The Giant Plant

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Episode 25 of The Trigan Empire

The Giant Plant
aka The Giant Rallus
The Rallu Invasion (The Collection)
De reuzen-ibisplant (Dutch title)
The Giant Ibis Plant (Dutch title, translated)

Written by Mike Butterworth
Illustrated by Don Lawrence

The Giant Plant was originally published in 7 instalments in issues 474 (13 February 1971) to 480 (27 March 1971) of Look and Learn magazine.

It is reprinted in Volume 7 of The Trigan Empire—The Collection (the Don Lawrence Collection).

It is reprinted in Volume 3 of The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire (Rebellion).

Plot summary

After the annual parade of the Trigan armed forces, Tax Toru, commander of the imperial guard, is arrested. He is convicted of high treason and sentenced to work in the mines. Peric is conducting research on the ibis plant, which forms the staple food of the population. He discovers a way to make the plant grow very quickly, but without Peric knowing, the plant spreads its seeds. A few days later, a farmer finds fully grown giant ibis plants on his land and feeds them to his son. Within a few Lunar months, the boy grows into a fully grown man, but with the mind of a child, and to find peace they go to live in the mountains. There, they are attacked by Lokans, and the man tells them the secret of the ibis plant. They feed the plant to a rallu, an aggressive rodent. A few days later, they have a giant rallu.

Meanwhile, Tax Toru manages to escape from the mines and rides into the wilderness. He is captured by the Lokans. Because he indicates that he wants revenge on Trigo, they let him carry out a task. He brings hundreds of manipulated rallus into Trigan City. The oversized rallus eat all the food and destroy the houses. Chaos increases, and discontented states from the Trigan Empire rise in rebellion. People leave Trigan City, and Tax Toru watches this stream of people. Then he sees his mother and asks her to come with him to the Lokans. She despises Lokans and leaves her son. Tax Toru massacres the Lokans and discovers the secret of the ibis plant.

He returns to Trigo and tells the story. The boy who had eaten the ibis plant had always had an unquenchable thirst. Peric now knows the solution: due to the forced tissue growth, the rallus need a lot of water. All the water in the city must now be removed. After this is done, all the rallus move to the river and throw themselves in, but there is rebellion in Trigan. The rebels stand before the city. Trigo goes outside and says that he has driven the rallus away. The rebels do not want to fight and return. Trigo restores Tax Toru to honour, and the secret of the ibis plant remains with Peric.