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Description
Flower dragons are the eternally-overlooked cousins of the European and Asian dragons. They cannot breathe fire, most of them cannot fly, and they do not use semi-naked princesses as bait for knights. And yet, they include some of the weirdest of all beasts among their ranks.

The study of flower dragons - anthodracology - is still in its infancy, but already it has shed light on much of the flower dragons' habits. Flower dragons, or anthodracids, are an extreme example of evolutionary convergence. Each species has developed a close similarity to a particular flower. Usually, the head is like the flower, while the rest of the body may have fleshy leaf-like protrusions to further the camouflage effect (those leaf-like structures became wings in the most derived species). Flower dragons range in size from tiny forget-me-not dragons to hulking saguaro dragons, but all of them are flower mimics.

Why do flower dragons do this? Analysis of stomach contents has finally put this to rest: they are specialized predators of flower fairies. By mimicking the flowers that fairies pose on, they can come close to them and successfully gobble them up in a lightning-fast strike.

This species is a bird-of-paradise dragon Strelitziadraca notoafricana, a smallish flower dragon from South Africa that specializes in bird-of-paradise fairies. Its primitive "wings" are incapable of flight, and are instead used for display and camouflage.

[Note: this pic represents what's possibly my most ambitious photomanip to date, combining a painting with photos. Let me know if I got it right, and what I can correct].

Description
Flower dragons are the eternally-overlooked cousins of the European and Asian dragons. They cannot breathe fire, most of them cannot fly, and they do not use semi-naked princesses as bait for knights. And yet, they include some of the weirdest of all beasts among their ranks.

The study of flower dragons - anthodracology - is still in its infancy, but already it has shed light on much of the flower dragons' habits. Flower dragons, or anthodracids, are an extreme example of evolutionary convergence. Each species has developed a close similarity to a particular flower. Usually, the head is like the flower, while the rest of the body may have fleshy leaf-like protrusions to further the camouflage effect (those leaf-like structures became wings in the most derived species). Flower dragons range in size from tiny forget-me-not dragons to hulking saguaro dragons, but all of them are flower mimics.

Why do flower dragons do this? Analysis of stomach contents has finally put this to rest: they are specialized predators of flower fairies. By mimicking the flowers that fairies pose on, they can come close to them and successfully gobble them up in a lightning-fast strike.

This species is a bird-of-paradise dragon Strelitziadraca notoafricana, a smallish flower dragon from South Africa that specializes in bird-of-paradise fairies. Its primitive "wings" are incapable of flight, and are instead used for display and camouflage.

[Note: this pic represents what's possibly my most ambitious photomanip to date, combining a painting with photos. Let me know if I got it right, and what I can correct].