What is the connection between the Latin rostrum, 'a bill, snout or beak' and the word rostrum, 'a raised platform for someone to make a speech?' In Roman days, warships were often equipped with a snoutlike projection on the bow for purposes of ramming enemy vessels. When Roman naval forces won an engagement, they would remove this projection from a defeated ship and mount it on the speaker's platform, which came to be known as a 'rostrum.'

Nevin's bird's beak
Cordylanthus nevinii
Orobanchaceae

San Bernardino rubber rabbitbrush
Ericameria nauseosa var. bernardina
Asteraceae

Thorny skeleton-plant
Pleiacanthus spinosus
Asteraceae
[Pleiacanthus = many-thorned]