Encyclopaedia Elysia | Plants / Fire Lily

Name: Fire lily

Size: Huge, with the main trunk growing up to twelve feet tall.

Region: Desert

Lifespan: Up to fifty years.

Appearance

The fire lily itself is a large flower of the Lilium family. It is some ten to eighteen inches across and grows throughout the year. Attached firmly to the thick green trunk of the cactus's main trunk, the bright fuschia petals spread thickly around the long, thin filaments until the plant senses prey. While hunting, the petals curl back on themselves to expose the centre of the flower and the sticky yellow stamen.

The trunk of the fire lily cactus is bright green and as much as three inches thick in places. Long, sharp needles protrude from this tough hide at random intervals in order to protect it from herbivores. Inside this armour is one large, spongy reservoir where water is sucked up from the vast root network and stored.

To maximise opportunities for photosynthesis, the cactus can have as many as ten smaller "arms" branching out from the main trunk, each one storing its own reservoir.

Behaviour

The fire lily cactus is carnivorous, but not in the sense of it eating meat. Instead, it captures its prey using the long, whip-like filaments and its sticky stamen, then drags it to the centre of the flower. Wrapped in these filaments like a cocoon, all the water content and nutrients are sucked from the prey before it is dropped back to the sand to rot and fertilise the roots. Because of this, fire lilies can usually be recognised if not by looks alone, then certainly by the pile of dried and dusting corpses at its feet.

The fire lily is an aggressive hunter able to sense movement using a combination of heat sensors in the flower's stamen and vibration sensors in the roots (which can stretch as far as half a mile away). Once it detects prey, it will attempt to corral the animal closer by contracting and expanding its roots to make the sands shift, an ability which enables the cactus to collapse tremulous sand dunes and thus force a particular direction.

Diet: The fire lily will attempt to feast on any creatures small enough to be captured by its filaments and dragged into the heart of its flowers. This usually is limited to small reptiles and desert rodents, but the cactus is not in the least picky about its meals and will try to capture anything that comes within reach.

Habitat: The fire lily is native to the Scorpion Desert but can survive in any such desert and will try to take root wherever the winds carry its spores.

Reproduction: The flowers produce spores (rather than pollen) every day at dusk and dawn, which will attempt to take root wherever the winds carry them. Spore clouds can become dangerously thick if there isn't a strong enough wind; animals caught in these clouds can choke to death.

Special Information

Strengths/Abilities:

The fire lily's filaments move very fast, acting like whips to snap out and wrap around their prey. There is great strength in them, making it very difficult to unravel them once they've caught something.
The cactus's hide is very thick and dotted with long, sharp needles which makes it tough to reach the spongy water reservoir inside.
The lilies are able to detect close-range movement using heat sensors in the stamens.
The cactus's roots can detect long-range movement, to the extent of its root network (up to half a mile away), by sensing vibrations in the sand. It can also contract and expand these roots rapidly in order to collapse sand dunes and steer prey towards the main trunk.

Weaknesses:

The fire lily is so aggressive that it will attempt to catch prey that is far too big for it to manage.
As strong as they are, the filaments are thin and soft. While they cannot be easily snapped by hand, they are vulnerable to blades.

Other Info:

Creator: Emma