# Les fleurs du mal



## TimV (Aug 12, 2010)

If Baudelaire grew plants, he would have had these in his garden. These are three year old seedlings of the most vicious plants on earth. They produce nectar which they spike with a very poisonous alkaloid called coniine (the same as what killed Socrates) as well as a histamine which addicts the fly or wasp to the nectar. You can sit there and watch as a big fly will feed on the nectar, which is produced exactly above the hollow part of the leaf. After about 20-30 seconds the fly will start to have trouble moving, and they fall down the trap. I've seen in happen untold times and I've never seen the bug not fall exactly into the trap. Sometimes after a bit the fly will recover and manage to fly out, but they immediately come back, feed and get caught. The tube are full of flies which provide everything the plant needs besides water and sun. There are VERY seldom flies in our house, and I suspect the whole neighborhood.


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## py3ak (Aug 12, 2010)

Given the fly remark, they also sound like some of the most beneficent plants on earth.


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## EricP (Aug 12, 2010)

Do they grow out of the hallowed climes of SoCal? And based on your description I doubt they do much for our SC killer mosquitos.....


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## TimV (Aug 12, 2010)

There's one that lives where you are, and it has a symbiotic relationship with a mosquito and a midge species. The larvae of the two insect species can live in the digestive pool in the base of the leaf, and in return the larvae break down other insects to a form the plant can more easily use. And there's got to be a moral there, somewhere, but for the life of me I can't find it.


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## torstar (Aug 12, 2010)

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Was this featured in Huysmans' "A rebours" ?


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