Can anyone best textured, dyed plastic?

Lol! OMG.

The last one looks like those tiny pups that grow on kalanchoe leaves.

I think 1, 2 ,3, 5, 6 are fake.

I think I've seen something like 4 before. The closest thing I know to 4 is called a brownanthus.

7 is definitely real. Completely white variations occur all the time on my kalanchoe fedtschenkoi. However, they are misadvertising that it can survive on its own. Whenever I separate mine from the original, it grows roots and attempts to survive, but eventually dies within a week.

Bunk, is that really what those are? I saw another seller with a photo of the same things, but I'm 75% sure the other seller's phot was of a confection made to look like this. It looked like buttercream leaves with red jelly dots, "planted" in a chocolate medium inside a real terra cotta pot. Then I saw these, which look much more real.

I agree on #4, Garret; I've also seen that plant before. I think #1 is also real. I can see pores and cilia on those leaves, and I think I saw that individual plant for sale on eBay a year or two ago. I think many eBay sellers in China take other people's photos for their own use. Some don't even know what they're selling or that the photos aren't representative. I bought a blanket a few years ago that was nothing like the photo. Their standard practice is to offer a 50% refund if you complain. I've also bought some very good items from sellers in China (and elsewhere in Asia).

I also think #2 might be real. Maybe 1 and 2 are leucistic mutations- probably dependent on the parent plant.

#3, 5, & 6 look very sketchy to me, but I have seen little "bunny ears" like that on some other plants- green though rather than fluorescent red and blue. Someone posted a Euphorbia picture recently with similar bunny ear-like projections. I don't recall the post though.

Five looks like a plastic reimagining of Anacampseros telephiastrum 'sunrise.'

That rosette in the last one is just way too implausible, and with no detail in the leaves (or petals, or whatever they're supposed to be), my vote is plastic.

#2 almost looks like a pinguicula. I've seen some that are that shade of pink

You win the prize. Thank you. With your help, I found the exact species (hybrid). Pinguicula 'florian.'

http://www.cascadecarnivores.com/product_info.php?cPath=25&products_id=165

or maybe it's P. jaumavensis, or P. esseriana. I'm finding several that look alike.

I'm thinking the blue one is probably also a carnivorous plant. That explains the cilia on the leaves.

I still think the 1st one is plastic, pretty darn sure that is not a naturally occurring color.

Imontestella, you forget about digital alteration. ;-)

I'm just about sure the first photo is of Pinguicula esseriana, digitally colored blue.

Here is the un-altered plant from this site:

http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq5443.html

The P. florian does not quite look like P. florian to me... something about it is fishy. Looks like it was some other plant photoshopped to look like P. florian. Maybe a photoshopped P. esseriana, maybe some sort of succulent.

Number 4 is the only one I know to be a real and likely unphotoshopped plant, Monilaria moniliforme probably.

I thought #6 is a candle...

You know Rina, I think you are right!

Considering the source, one isn't nearly suprised to see fakery on sale.

What source do you mean?

The one you used in your initial post, the Chinese Ebay seller. Considering there are credible sources in the US for real seeds and plants, I don't know why one would go to a suspect source.

I think you might be right, Rina. Weird candle, but it does look like wax, and I found a similar candle with Google.

Thanks for that ID, Kim! I knew I'd seen that plant before. P. florian was my ID. If you think it's something else, I'm sure you're right. I wouldn't have even guessed a carnivorous plant without AS_NJ.

CactusM, cuz it's late at night, and the pictures are so purdy, and maybe someone had one glass of wine too many and it's only 99 cents, and maybe they don't know nuthin about plants, or maybe they're kinda' dumb, or maybe real young, and its an impulse buy.

That's all I got.

Good job, Kim. I even found the exact hijacked photo.

I think the red and blue "bunny ears" might be real also, maybe a flower part and the rest of the plant below the surface. Here's a similar structure on another plant:

Those are real seed pods on Epithelantha, but the first picture in the assemblage above looks like it has the colour enhanced.

Kwie, you are right about the red and blue one being a photoshop enhanced plant. I know it is a Mesemb, I am thinking some sort of Conophytum maybe?

And seconding the do not buy seeds from Chinese sellers, ever. I hate to be like that, but unless you truly know your source they are almost always bunk.

Kim,

Not a Cono (which in many respects are like Lithops, morphologically speaking). It could be any number of things, if indeed it is real at all. Showing just the cotyledons of the plant is tough to guess.

I think the colorful ones are monilarias which are watered with food coloring. They are all naturally green, from what I've seen.

Did some digging, you guys are right. It has been a bit since I was pouring over succulent species. :)

I think the red and blue bunny ears are colorized microbes.

Hehehe...merry Christmas, Jeff. ;-)

Nil, as similar as those look, I don't think that's it. If they were microscopic, the photo wouldn't be so clear, and we wouldn't be able to see detail in the substrate. I think Garrett is probably right. might even be digitally colored, but I don't know for what purpose.

You'll be surprised ho clear and real-looking photos could be. There is so much that can be done digitally, it is hard to tell anymore what's real and what is not. The equipment available today is nothing as my first camera...

I do not buy from eBay or otherwise - too many stories about ppl receiving anything but seeds they ordered. Why not picture the plant as it really looks in order to sell seeds? Unless the seller is really recommended, I would stay away...JMO

Amazon is another potentially terrible place to buy seed from too.

Kwie, you are thinking of optical microscopes. Electron microscopes are insanely clear and require the evident colorization.

That's not an electron micrograph though. Look at the shallow depth of focus in a deep field, the way it appears 3 dimensional, etc. It's just a photograph. Compare to any of these.

Rina, I don't blame the individual sellers in China too much. It seams they get shipments of unknown mixed crap that they have to sell. They don't know what it is or anything about it, and have never used it. I think it's a bit like the old envelope-stuffer jobs before that became was automated in the U.S. They're paid by the piece so they have to crank them out en masse to make any money, and they're given a spiel, a box of crud, and a list of minimal information. And they speak minimal English. I've come to this conclusion from emailing them relatively often. They don't have any idea what a succulent or Lithops or cactus even is. I think many are just scraping by selling for a larger distributor. The distributors are detached, and they're the ones ripping people off.

That depth of field is obviously photoshopped. Depth of field doesn't work like that.