«The Flowering Of The Strange Orchid»: From Plant Science To Victorian Horror From a Multidisciplinary Approach

Plants are organisms whose great biological distance from humans has aroused cultural interest as powerful and/or dangerously unfamiliar creatures, especially during the Victorian period. «The Flowering of the Strange Orchid» (1894), by Herbert George Wells, tells how an orchid collector is attacked to near death by his latest acquisition. The plant attacks the human with its «tentacle-like aerial rootlets», like a vampire feeding on his blood. However, Winter-Wedderburn is saved by his housekeeper, and the plant dies instantly. The story is written at a historical moment of great fascination with orchids and carnivorous plants. Literarily, the story has numerous comparisons to great characters, such as Medusa and her tentacles, Dracula, Carmilla, and even IT. At the same time, it is a story with a strong plant science content, dealing with aspects such as the mechanisms used by orchids to obtain nutrients, their flowering, the importance of «hunting» for the survival of carnivorous plants or the biology of parasitic plants. In conclusion, Wells' story makes an important critique of the way man relates to nature using literary fiction and the cutting-edge plant science knowledge of his time.