THE above photograph is of a dandelion growing in the ear of a 16-month-old Chinese girl . The roots were embedded in her ear canal.

The girl, who lives in the Tongzhou District in Beijing, complained of pains in her ear. Her parents went to the specialist at the Capital Institute of Paediatrics. They told the medics that around four months earlier a seed had fallen into the girls’ ear. As seeds do. They didn’t think anything of it. As you don’t when a seed falls into the young child’s ear.

Dr Gu Qinglong and several assistants removed the tenacious plant.

The girl should take care not to stick an acorn up her nose. Those things can sprout…