Triffids

Triffids are fictional carnivorous plants that appear in John Wyndham's science fiction novel The Day of the Triffids (1951). In the story they are grown commercially as an oil-bearing crop, but after a meteor storm blinds most of humanity, the plants spread and begin attacking people.

Description: Triffids are tall, upright plants with a thick central stem and mobile, whip-like tentacles. They can move on their own and use their tendrils to grasp prey, injecting venom as part of their hunting. They feed on animal tissue and can digest it with secretions produced by their bodies. Their oil is a valuable byproduct that supports their cultivation.

Ecology and behavior: Triffids display rudimentary coordinated hunting and possess a degree of intelligence, though they are not fully sapient. They reproduce by seeds and can propagate rapidly across suitable climates, posing a major threat to human populations when control over the landscape is undermined.

Adaptations and legacy: The Day of the Triffids has been adapted for a 1962 film and a 1981 television miniseries, cementing the plants as a recognizable element of post-apocalyptic fiction. The concept has influenced later works exploring human interactions with dangerous plants and ecological disaster.