
THE STRANGE ORCHID (1905)
One of hundreds of descendents of Wells' orchid
SOURCES:
"The
Flowering of the Strange Orchid" by H. G. Wells (Pearson's
Magazine, April 1905)
DESCRIPTION: “He was lying, face upward, at the foot of the strange orchid. The tentacle-like aerial rootlets no longer swayed freely in the air, but were crowded together, a tangle of grey ropes, and stretched tight with their ends closely applied to his chin and neck and hands...Then she saw from under one of the exultant tentacles upon his cheek there trickled a little thread of blood...” (“The Flowering of the Strange Orchid” by H. G. Wells)
NOTES: The Strange Orchid is an unknown species of orchid that feeds on blood. It grows naturally in mangrove swamps. Its sickening sweet odor paralyses its victims who are sometimes mistaken for the victim of jungle leeches.
HISTORY: This is the grand-daddy of them all. The Triffids, all the killer plants started with this story in 1905.