A huge cactus amazed residents in Japan after growing up the side of an apartment block and onto the roof.
The owner, Watanabe San, 89, received the columnar cactus 40 years as a gift from a friend and he planted it at his home in Tokyo.
Watanabe has used metal brackets to fix the plant to the side of the building and it has survived floods, storms and an earthquake in 2011.
While neighbours are used to the sight, pictures emerged on Twitter earlier this month and drew amazement from people in the country.
They were viewed millions of times by astonished locals who were impressed with the care taken in rearing the cactus.
The stunning plant was even featured on several Japanese TV shows.
Watanabe San, who lives on the first floor of the building with his wife, said: ''My cactus has never been folded.
I wanted it to keep growing tall.
Even when the earthquake happened, it was not harmed.
''I check on the cactus every day and go up to the roof to tend to the blooms. I cut off the top stem because it was getting too long.
Now there is a complex shape.'' Japanese TV star Dave Spector, originally from Chicago, United States, described the cactus as ''very cool'' and ''weirdly out of place''.