Weird London - Almanac - Mungus Flower

Entries from the Other World Almanac, detailing information on species, key individuals and general other-world phenomenon. It is currently the ONLY source of reference for this information and is updated constantly, as and when new discoveries are made.

The Mungus Flower

The cheerfully bright yellow and purple petals and thick red stem belie the savage nature of this semi sentient otherworldly plant. Although extremely dangerous it is not equipped for offense of any kind, it is a purely defensive fighter. Unfortunately it is also rather sensitive in it's detection of possible threats and totally deadly with it's self-defence. For reasons we have yet to understand this plant appears to be concerned with only two things, being alive and killing or maiming anything that threatens to stop it being alive, it's ideally suited to these purposes due to an incredibly hard constitution and a unique biological weapon system.

Laboratory tests have shown when exposed to ever decreasing temperatures, the plant simply enters a deeper and deeper state of hibernation, it retains it's ability to attack although it's reaction time does slow significantly. At freezing point and below it enters total hibernation and can last indefinitely, thawing out perfectly as the temperature drops, showing no signs of permanent damage. A more complex process protects it from the ravages of heat exposure. As the temperature increases it's petals sink further into the thick stem, until at burning temperature, they disappear completely into the stem. As the temperature increases further a strange dark coloured resin begins to form upon the stem and hardens into thin layers very quickly, this resin appears to be virtually heat proof and holds many possible appliances for heat resistant technologies.

It's defence system is strange but deadly. A series of small poisonous barbed seeds are laid neatly in tight rows across the entire area of the stem and also within the flowers head, these are propelled outwards at impressive speed by a mechanism which collects air from the atmosphere, stores it within the mostly hollow stem, and compresses it by use of a thick membrane. The result is a plant which can fire almost a hundred poisonous projectiles at decent velocity over a range of around 6 metres.

It is not yet known precisely how the plant detects an attack though a series of very small hairs line the stem and at least three long and thin feeler-like vines extending from the head, suggest that it uses air displacement of some kind. Tests are continuing.

Standard body armour and extremely thick clothing will usually protect the wearer from harm, however it is advised to avoid this species if at all possible.