An unusual plant has been spotted in Connaught Gardens by Ed Dolphin from the Sid Valley Biodiversity Group.
Ed was cataloguing a collection of palm trees for a tree labelling project when his attention was caught by 'a very odd looking flower spike'.
He looked it up when he got home, and it appears to be a South American Puya, native to Chile.
It's commonly known as the Sheep Eating Plant. This is because - in a rather gruesome detail - sheep are thought to become tangled in its thorny leaves, and die, enabling the plant to absorb nutrients from their decomposing bodies.
However, the plant in Connaught Gardens will soon be dead itself. The Puya plant grows for about 30 years, but flowers only once, and that it at the end of its lifespan.
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