a Celosia cultivar by the name  'Celosia caracas'.

[Great Moravian]

It is a Celosia cultivar by the name  'Celosia caracas'.

Congratulations.
http://www.dumazahrada.cz/fotogalerie/uzivatelske/2011/4/2/uzivatelske-galerie/rostliny-a-kvetiny/zobrazit/11348-celosia-caracas/?order=ctime

[Lori S.]

Most photos claimed to Celosia 'Caracas' don't look remotely like the plant in question, which makes me wonder how variable this cultivar is.

Why not add some photos of the plant in question and its leaves to help resolve this?

[Lori S.]

There's an interesting little teaser in this description of Celosia from the link attached below:
"The most famous needle type variety is “Venezuela”, which is also sold as “Caracas”. This one has to be reproduced by cuttings, unlike most other Celosia, which are sown. Actually this is not Celosia, according to the outcome of research, but it’s traded under that name."

http://www.celosia.eu/eng/?page_id=16

Wonder what it is, then?

[TheOnionMan]

Lori, we were working on the same thing!  I love a good mystery... I too was intrigued by the "Caracas" name, and it seems to be applied only as an invented common name or varietal name (one sees Celosia Red Caracas and Celosia Dark Caracas, and Celosia Caracus), all combinations giving evidence that there is not such thing as Celosia caracas, even though the name is parroted all over the web.  I also ended up at the Venezuala connection

Searching on IPNI.ORG, using search criteria * for the genus, and caracas for the species (using a wildcard on the genus then a species species name) should display a list of any plant genus with species name of "caracas", search results = 0.  Then I did a similar search on * for genus and carac* for species (with a partial wildcard) to find any genus with a species that starts with "carac...", and it comes up with lots of various genera with species names such as caracasana, caracasanus, caracam, caracu, cararu... but back to Celosia or other Amaranthaceae, nothing looks likely.

Also checked The Plant List and other sources, Celosia "caracas" does not exist, its a horticultural invention.  Photos listed as Celosia Caracas appear as diffirent species.

All that said, I have spome doubts whether the mystery plant is a Limonium... to me, the closed tube-shape flowers with feathery filaments protruding puts it in the camp of Celosia. 

But I agree Lori, if we could see more of the plant, that would help.