Woman Finds Hibiscus Flowers Mysteriously Vanishing From Her Garden — Then She Spots the Culprit

In the southeastern United States, a leery mystery plot unfolded inside a Florida resident’s garden. This woman, who goes by the byname @seaangeldreams on TikTok, noticed that the hibiscus flowers in her garden were suspiciously disappearing day after day. Then one day, she ambushed the culprit from a window and caught it red-handed. As it turned out, the culprit was a green iguana lizard, with a penchant for a plant-based diet, in this case, hibiscus. The lizard was scuttling on the hibiscus plant, its sinister eye gazing at the camera that recorded its footage. “My poor hibiscus!” the gardener lamented in the caption.

Overlaying with a sobbing emoji, the woman shared footage of this culprit, a green iguana, gobbling up an entire red hibiscus. “Today I learned how the flowers are disappearing,” she wrote in the overlay caption. The footage displayed this green lizard, skittering in a cluster of flowers and leaves. Leaping from a thin stem, it stretched its limbs to grip a red hibiscus flower in its claws. With one claw, it twisted the flower towards its mouth and started chomping on it. With its body dangling from the branch, the mischievous creature gobbled down the entire flower, except for a little fragment of its red petals.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, these green lizards have colonized the state of Florida, from sidewalks to pools, backyards, condominiums, and malls. And although they are natives of Florida, these days, they are regarded as invasive species. These slender reptilian babes not just ravage the gardens by digging holes everywhere, they also devastate and crush the ornamental plants, causing pell-mell in gardens, canals, and nature parks. Often, they can be seen latching and clinging onto pipes, rocks, and rubble piles, munching on rivers of grass or clumps of flowers.

Residents look upon these lizards as a nuisance as they continue to invade their private spaces, pillaging their natural resources. In this case, however, viewers defended the notorious iguana in the video. “God forbid a lizard wants to jazz up lunchtime,” said @flov6140. Another gardener shared a similar episode, saying that the bearded dragon lizard in their garden is also fond of hibiscus flowers and feeds on them by picking them from the garden bushes.

Calling out the lizard’s obsession with a herbivore diet, @hortie said, “Hibiscus flowers are crack cocaine for an iguana.” @nina added, “I was expecting a dinosaur for some odd reason and I wasn't disappointed.” @lesliehoekstra said, “Hibiscus is the chocolate of the animal kingdom!” One user, @bobster, took the ailing flower’s side and commented, “Tarnation! You got an ailing hibiscus. Better see a doctor about that!”

You can follow @seaangeldreams on TikTok for breathtaking nature and ocean videos.