# Sheep-Eating Plant?



## mosaix (Jun 21, 2013)

Never heard of this before.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-22967160

_A South American plant  with a 10ft (3m) tall flower spike is about to bloom in a Surrey  glasshouse for the first time since it was planted 15 years ago._

_The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) at Wisley said the Puya  chilensis, a native of Chile, would bloom in the next few days and last  about a week._

*In the Andes it uses its sharp spines to snare and trap sheep and other animals, which slowly starve to death.

The animals then decay at the base of the plant, acting as a fertiliser.*


Puts the Venus Fly Trap somewhat in the shade. _
_


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## Moonbat (Jun 21, 2013)

when they call it a sheep eating tree it is a bit of a stretch, I imagined a giant Venus fly trap type plant. it is pretty cool, especially if they can put 'sheep eating' in the name.
It's a pretty cool plant, trapping large(ish) mammals and starving them into decomposition.


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## Venusian Broon (Jun 21, 2013)

Sheep not being native to South America, are probably confused by this plant. 

However sheep seem to be confused most of the time. 

Mind you, one of my friends once picked a fight with a tree, after a long night at a university student union and lost, so I'm sure he'd have got speared on this plant too.


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## thaddeus6th (Jun 21, 2013)

Poor sheep.

Although large and interesting, the description doesn't seem to match up to the headline.


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## Dave (Jun 21, 2013)

Venusian Broon said:


> Sheep not being native to South America...


Llama eating plant maybe?


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## Venusian Broon (Jun 22, 2013)

Dave said:


> Llama eating plant maybe?


 
Perhaps, or maybe - if the plants are very, very fast growing - they could hunt sloth?


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## CrumpleHornedSnorkak (Jun 22, 2013)

Wow... That is crazy. Nature never ceases to amaze me. However, I am pretty unsettled by the idea of a poor animal being trapped, then starving to death. Just seems very unnecessary. Why can't the plant make do with normal fertiliser?


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