namesake.
Some plants and animals, to trick those who might eat them, spare no effort to disguise themselves as larger, fiercer creatures, even upon occasion taking their names.
Spoiler alert. Some entries in the Table make veiled reference to entries elsewhere in the Table. Some of you tell us you’ve enjoying discovering these associations on your own, so maybe hold off reading these rubric items until you’ve spent time with the Table as a whole. Which, if you can’t spring for the print version right now, you’ll find it here.
namesake.
38 | Elephant Shrew
The elephant shrew was originally named for the likeness of its nose to an elephant’s trunk. Oddly enough, genetic analysis in the late 20th century established that elephant shrews, up until then improperly classified as “true shrews,” were in actuality more closely related to elephants.
namesake.
39 | Sea Elephant
Aka Elephant Seal, these creatures measure up to 6 meters (20 feet) long, can weigh 4½ tons, and are able to dive to a mile deep, holding their breath for up to two hours. By the end of the 19th century this animal, hunted for its oil-rich blubber, was believed extinct. However, a small breeding colony of 100 persisted on Guadalupe Island off the Baja California coast. Protected by Mexico and later the U.S., the sea elephant has thrived; global population has grown to 160,000.
namesake.
40 | Elephant Bird
An enormous flightless bird that lived on the island of Madagascar, the elephant bird became extinct around the 11th century. Although they lived in close proximity to the ostrich, their closest biological living relative is kiwi. Scientists determined the bird reached 730 kilos (1,600 pounds) and stood 3 meters (9.8 feet) tall, making it the world’s largest and heaviest bird.
namesake.
41 | Elephant Trunk Snake
The elephant trunk snake is an ambush predator that feeds on fishes and amphibians. Its skin is baggy and loose like an elephant’s trunk, and it catches its prey by wrapping its wrinkly body firmly around the victim; in particular it favors those fishes whose bodies are covered with a viscous protective mucus. Watching it hunt is like watching a flaccid penis wrestle a boiled okra.
namesake.
42 | Elephant Beetle
Elephant beetles range up to 15 centimeters (6 inches) in length. In Costa Rica and Nicaragua the male's head may be decorated with gold and used as a charm necklace. Pentagon-sponsored researchers at UC-Berkeley have implanted electrodes into elephant beetle pupae to enable drone-like remote control of the adults’ flying behavior.
namesake.
43 | Elephant Louse
Elephant lice are ectoparasites of the very creature they resemble. Their elongated mouthparts function as a drill, enabling them to penetrate the thick skins of oliphants and loxodonts.
namesake.
44 | Elephanthead Lousewort
Its large stem, called a peduncle, supports bright pink to purple or white flowers, each having a long pointed beak-like protrusion resembling an elephant trunk. Additionally, the lateral lobes of the flower just so happen to look like elephant ears. Frank Zappa’s fifth child, boy or girl, was to bechristened Elephanthead Lousewort Zappa.
namesake.
45 | Elephant Garlic
This softball-sized member of the leek family can weigh as much as a pound. Flavor is milder and sweeter than true garlic and often thought to more resemble the flavor of shallots. Native to China and introduced in the U.S. by Czech and Slav immigrants, it was considered by many to be for the lower classes, given the potent odor left on breath and skin, but its popularity grew in the 1950s as garlic emerged from inner-city neighborhoods to find favor with WASPs sick to death of macaroni and cheese with the little cut-up hot dogs.
namesake.
53 | Elephantfish
These fish are known for having large brains and remarkably high intelligence, the cerebellum being greatly enlarged and providing a brain-to-body size ratio similar to that of human beings. Their morphology has led aquarists to give them the name baby whale. Elephantfish possess electric organs and are known to generate weak electric fields enabling them to negotiate turbid waters where you can barely see your trunk in front of your face.
namesake.
54 | Elephantnose Fish
These are known for their large brains and extraordinarily high intelligence, the cerebellum being enlarged and thus providing a brain-to-body size ratio like that of human beings. They can play the electric organ, and their morphology has led fishiologists to give them the name of—it’s the same exact fish as the elephantfish only it had a completely separate, mutually unaware Wikipedia reference under this name.
namesake.
55 | Elephant Shark
Not a true shark, but rather belonging to the group known as ratfish, this creature diverged from sharks about 400 million years ago. When researchers compared its genome with those of other vertebrates, they found it had changed less from its presumed ancestral form than any other vertebrate (thus taking the title from the coelacanth, previously celebrated for possessing the slowest-evolving genome). The elephant shark’s genome is thus the closest yet to that of the first jawed vertebrate living nearly half a billion years ago, which gave rise to many modern animals, including us.
namesake.
56 | Elephant Foot Palm
A member of the agave family, this plant is native to the desert of eastern Mexico. It grows as tall as 9 meters (30 feet) from its distended base, which can reach over a meter across. The gray, swollen “foot” can store gallons of water and see the tree through extended drought. The artist expresses his regret for not having included a fleeing Piglet in this one.
namesake.
57 | Elephant Foot Yam
A tropical tuber grown primarily in Africa and Asia, it resembles a soccer-ball sized rock, weighs up to 13 kilos (30 pounds), and has awful-smelling flowers. Its yellow-pink flesh, however, is tasty and highly nutritious, and is used in any number of cuisines. It especially popular in soups, curries, and chutneys, though it may also be prepared like french fries, and it is held to be a remarkably expeditious remedy for constipation.
namesake.
58 | Elephant’s Foot
The Elephant's Foot is a large mass of deadly radioactive black corium formed during the Chernobyl disaster. Named for its wrinkly appearance and similarity in size and shape to an elephant’s foot, it lies beneath Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Reactor No. 4, in Reactor Room 217. You can’t miss it.
namesake.
59 | Elephant Ear Plant
Elephant ear plant, O elephant ear plant,
Lend us thy ear of ele-phant.
Other houseplants’ leaves are so paltry, so scant,
but yours are big & veiny
like the hands of our aunt
who offers critiques pithy & intellige-ant
about our making these lines scan better,
which, clearly, we can’t.
namesake.
60 | Elephant Ear Bun
Fried doughnut or bread disk sold at state fairs and carnivals throughout the U.S. It may be covered with powdered sugar or chopped nuts and topped with a thick sweet corn syrup. It is similar but not identical to a funnel cake, and for that matter it is even more similar to, in pure caloric value, an adult bull elephant.
namesake.
61 | Elephant Grass
Elephant ear grass, O elephant ear grass,
we anticipated you to be our most boring entry, but you turn out to be our hope and savior. Besides serving as a protective sanctuary for many nesting birds with your razor-sharp blade edges, research indicates you absorb four times as much carbon dioxide as do trees and other plants. With proper precautions to eliminate wanton introduction as an invasive species, you may be introduced to new environments cheaply and easily, to help us address climate change.