Triffid

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Triffid

A triffid as illustrated by Wyndham
Classification Carnivorous plant
First appearance The Day of the Triffids
Last appearance The Night of the Triffids
Created by John Wyndham

The triffid is a highly venomous fictional plant species, the titular antagonist from John Wyndham's 1951 novel The Day of the Triffids and Simon Clark's 2001 sequel The Night of the Triffids. Triffids were also featured in the 1957 BBC radio dramatization of Wyndham's book, a considerably altered film adaptation which was produced in 1962, and in a more faithful 1981 television serial produced by the BBC. Since 1951, when The Day of the Triffids was first published, the word "triffid" has become a popular British English term used to describe large or menacing looking plants.[1]

Contents

[edit] Fictional history

[edit] Origins

The origin of the triffid species is never fully revealed in Wyndham's novel. The novel's central character, Bill Masen, dismisses the idea that they are a naturally ocurring species, or that they are extraterrestrial in origin:

“ "My own belief, for what that is worth, 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." [2] ”

Some editions of the book add Masen speculating that the triffids were the creation of the real-life Soviet biologist Trofim Lysenko. According to Masen's narration, the triffids first came to the attention of the Western world when a pilot named Umberto Christoforo Palanguez presented the Arctic & European Fish Oil Company with a mysterious vegetable oil originating from the Russian SFSR. Once the scientists of Arctic & European realised how potent the oil was, Palanguez was contracted to smuggle some seeds of the plant out of Russia. Palanguez disappeared, but Masen guesses that his plane, carrying triffid seeds, was shot down by the Red Airforce, allowing the seeds to be carried all over the globe by wind.[2]

[edit] Initial outbreaks and exploitation

The first triffid outbreaks occur in Indochina, where they recieve little press attention, until triffids begin appearing in Sumatra, Borneo, Belgian Congo, Colombia, Brazil and other equatorial regions. Although they develop faster in tropical regions, triffids soon begin establishing themselves in many regions outside the polar and desert regions. Once it is discovered that triffids are predatory creatures, they are culled in large numbers, until it is discovered that docking their stingers renders them harmless. Docked triffids soon become fashionable in public and private gardens. Triffid farms are built in order to produce triffid oil, which is of greater quality when taken from undocked specimens.[2]

[edit] During and after the Great Blinding

After a large part of the Earth's human population is rendered blind by a brightly coloured comet shower, triffids begin escaping confinement and easily kill large numbers of blinded people. They soon overrun mainland Europe and the British Isles, thus forcing the majority of survivors to escape to the Isle of Man and other islands. In The Night of the Triffids, set 25 years after the events of Day, triffids in the British Isles are still valued as energy and food sources.[3] Triffids remain absent in the Isle of Man, until they are transported there by large floating mats of debris and vegetation. Triffids also become more aggressive, as a comet shower has blotted out the sun and thus necessitates them to increase their nutritional intake. In North America, triffids begin evolving new shapes and behaviours: standard triffids develop a form of echolocation[4], swamp-dwelling triffids become fully aquatic[5] and a small number of super-sized triffids attack New York[6]. Members of the Algonquin tribe manage to escape attack due to their immunity to triffid venom.[7] By the end of the novel, it is revealed that due to their constant exposure to small doses of triffid venom present in their food, a quarter of the inhabitants of the Isle of Man are immune to triffid venom, thus inciting them to move back into the British mainland.[8]

[edit] Characteristics

[edit] Appearance and habits

A botanical drawing of a triffid by Bryan Poole for the Science Fiction Classics (1998)

According to the novel, the fictitious triffid can be divided into three components: base, trunk, and head (which contains a venomous sting). In The Day of the Triffids, adult triffids are described as measuring on average seven feet in height. European triffids never exceed 8 feet, while those living in tropical areas can reach 10 feet.[2] In The Night of the Triffids, a small number of North American triffids manage to reach 60 feet in height.[6] The base of a triffid is a large muscle-like root mass comprising three blunt appendages. When dormant/docile, these appendages are rooted into the ground and are used to draw nutrients, as with a normal plant. When active, triffids use these appendages to propel themselves along at a moderate walking pace. The character Masen describes the triffid's locomotion as such:

A triffid's sting, as shown in the 1981 BBC serial
“ "When it "walked" it moved rather like a man on crutches. Two of the blunt "legs" slid forward, then the whole thing lurched as the rear one drew almost level with them, then the two in front slid forward again. At each "step" the long stem whipped violently back and forth; it gave one a kind of seasick feeling to watch it. As a method of progress it looked both strenuous and clumsy-faintly reminiscent of young elephants at play. One felt that if it were to go on lurching for long in that fashion it would be bound to strip all its leaves if it did not actually break its stem. Nevertheless, ungainly though it looked, it was contriving to cover the round at something like an average walking pace. " [2] ”

Above the base are upturned leafless sticks which the triffid drums against its stem. The exact purpose of this is not fully explained in The Day of the Triffids. It is originally assumed that they are used to attract mates, though Bill Masen's colleague, Walter Lucknor, believes that they are in fact used for communication. It is revealed that removal of these sticks causes the triffid to physically deteriorate.[2] In The Night of the Triffids, the character Gabriel Deeds speculates that the vibrations made by the triffid's sticks serve as a form of echolocation.[4]

The upper part of a triffid consists of a stem ending in a funnel-like formation containing a sticky substance which traps insects, much like a pitcher plant. Also housed within the funnel is a stinger which, when fully extended, can measure 10 feet in length. When attacking, a triffid will lash out at its target using its sting, primarily aiming for its prey's face or head, and with considerable speed and force. Contact with bare skin can kill a man instantly. Once its prey has been stung and killed, a triffid will root itself beside the body and feed on it as it decomposes by tearing at its softened flesh with its stinger and pulling the rotting meat into its funnel.[2]

Triffids reproduce by inflating a dark green pod just below the top of their funnel until it bursts, releasing white seeds (95% of which are infertile) into the air.[2]

[edit] Intelligence

A recurring theme in The Day of the Triffids is whether or not triffids are intelligent or autonomous beings acting on set instincts. The character Walter Lucknor states that although triffids lack a central nervous system, they nonetheless display what he considers intelligence through their killing method:

“ "And there's certainly intelligence there, of a kind. Have you noticed that when they attack they always go for the unprotected parts? Almost always the head-but sometimes the hands. And another thing: if you look at the statistics of casualties, just take notice of the proportion that has been stung across the eyes and blinded. It's remarkable-and significant."[2] ”

Later, after the Great Blinding, the triffids are observed to herd blind people into cramped spaces in order to pick them off more easily.[9] Triffids are also observed to root themselves beside houses, waiting for the occupants to come out.[10]

[edit] Television appearances

A triffid, as displayed on a promotional poster of Steve Sekely's 1962 film adaptation of Wyndham's novel

Triffids made their first screen appearance in Steve Sekely's 1962 film adaptation. The triffids are portrayed as extraterrestrial lifeforms transported to Earth by comets. This is directly contradictory of the literary source, in which Bill Masen states:

“ "In the books there is quite a lot of loose speculation on the sudden occurrence of the triffids. Most of it is nonsense. Certainly they were not spontaneously generated, as many simple souls believed. Nor did most people endorse the theory that they were a kind of sample visitation-harbingers of worse to come if the world did not mend its ways and behave its troublesome self. Nor did their seeds float to us through space as specimens of the horrid forms life might assume upon other, less favored worlds-at least I am satisfied that they did not."[2] ”

The triffids (now given the binomial name Triffidus celestus) also differ physically from how they are described in the books: the film triffids were designed with flaying tentacles below their stems, which they use as slashing weapons and to drag their dead prey toward them. Also, their stinger is shown as a gas propelled projectile, rather than a coiled tendril. Finally, the film triffids are shown as being vulnerable to sea water, which has the effect of dissolving them.

Triffids later appeared in the 1981 BBC serial, in which they are portrayed accurately to the book. The triffids were operated by a man crouched inside, cooled by a fan installed in its neck; the 'clackers' were radio controlled. The gnarled bole, based on the ginseng root, was made of latex with a covering of sawdust and string while the neck was fibreglass and continued down to the floor, where it joined with the operator's seat. The plants were surmounted by a flexible rubber head, coated with clear gunge. After the end of the production one was displayed for a while in the Natural History Museum in London; They were designed by Steve Drewett who worked there[11]. Some inferior copies of the props later threw a cocktail party for Angus Deayton during an episode of Alexei Sayle's Stuff.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "THE RETURN OF THE TRIFFIDS . . ." THE JOHN WYNDHAM ARCHIVE
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wyndham, "The Day of the Triffids", ch.2.
  3. ^ Clark, "The Night of the Triffids", ch.3.
  4. ^ a b Clark, "The Night of the Triffids", ch.26.
  5. ^ Clark, "The Night of the Triffids", ch.31.
  6. ^ a b Clark, "The Night of the Triffids", ch.41.
  7. ^ Clark, "The Night of the Triffids", ch.28.
  8. ^ Clark, "The Night of the Triffids", ch.45.
  9. ^ Wyndham, "The Day of the Triffids", ch.5.
  10. ^ Wyndham, "The Day of the Triffids", ch.11.
  11. ^ In the Kingdom of the Blind BBC's The Day of the Triffids

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triffid"
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