Soap tree proves a slippery customer

A giant Mexican plant that lay dormant for two decades has suddenly sprouted a 6ft flower straight through the roof of one of Scotland’s most famous gardens.

Staff at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh were forced to remove a pane of glass to allow the Yucca elata space to grow.

The plant – known as a soap tree – grows up to 16 feet tall.

The plant was given as a seed to the garden in 1995 and waited until a fortnight ago to flower – adding an extra six feet to its height.

The soap tree was donated by Michigan University Botanic Garden and planted in Edinburgh’s Arid Lands house in 1999.

The plant is native to Mexico’s Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts and it is thought that recent re-landscaping may have triggered its flowering.

The flower pokes through the glasshouse roof.