'Sheep eater' tropical plant flowers after decade

The pale green buds finally opened on Wednesday

A tropical plant, which has been dubbed a "sheep eater" because of its sharp-edged leaves, has flowered in a school garden for the first time since it was planted 10 years ago.

The Puya Chilensis, which is usually found in Chile, sent up a nearly-3m (10ft) flowering spike at Wicor Primary School in Portchester, Hampshire.

The spike's yellow-green flowers finally opened on Wednesday.

School horticulturalist Louise Moreton said the event was both exciting and a worrying sign of global warming.

Louise Moreton said pupils were seeing climate change at work

She said: "This is not something that should happen normally.

"We've had the sunniest April on record... the temperature's up 1.7 degrees and we've actually had 47% less rainfall.

"We are witnessing climate change first hand in our primary school grounds."

The school's plant is nearly 3m (10ft) tall

Ms Moreton, who planted the evergreen perennial when she redesigned the school garden as a learning environment, said it was reputedly a danger to wildlife in its native Andean environment.

"It's actual name is 'sheep catcher'," she explained.

"It would typically entangle wildlife around it and then hold on to it and unfortunately if they perish it would then give nutrients to the plant."

In the UK, several Puya Chilensis specimens have recently flowered many years after being planted, including in public gardens in Devon, Leeds and Surrey.