Sheep Eating Plant Opens Up After Fifteen Years

Greetings, ATS!

Ok, I apologize for the title....but it's the title of the article and I have to go with it.

According to DiscoveryNews, a "sheep-eating plant" is blooming for the first time since it was planted in a British greenhouse 15 years ago.

Botanists at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Wisley branch in Surrey planted the puya chilensis 15 years ago there. Now, after all this time, the monstrous plant’s 10-foot flower spike is finally blooming. The flowers should last for about a week. Hat tip to Gawker for the news.

These spiky plants native to the Andes make Venus fly traps look tame by comparison. Puya chilensis got its sheep-eating nickname because its sharp spines located near the ground trap animals in the wild, causing them to starve to death. Then the dead animals serve as gruesome fertilizer so the plant can grow.

So this plant doesn't technically eat sheep (when I read the title I immediately thought of Little House of Horrors), but still...what a unique strategy for fertilization. Fortunately for the local livestock, these plants will be safely locked away inside the greenhouse. No sheep allowed.

I'm on my iPad and can't post pictures ( BLATANT HINT FOR A MOBILE APP, SKEPTIC OVERLORD), but you can see the plant at the link listed above.

Enjoy!

reply to post by smyleegrl
Neat looking plant! I can't say I blame the poor thing. I like to fertilize myself with mutton chops every chance I get, I just prefer mine to be freshly cooked!

I also had the "little Shop of Horrors" pictured in my head when I read the title. It wouldn't surprize me if one day we discovered a plant that fits the bill- minus the smart alleck attitude!

reply to post by smyleegrl


Title wasn't misleading, just shocking!





I fully was expecting some sort of horror pic, with some poor sheep trapped in the mouth of a giant carnivorous plant !

Very neat indeed, but I wont be planting any of these in my backyard. I'll get a cat for cleaning up a rodent problem.




S&F

FEED Me Seymour !

Ya know.. if we had these all over the place, the feral cat problem would go Poof. MEOW !

I'll just keep my kitty inside.

reply to post by smyleegrl


Completely disapointed.

I was hoping for some kind of cyborg-sausage making-flytrap-monster thing.

But I found a picture...


I wouldn't mind having one in my yard.

Completely disapointed. I was hoping for some kind of cyborg-sausage making-flytrap-monster thing.

reply to post by watchitburn


I know, I thought it would actually eat the sheep. I was ready to embrace the awesomeness.

Thanks for posting a pic!

yeah, same here, thought, feed me seymour type of thing, but still pretty neat!

I just got my grandson a Venus Fly Trap and Jungle Pitcher Plant, per his request for his birthday. I, too, was hoping for a large...I don't really know..."dangerous" looking plant. It looks like some of the ornamental plants that grow here in Indiana.
It will be interesting if and how the garden is going to feed it. I'm guessing nothing live.

They kinda look like an Adam's needle yucca plant. Although, the yucca gets beautiful white flowers on it, and are non-lethal. Cool thread Smylee!

And so began the day of the triffids.

Duh duh duh daw...

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


now thats

wishful thinking

reply to post by smyleegrl


Lol that's brilliant. Gotta eat somehow...........

I think we a lucky that as far as we know, or as far as the plants we have encountered, that they dont have mobility and a preditor type of brain.

Maybe somewhere else in the universe but here plants are oppertunistic and not able to actively seek out prey. They do not hunt.

I think that a species must be the top preditor on the food chain to evolve the thought process. We think therfore we survive. Think, find a way to Kill, Eat, Survive.

Lucky us we are the geatest killing machines on the planet.

Nature is so amazing, I wonder how long it took for the plant to evolve this way.

In this plant's natural habitat, there must be a lot of small rodents and birds around for it to feed on or it wouldn't of evolved this way I guess...

Originally posted by smyleegrl
. Fortunately for the local livestock, these plants will be safely locked away inside the greenhouse. No sheep allowed.

I'm sure a lot of lonely farmers will appreciate that.

I have a really hard time to see how animals could become trapped on such a plant.

Originally posted by Thain Esh Kelch
I have a really hard time to see how animals could become trapped on such a plant.

Me too.... I just can't see it, not at all.