The Triffids are a fictional tall, mobile, carnivorous plant species, created by John Wyndham in his 1951 novel The Day of the Triffids, which has since been adapted for film and television. The word "triffid" has become a common reference in British English to describe large, invasive or menacing-looking plants.
Appearance[]
The Triffids are tall, thin carnivorous plants. Their bases resemble muscular masses of roots that allow them to walk at slow speeds. It actually walks on three stubby "feet", two of which move in synchronicity with one another while the third helps to keep balance. Sticking out of its root mass are several sharp spines used for communication. The Triffid's main body is a long tube ending in a spotted flower, the inside of which contains a long venomous stinger that flicks out like a lizard's tongue.
Origin[]
In the novel, the origin of the triffid species is never explained. The main character, Bill Masen speculates as follows: ”My own belief . . . is that they were the outcome of a series of ingenious biological meddlings—and very likely accidental, at that. Had they been evolved anywhere but in the region they were, we should doubtless have had a well-documented ancestry for them.” The 1962 film adaptation portrays them as extraterrestrial lifeforms transported to Earth by comets, contradicting the novel. In the 1981 TV series, the triffids were the creation of real-life Soviet biologistTrofim Lysenko. The seeds were spread across the globe when a plane smuggling them out of Russia was shot down during the Cold War. In the 2009 two-part TV series, the triffids are a naturally occurring species from Zaire, discovered by the West and selectively bred as an alternative to fossil fuels, to avert global warming.