This giant plant lures the sheep into a trap, and when they die, it sucks the nutrients out of them. For the first time in 15 years of its existence, it bloomed.
The scientific name of this plant is "Puya chilensis". It grows in the greenhouse of the Royal Horticultural Society, located outside London. The height of the plant with bright dangerous thorns reaches three and a half meters.
In its native Andes, the plant uses thorns to capture sheep and other animals. Trapped animals starve to death, and an insidious plant sucks nutrients from their decaying bodies.
In captivity, this puja practically does not bloom due to its unusual "diet". However, one British garden still managed to get its fastidious pet to blossom by feeding it liquid fertilizers.
The flowers of this plant are quite large, about five centimeters in diameter. The Royal Society of Horticulturalists claims that each flower contains "enough nectar to water a person."
This is how they write about this plant HERE (seemingly a decent publication) and, accordingly, many have already picked it up on the Internet. Well, how much I like to write about all sorts of interesting things, and then this information seemed to me some kind of April Fool's joke. Well, what is it: "lures the sheep into a trap, and when they die, sucks out the nutrients from them." And then it bloomed for the first time in 15 years:-)
Promotional video:
Knowing that of course anything happens in nature, I rushed to check on the Internet - silence. Nothing like this is written about this plant and close. No leads.
And here is what they write:
Plants up to 1 m tall, with woody, candelabra branched shoots. Leaves are large, up to 1 m long, very narrow, 0.4-0.5 cm wide, usually curled along the edges, dense and with backward thorns, glaucous-green. Peduncle up to 1.5 m tall, branched, rusty pubescent. Flowers up to 5 cm in diameter, yellow.
In room conditions, Puyu is planted in shallow round bowls filled with a mixture of deciduous soil, sand, expanded clay chips, taken in approximately equal proportions and with the addition of charcoal. Watering is very accurate, well-separated water, room temperature. In nature, Puia receives moisture mainly from the atmosphere, so it needs to provide a high humidity environment. For this, the container with the plant is kept on a pallet filled with gravel and water, regularly sprayed.
It does not tolerate waterlogged substrate and needs good drainage. The central funnel should be constantly filled with water; in areas with hard water, rainwater should be used. Change the water in the funnel every two months. The soil should be watered only as it dries. Top dressing with liquid complex fertilizer for orchids and bromeliads is carried out once a month, from May to August, through spraying. The temperature of the content in the summer is about 18 ° C, in the winter 12-14 ° C.
Propagated by seeds and root suckers (lateral rosettes).
The seeds are sown in a sterile substrate of deciduous soil and sand. Moistened with a spray bottle, covered with glass or film and germinated at t = 18-22 ° C. The process of seed germination is favorably influenced by changes in night and day temperatures.
Well, maybe it's some other Puia? Let's read what characterizes the whole genus:
The genus Puya (in the Mapuche language "puya" - a tip), has 222 plant species. Described in 1782 by a Chilean priest and botanist-naturalist Juan Ignacio Molina. The range of the genus is confined mainly to the Andean region, including the territories of Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica. The genus belongs to the Bromeliad family (Bromeliaceae).
They grow mostly in the mountainous regions of the Andes, found on dry slopes, high-mountain plateaus, in mountain forests, as well as (exception) in swamps. Perennial, polycarpic, rarely monocarpic, terrestrial grasses, xerophytes. The root system is powerful, branched; the roots are mostly basal, but in species with extended stems, they are able to form in their various parts, thus contributing to vegetative reproduction; rarely (exception) there are tuberous storage formations.
Stems are simple, or more often branched, more or less thick (up to 1.5 m in diameter), covered with scars from fallen leaves; sometimes the stem is greatly shortened. Rosette leaves, linear, usually with wide sheaths, grooved, tough, leathery, more or less succulent, often with strong thorns at the edges, covered with scales, at the base, below, or less often on both sides.
Basal peduncles, usually long, strong, more or less thick, naked, or covered with scales, bear bractea: lower leaf-like rosettes, upper ones are usually broadly oval with a sharp top, often with thorns along the edge, leathery, or thin, scarious, sometimes falling off; rarely the peduncle is reduced. Inflorescences are simple or complex, racemose, spike-shaped, paniculate, more or less dense, multi-flowered, or loose, few-flowered; inflorescence is rarely reduced to one flower.
The flowers are actinomorphic, on pedicels, with a bracts, leathery, or thin, papery, colored, or unpainted. Sepals are free, narrowly triangular, or broadly oval, pointed, or obtuse; usually leathery, glabrous, or more often covered with scales, do not exceed the length of the petals. The petals are loose, oval, or broadly linear, usually obtuse, or sometimes with a slight cusp, always longer than the sepals, shades of yellow, blue, red, green, or white. After flowering, the perianth is twisted spirally. The stamens are free, slightly shorter than the petals. The fetus is loculicidal, or rarely belatedly septic capsule. The seeds are small, with a dorsiapical, pterygoid appendage. (proof)
Or here again - it is described as an ordinary plant. Without any predation …
And where are the sheep? Maybe I turned up the Internet badly! Correct me if these plants really eat sheep:-) Let's expose this information together. So for now we do not accept such a version and consider it a wiring. Don't believe it. I'll wait for readers' comments, but what if …