Monday, January 21, 2008

Alien Invader

This is the product of Friday's power cut - went gardening and pulled out a number of these beautiful plants. They are quite charming - the twisty green tendrils winding up trees and through shrubs and up the bamboo candle holder. The fleshy magenta-tipped white blossoms, which turn into delicately spiked green lanterns, which burst, releasing gazillions of pretty fairy-light puffballs, which float and dance delightfully into the breeze... and take over and strangle your garden, and your suburb, and your bushveld and your COUNTRY... how evil is that!?
I have been trying to find out what it's called - common or any other name, and where it originates from and had no luck. (But we had a visitor here once who said we could get arrested for harbouring this intruder!)
Does anyone know? Botanical sister? It has milky sticky sap and the leaves are oval with a little point at the ends.

1 comment:

Cathy Gatland said...

Just read an article in our local suburban paper... It's called the 'moth catcher' - Araujia sericifera - from South America, asking everyone who sees them to "kill, kill, kill"!