More monsters!
Having missed the train in my childhood, I recently acquired an interest in flesh-eating, or rather,
insect-eating plants! The most famous of these, the
Venus flytrap, should be an ingredient of every boy's room.
I bought one, and was lucky to witness on one of the first days, the intolerable suspense of how a fly spontaneously walked over it, up to a trap, feeling it with its front legs, backed away, continued to another, walked right into it, and - snap! - was caught in its jaws. I have read about this plant before, and watched it on TV. But seeing it in real life, moving, and cruelly trapping that poor fly, was creepy and dizzying! Unreal, supernatural. I couldn't help but think, is this really a plant?, is it not an
animal? Is it conscious?! Quite beautiful it is in the pot too, with all its jaws.
Another species of insect-eating plant is the bizarre
Sarracenia purpurea. Here
above view. And
another variant. How grotesque! A true monster! Looks like a group of obese, drugged or undead individuals, with rudimentary arms, laying back with their mouths open, waiting for whatever is coming to them.
Yet another species is called
Darlingtonia californica or
cobra lily. It lures insects with its cloven tongue, which leads up to the mouth on the underside of its head. It is actually unique to Northern California and Oregon. I think CAS may well have seen this plant, and used it as inspiration for his flower-women, "
leaning toward him with fantastic invitation"!!