A Plant That Likes to Look Sheepish

Excitement raged amongst the more susceptible of the horticultural fraternity when the venerable Royal Horticulture Society announced that it had coaxed a “sheep eating” plant into bloom at its Wisley Garden in Surrey.

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These rare South American specimens are armed with such fearsome spikes that it can trap sheep and other livestock and, according to some accounts, even birds. The rotting remains of the victims supply Puya chilensis with necessary nutrients. Even with this fertilizing, the plant may take 15 even 20 or more years to flower, the popular press excitedly reported. Of course, even in the English countryside such feeding might cause consternation. “We keep it well fed with liquid fertilizer, as feeding it on its natural diet might prove a bit problematic,” admitted Cara Smith, from the RHS. Puya chilensis is a member of the Bromeliaceae, or pineapple family. There are 51 genera and some 2,000 species of these remarkable what are technically herbs, all from the New World – except for one erratic species from West Africa. Many are epiphytic, relying on trees for support without being parasitic. Others are lithophytic, or growing on rocks. And still others, like the Puya genera, which numbers some 170 species, in the main are were most people expect plants to grow, rooted in the ground, or terrestrial.

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All Puya range over the mountains and foothills of the Andes with P. chilensis, as the specific implies, from Chile. There it occupies arid slopes where it is said to be threatened by wildfires – it is highly inflammable and burns all too easily. The rosettes of leaves resemble a super-sized pineapple plant. Long, thin and greyish-green, like the pineapple plant they are armed with spines. But, fortunately, no Ananas has spikes like these. Some botanists have theorized that these have been developed to discourage herbivorous animals from snacking on the tender centre of the rosette. Notwithstanding this protection, the leaves are said to be harvested for their fibres, which make durable fishing nets. Flowering may be delayed for many years but worth waiting for. The stalk that emerges from the centre of the rosette bears a mass of yellow-green flowers with bright orange stigmas. These conceal quantities of sweet nectar to attract pollinating birds to perch and partake. This is made easier by the enormous spikes that protrude from the flower head, which has been accurately described as resembling noting so much as a medieval mace. While exciting for RHS Wisley, Puya chilensis is far from unknown in cultivation. It is valued as an “architectural” landscape plant, although given time and space a somewhat rambunctious one. Apparently it was first introduced into horticulture at the famed Tresco Abbey Gardens on Cornwall’s Tresco Island in 1848. There it has taken over a terraced bank that it was planted on. Forming, as with most bromeliads, a mass of side-shoots, these have proven to smother all other vegetation except for wild brambles. Established plants have been claimed to be hardy down to -5º to -10ºC, preferring well-drained alkaline soils in full sun. In cooler climes, tub cultivation has been suggested, moving to a conservatory or greenhouse overwinter where it would occupy a space well outside regular traffic. It would undoubtedly be as well to keep children away. Certainly it might inflict injury to an incautious sheep but such is unlikely to be discovered in an urban setting. Should a neighbourhood dog venture to lift its leg on P. chilensis, however, it is doubtful if it would ever again, anywhere.

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