Man-eating tree
From The Book of THoTH (Leaves of Wisdom)
A man-eating tree can refer to any of various legendary carnivorous plants that are large enough to kill and consume a person or other large animal. No such plant is known to exist; the largest known carnivorous plant is the Nepenthes rajah which produces "pitcher" traps up to 35 cm (14 inches) in height and will sometimes consume small mammals and reptiles.
One account of a man-eating tree appeared in the South Australian Register in 1881. Traveler Carle Liche recounted watching in horror as members of the Mkodo tribe of Madagascar offered a woman in sacrifice to the dreaded tree:
"The slender delicate palpi, with the fury of starved serpents, quivered a moment over her head, then as if instinct with demoniac intelligence fastened upon her in sudden coils round and round her neck and arms; then while her awful screams and yet more awful laughter rose wildly to be instantly strangled down again into a gurgling moan, the tendrils one after another, like great green serpents, with brutal energy and infernal rapidity, rose, retracted themselves, and wrapped her about in fold after fold, ever tightening with cruel swiftness and savage tenacity of anacondas fastening upon their prey."
The Madagascar man-eating tree was given further publicity by the 1924 book Madagascar, Land of the Man-eating Tree, by former Governor of Michigan Chase Salmon Osborn. Osborn claimed that both the tribes and missionaries on Madagascar knew about the hideous tree, and also repeated the Carle Liche report above.
In his 1955 book Salamanders and other Wonders science author Willy Ley determined that the "Mkodo tribe", Carle Liche, and the Madagascar man-eating tree itself all appeared to be fabrications.
Similar tales have reported such trees in Central America, South America, Mexico and elsewhere.
References
- Michell, John and Rickard, Bob The Rough Guide to Unexplained Phenomena Rough Guides 2000 ISBN 1858285895
- Ley, Willy Salamanders and other Wonders Viking Press 1955
- Osborn, Chase Salmon Madagascar, Land of the Man-eating Tree 1925
