Fact check: Viral Video shows CGI fungi as medicinal plant 'Oodhu Paavai'; is it real?

A video of a pollen-blowing medical plant called "Oodhu Paavai" in Tamil was shared by thousands of users across countries and social media platforms. The video gained more attention on Indian social media after Indian Foreign Service officer Sandeep Tripathi and psychiatry professor Dr. Roy Kallivayalil both tweeted the claim. 

The claim was that the plant species shown in the video has medicinal benefits, is referred to as 'Oodhu Paavai' in Tamil and is found only in rainy dark forests. A Facebook post of September 25 said, "To keep itself developed, it blows out its pollen grains periodically through its funnel-like structure. Verily, God's creation leaves us wonderstruck." 

The video shows three deep-red organisms surrounded by leaves that have thin, trumpet-like funnels protruding from their tops. The organism's pumpkin-shaped bodies inflate with air once at a time and then contract, sending a cloud of particles out of their funnels with a cork-popping sound.

Fact check: Is the viral video real?

Based on USA TODAY research, the viral post is not real and it's a CGI animation created by London-based motion designer and 3D graphics artist Luke Penry, whose Instagram handle is shown in the videos' watermark. Penry confirmed to USA TODAY that the digital creation is not based on any medicinal plant and is just one of several animations and graphics of "digital fungi" that the artist made during his free time. He stressed on the fact that the video is a pure work of CGI on Twitter. Penry sells the digital fungi work as a non-fungible token on his Instagram page.

Penry informed that on September 21, just one day after he posted digital fungi art on his YouTube channel, he got to know that it had been circulating under false pretenses. He further sent an email that read, "A biology student saw my watermark in the corner and tracked me down through Instagram asking if it was real.... It had been posted as the 'rarest variety of bitter gourd on the verge of extinction. I found this hilarious, as I’m still pretty sure it was just someone using it as clickbait to get views."

Image: Twitter/@RoyKallivayalil