I went to a botanical garden last month and took some pictures of the creepy/unique creatures I found among the plants (sorry no plant photos but spiders and fungi instead, fair warning :D). Here are some of them:
Here is a Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia). It was my first time seeing these and they were quite large. Here is one with a moth that it caught.
Below is a Column Stinkhorn fungi (Clathrus columnatus). It was my first time seeing one of these as well. It was growing from a woodchip pile nearby another species of stinkhorn. I believe these fungi are saprobic, meaning they take their nutrients from decaying matter.
Here is the second stinkhorn fungi we found, called the Wrinkly Stinkhorn (Phallus rugulosus). You can probably piece together why its called that...
This grasshopper was huge! We watched it as it sat still on a plant, watching it "breathe".
Another massive spider, the Golden Silk Spider (Trichonephila clavipes).
A new species of stinkbug for me, Ascra bifida. I don't know anything about this species in particular.
And while walking around the pond, we spotted many turtles and night-herons as well as this Anhinga sunning itself. It was a delight to see an Anhinga, I haven't seen one in a few years as they don't make it up to the northeastern USA.