The Flowering of the Strange Orchid by H. G. Wells. Short summary

5 seconds

Wetherburn bought an orchid root. From it grew a predatory flower. Stupefied by the smell, Wederburn fainted. The plant had already entangled him with its stubs, but the housekeeper released the owner.

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Wetherburn was a timid man; he never married. His only passion was exotic plants.

Wederburn lamented that nothing had ever happened to him in his life. It was this that spurred him on to go to a sale of plants brought back from the Andaman Islands. The botanist who collected them was found dead and exsanguinated in a mangrove swamp. The roots found on the corpse went on sale.

Wetherburn purchased several of the stubs. The housekeeper really didn’t like one of them — it looked like a spider pretending to be dead. The landlord planted the orchid root and waited impatiently for the flowers to bloom. He knew by the strong scent that the event had happened. He was admiring the beautiful flowers when the floor shook and the greenhouse swam before his eyes.

The housekeeper found the owner unconscious, entangled in airy stubs. She broke the greenhouse window and freed Wetherburn. The cold had killed the predator orchid and other plants. But Wetherburn could no longer say that nothing had ever happened to him in his life.