In the border province of Northern Rhodesia there is a remote region of Barotseland, inhabited by the Bantu people of the same name. This vast territory, home to only 250 thousand blacks, is covered with impenetrable jungle and therefore in the early 50s of the 20th century still remained practically unexplored.

Moreover, there was one place in the upper reaches of the Kalombo River, which has long been notorious among the Barotse. And after several European hunters who went on safari from the town of Mujanga disappeared without a trace, adventurers preferred to avoid this area. There were rumors that they had become victims of some kind of monster that ate people, which was found in those places. It was they who sparked the curiosity of one elderly businessman from Germany named Kaufmann. Due to his venerable age, he himself could no longer go on a dangerous expedition and therefore decided to send a person who would become his eyes and upon his return tell in detail about what he saw. Kaufman chose Klaus von Schwimmer, who had a reputation as an experienced traveler, hunter and, most importantly, a zoologist specializing in the study of little-studied animals. After all, they had to look for an unknown ferocious predator.

After some persuasion, Shwimmer agreed to go to Africa. Since the sponsor of the expedition, Kaufman, did not spare money, in Lusaka, the administrative center of the British colony, Klaus hired two local hunters - the Englishmen John and Ted, as well as twenty black porters from the Kwanga tribe, led by their leader Aberima, who spoke a little English and knew Sikololo, the Barotse language. In short, one could count on the search for the monster to be successful. True, the businessman, who dreamed of becoming famous as the discoverer of a monster unknown to science, set one condition: without his consent, Shvim-

Mer should not report anything in the press about his expedition, even if he manages to shoot or at least photograph a bloodthirsty beast. Therefore, upon his return, he remained silent until in 1958 the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper published a sensational message: “A man-eating tree has been discovered in the jungles of Central Africa!” This news aroused great interest not only among the general public, but also in the scientific world.

Noisy debates began: some considered the man-eating tree a fiction, others insisted on its reality, citing stories of travelers and missionaries about plant monsters that feed on the blood and flesh of animals and people. Eventually, the journalists found out that German naturalist Klaus von Schwimmer, who had returned from a trip to Central Africa, was behind the sensational news. He was literally under siege, and with the permission of the expedition's sponsor, Schwimmer spoke in detail about it.

The travelers came to the mysterious area in the upper reaches of the Kalombo River from the town of Mujanga. Although it was the dry season, it was very difficult to make a path in the wild jungle. Therefore, they reached the final point of the route only on the fifth day. They cleared a small area in the thickets, set up a camp, after which Schwimmer, along with two white assistants, went on reconnaissance to decide how to search for the unknown beast. Trying not to make noise, they had already moved quite a distance away from the camp when the breeze carried a thick, spicy smell, completely unusual for a tropical forest. Experienced travelers were wary: in the jungle, everything unusual can be fraught with danger. Moreover, although Klaus, John and Ted perceived the strange smell differently, it was pleasant and irresistibly attracted all three of them. After briefly conferring, they moved in the direction from which the intoxicating aroma emanated.

Soon the jungle began to thin out, and people came to a large round clearing at least 80-100 meters in diameter. It was covered with short grass, and in the center stood a lone tree. More precisely, a grove tree similar to an Indian banyan epiphyte: in addition to the main trunk, the lush crown was supported by numerous branches as thick as an arm. A green canopy of vines hung from the branches on all sides. As soon as Klaus and his companions stepped into the clearing, a wave of intoxicating smell washed over them. All three of them felt dizzy at once, their thoughts began to get confused, the sense of self-preservation disappeared. But there was an irresistible desire to approach the unusual tree.

Overcoming instinctive internal resistance, John and Ted had already taken their first steps across the clearing when Klaus, who had lagged behind them, with a desperate effort of will, got rid of the mysterious obsession. He raised the binoculars to his eyes and shouted:

Back! This is a trap! The tree lures us with its smell! Beneath it are the bones of the victims!

His desperate cry made John and Ted stop. However, both continued, without looking away, to look at the green predator, ready to move towards him again. Klaus had to give them a couple of slaps before they looked at him meaningfully. And only after a few minutes the British gradually came to their senses.

After exchanging impressions, the hunters came to the conclusion that it was all about the smell emanating from the tree, which acts like a powerful drug. Therefore, before getting closer to examine the unusual plant, it was necessary to protect ourselves from it. Someone had chewing gum in their pocket, which they used to seal their nostrils. Then they carefully moved towards the center of the clearing, agreeing to immediately shout if anyone smelled a dangerous aroma. We stopped about five meters from the tree, from where the carpet of bones that covered the ground underneath was clearly visible. On top lay two human skeletons. Klaus walked around the trunks pressed together and discovered three more human skulls protruding from the remains of small animals. There was no doubt that these were all the bones of victims of the predatory tree. But how does it catch and gnaw them, having neither claws nor teeth?

To find out, they decided to throw some bait at him and see what happened to it. Ted walked to the edge of the clearing, raised his rifle and shot one of the vultures circling in the sky. Then, approaching about three meters to the tree, he threw the still warm bird at it with all his might. The monster's reaction was immediate. When the carcass crashed into a curtain of vines hanging from the branches, they came to life and wrapped themselves around the fife, preventing it from falling to the ground.

Then something happened that no one expected. The ball of vines was still swaying in the air, when suddenly one of the branches “shot” a flexible green ribbon towards Ted, who was standing closest. Of course, the vine could not have eyes, but in some incomprehensible way it wrapped itself in a tight loop around the neck. Fortunately, his comrades were on their guard and cut off the elastic tentacle that had tensed like a string. Obviously, the predator tree lived with the vines as a single organism, and they, like aerial roots, not only supplied it with additional nutrition, but also served as a kind of sensory organ, something like eyes. Right at the edge of the clearing, the hunters held a military council. After everything that happened, Schwimmer came to the conclusion that there was no point in looking for an unknown beast: it simply does not exist. And vague rumors about some kind of bloodthirsty monster devouring people are most likely generated by a carnivorous plant. Perhaps the Barotse know about it, but are silent because the carnivorous tree is sacred to them or associated with some kind of taboo. John and Ted agreed with Klaus. They decided not to tell the black porters, although they were from a different tribe, about the cannibal monster. They simply gave the command to break up the camp and return back to Mujanga. Before leaving the terrible clearing, Schwimmer carefully calculated its location using a compass and map and wrote down the coordinates.

The hunters had walked through the forest quite a bit when a desperate cry was heard from the clearing. Without saying a word, they rushed back, but it was too late. From the edge of the forest they saw a terrible sight. Under the man-eating tree, a huge green clump of vines was moving, from which protruded the shoulders and head of a young black porter, writhing in pain. The hunters could not come to his aid because they had thrown away the chewing gum plugs. However, they still would not have time to free him. The poor fellow was still breathing, but he was already in agony. Meanwhile, more and more snake-vines were reaching towards the victim from above.

It would be too risky to hide the circumstances of their comrade’s death from the porters. They might suspect the whites of this, and then expect trouble. So Schwimmer explained how it happened. Chief Aberima listened to him with an impenetrable face, and then said that the deceased was to blame. Without telling anyone, he secretly went after the white bwanas to find out with what witchcraft they would use to track down the mysterious beast. But regarding the man-eating tree, the leader was adamant: Kwang customs require the destruction of the enemy who shed the blood of their fellow tribesman. Schwimmer tried to object, talking about “the most valuable specimen of a carnivorous plant for science,” but no one, not even the British, agreed with him. After all, they do not have the opportunity to post guards near the clearing. This means there may be new victims. The next morning, the “punitive expedition” left the camp in full force. Having carefully sealed their nostrils with balls of tree resin, both whites and blacks spent two hours dragging dead wood into the clearing and laying it in heaps around the cannibal tree. Then, without getting too close to him, so as not to be attacked by the vines, they began to set fire to armfuls of dry branches and throw them at the “enemy,” gradually tightening the circle.

The tree tried to resist, “shooting” its vines towards the people, but the tentacles scorched by the fire immediately curled up. In the end, the entire carnivorous plant turned into a huge blazing fire. When it burned down, only a thick layer of ash remained in place of the monster, covering the bones of its victims.

Klaus von Schwimmer's report provoked fierce criticism from botanists, zoologists, experts on tropical Africa, and indeed many pundits in general. A criminal case was opened against him on charges of blatant falsification. But two Englishmen, Schwimmer's companions, sent sworn statements that fully confirmed what they had reported. And Professor de Groost from Cape Town was not too lazy to go to Northern Rhodesia and, with the help of the authorities, found several blacks from the Kwanga tribe who participated in Schwimmer’s expedition. They also confirmed what the German said. A year later, the Brussels Tropical Institute organized an expedition to Northern Rhodesia, which managed to discover a “clearing of death” with a huge number of bones of various animals and human remains. This became the most compelling and, unfortunately, the last evidence of the existence of a predatory tree. Soon after this, the colonial authorities declared a large area in the upper reaches of the Kalombo River closed to European hunters and foreigners in general.

The scientific world soon forgot about the “African cannibal”, considering this topic not worthy of serious research. But cryptozoologists did not agree with this. It is unlikely, they say, that Nature would create such a plant in a single copy. Therefore, in some God-forsaken corners of our planet, other monsters like him may well exist.

The Brazilian naturalist Mariano da Silva, traveling in the 70s of the last century in South America, in a tropical forest on the border between Brazil and Guyana, discovered, to his unspeakable horror, a tree that ate raw meat...

The tree fed on the fact that it attracted monkeys with a particularly appetizing smell. Inhaling it with dull pleasure, the animals fell into a trance and climbed up the trunk, higher, higher... where the last supper came for them: the leaves of the crown closed over the unwary animals, so that they found themselves wrapped in a dense cocoon. So tight that the drugged monkeys did not have time to make a sound or a sob - they died in complete silence.
As da Silva writes, for three days the green monster digested the prey, and then, as is customary among tree vampires, “spitted” the gnawed bones onto the ground.
Of course, any sane person, having heard such an amazing story, would most likely think that these were not monkeys, but that da Silva himself took a good sniff of some special Brazilian drug and, under its influence, recorded his delirium tremens. And such a version would have the right to exist if the scientist’s story was the only and exclusive one. But, alas, there are much more surveys of the activity of carnivorous plants - there are dozens of them!

Carnivorous tree that ate an Aboriginal woman alive

The German naturalist Dr. Karl Lihe saw it with his own eyes during a trip to Madagascar. A tree with a wide and thick trunk in the shape of a pineapple, 2.5 m high, was crowned with formations strange for a plant. At the very top of the tree three-four meter long leaves stuck out, sharpened like knives. Between them were two bowls in the shape of concave plates. Their concavities were facing each other, forming something like huge open palms, ready to close at any moment. K. Lihe became convinced of this after witnessing a cruel scene of vampirism.

The tree was armed with green tentacles-lianas, which stretched upward in all directions from the plates at a distance of 2-5 m. In addition to them, there were also serpentine white vines that continuously wriggled, as if grabbing an invisible victim.

According to the naturalist, local aborigines staged a ceremonial ritual with a sacrifice near this strange tree. At first, the savages prayed and performed ritual dances around the tree. Then they chose a young woman from among them. She was given the role of victim. They began to push her with kicks and prodding towards the trunk of this strange Madagascar “palm tree”. The woman obeyed the crowd and, quickly climbing up the trunk, began to drink the sticky thick juice that the plates of this tree secreted. After drinking the juice, she fell into a trance. At this moment, the white and green vines of the “palm trees” were already making their terrible and mysterious movements. Continuing to wriggle, they were getting closer and closer to the body of the intoxicated woman. Finally, she found herself in a dense ball of flexible and durable tentacles that had attached themselves to her. The body was sandwiched between giant plates, which began to slowly but steadily shrink, squeezing the victim. There was a groan and a cry of agony. A stream of disgusting liquid sprayed out, in which human blood and poisonous tree sap were mixed, and then the insides of the victim splashed down. The gurgling of blood could be heard as this tree sated its thirst, absorbing the contents of its crushed body through its bark. A few minutes later the victim was finished.

The green monster digested its victim for 10 days and then threw down a white skull - all that remained of what was once called man. The vines again began to perform their deadly dance, waiting and searching for a new victim.

Bloodthirsty tree back in the 19th century. was well known to the locals, who were terrified by it. For centuries, Madagascar has been called “the land of the man-eating tree.” K. Lihe points out. that scientists were never able to obtain samples of this unique monster from the kingdom of flora.

In search of the monster

One of the earliest known encounters of a white man with a man-eating tree occurred in Northern Rhodesia, where there is a very inaccessible region of Barotse Land. Most of it was overgrown with absolutely impenetrable jungle and was notorious among the local residents. Well, after several experienced, trained and well-equipped European hunters disappeared without a trace in the jungle, rumors began to circulate again that a terrible monster lived in the forests, devouring people.
This information reached the enterprising and extremely inquisitive businessman Kaufman from Germany. But he was old and could not go on the expedition himself. Therefore, he sent a man into the jungle who became his eyes. He became Klaus von Schwimmer, a man with a reputation as a professional traveler, professional hunter and zoologist specializing in the study of rare animals.

It should be mentioned that Kaufman, before sponsoring the expedition, set one strict condition: without his consent, Klaus should under no circumstances report anything to the press about this enterprise. Even if he manages to shoot or at least photograph an unknown animal.

Schwimmer Mysteries

That is why, upon his return, Schwimmer remained deathly silent until 1958. years, until the newspaper Frankfurter Angemeine published a sensational report under the headline “A man-eating tree has been discovered in the wilds of the jungle of Central Africa!” And that's what it was about.
Having reached Lusaka, the administrative center of the British colony, the head of the expedition hired two English hunters and twenty native porters. The expedition arrived in the terrible area only on the fifth day, and, having barely set up camp, Schwimmer and two Englishmen went on reconnaissance. They had walked quite a distance from the camp when a modest breeze brought to them a thick and unusually seductive smell. After a little consultation, the interested hunters moved in the direction from which the wonderful aroma emanated.

They came to a huge clearing. It was all covered with grass, and right in the center stood a lone tree. A whole tree-grove: in addition to the massive main trunk, the crown of the giant was supported by numerous shoots as thick as the arm of an adult man, and a thick pologlian hung from the branches in all directions.

As soon as Klaus and his companions stepped into the clearing, the smell intensified tenfold: a literally intoxicating wave washed over them, and an irresistible desire arose to approach the unusual plant. The British had already taken a few steps towards him when the experienced Schwimmer, recognizing with his sixth sense that something was wrong, stopped them with a desperate cry: “Get back! This is a trap!”
The fact is that through binoculars he saw numerous bones, invisible from a great distance, scattered around the tree.

Quickly coming to the conclusion that it was all about the smell, which acted like a powerful drug, the hunters plugged their nostrils with sulfur and began to approach the monster... Clean, as if polished bones literally covered the ground under the tree with a carpet, and on top lay two human skulls. Three more protruded from the remains of small animals. First of all, Klaus was a scientist. And since he was immediately and almost effortlessly lucky enough to become acquainted with the monstrous phenomenon, in order to find out how the ominous tree devours its victim, he decided to throw bait. He approached the tree about three meters away and, with all his might, threw the shot, still warm vulture at it. The predator's reaction was lightning fast! As soon as the carcass crashed into the curtain of vines hanging from the branches, they immediately came to life, wrapped themselves around the vulture, preventing it from falling to the ground...

The last victim

There, on the edge of the clearing, the hunters held a council and came to the conclusion that there was no point in looking for an unknown beast. All the rumors about a bloodthirsty monster devouring people were most likely generated by a carnivorous plant they had just encountered. And it is quite possible that the natives are well aware of it, but are silent because the carnivorous tree is either sacred to them or associated with some kind of taboo.

Having marked the exact coordinates of the monster on the map, the members of the expedition managed to walk quite a bit towards the camp when a wild scream was heard from the direction of the notorious clearing. Without saying a word, they rushed back... but it was too late: under the cannibal tree, a huge clump of vines was moving, from which protruded the shoulders and head of a black porter writhing in agony...
I suppose a question has been brewing in your mind for a long time: if finding the “place of residence” of a real carnivorous tree turned out to be so relatively simple and it has been known about it for half a century, why haven’t you seen, for example, a single TV program about it or read colorful reports in glossy magazines? It's simple...

Schwimmer, returning to camp, told the leader about what happened with the porter. He listened to him with an impenetrable face and said that the customs of his tribe require the destruction of the enemy who shed the blood of their fellow tribesman. And, despite Klaus’s violent protest and his ardent statements that the tree monster was of great interest to science, the very next day the punitive expedition of blacks left the camp. Having covered their nostrils with resin balls, the avengers dragged dead wood into the clearing for two hours. Then they began to set fire to armfuls of dry branches and throw them at the enemy, gradually narrowing the circle. In the end, the carnivorous plant turned into a huge blazing fire.

When the cannibal burned out, in its place only a thick layer of ash remained, covering the melted bones of the victims.

Von Schwimmer's report caused real hysteria among botanists, zoologists and simply connoisseurs of tropical Africa. Moreover, a criminal case was even opened against him on charges of falsification and fraud. But the British, who were in the jungle with Klaus, testified under oath that they fully confirmed what was reported to them. And Professor de Groost from Cape Town went to Rhodesia and, having involved the authorities, found several people who had been Schwimmer’s porters. And they also confirmed everything that the German said!

A year later, the Brussels Tropical Institute organized a new expedition to Rhodesia, which, based on the records of the first expedition, easily managed to discover both the “clearing of death” and a huge number of bones of various animals and human remains on it.
This became the strongest and, unfortunately, the most recent evidence of the existence of the carnivorous tree, since soon after this the colonial authorities declared the area in the upper reaches of the Kalombo River closed to European hunters, and to foreigners in general.

1. BLOODY TOOTH / HYDNELLUM PECKII
This cute fungus looks like chewed bubble gum, oozing blood and smelling like strawberries. But don’t even think about eating it, because this will be the last “delicacy” you will taste in your life.

The fungus has been known to mankind since 1812 and is considered inedible, i.e. Once upon a time, in dark, dark times, there lived a genius who sacrificed his life for the glory of science in order to warn his descendants against eating this “delicacy.” In addition to its outstanding external qualities, this abomination has antibacterial properties and contains chemicals that thin the blood. What can I say, this mushroom may soon become a replacement for penicillin (which, by the way, was derived from a mushroom of the species Penicillium notatum). If you don’t have enough thrills, and you intend to immortalize your name in the annals of history at all costs (the Darwin Award and the title of the dumbest suicide on planet Earth are already in your pocket), then just lick this miracle of nature...

2. DOLL'S EYE
At best, this “beauty” looks like an alien weed, and at worst, like a totem dug into the ground with human eyes planted on it, which a serial killer used to mark the burial place of all his 666 victims. This unusual plant is called “doll eyes”. There is also a less telling name for this horror - black sheep. This plant does not have any special features other than its appearance; you can even taste it, then tell us about your feelings.

3. SEA ANEMONE MUSHROOM
Sometimes, contemplating such creations, you begin to think about the sanity of the creator. Of course, there are cases when disgusting things turn out to be quite pleasant in taste and smell... but this is not the case: the mushroom, called the “stinking octopus horn”, not only looks disgusting, but also stinks so much that it’s impossible to describe words.

4. DEVIL'S CLAW
“Devil's claw” is something like the thorns of our burdock, which, being launched by the well-aimed hand of your best friend, have more than once become entangled in your hair. The main difference between these two stickies is in appearance: if burdock spines are small, cute lumps that just beg to be picked up, then the devil’s claw is more like an evil man-eating spider that is just waiting to grab your throat. Once upon a time, these demonic things were “found” only in Arizona, where the indigenous Americans (Indians) wove terrifying-looking baskets from them and laid out entire “minefields” with them, which enemies preferred to avoid. Today, “demonic claws” have already completely occupied the entire Northwestern United States. I sense that this abomination will soon reach Mother Russia, so if you don’t want to fall victim to the “devil’s claw,” then start stocking up on Roundup and building barrier barricades now.

5. CHINESE BLACK BATFLOWERS
Still, it was no coincidence that Batman chose a bat as a symbol of intimidation of the criminal population of Gotham. Because these creatures of darkness are terrible: small evil eyes, thin paws with huge hooked nails, sharp teeth, a plump body unevenly covered with hair, and huge wings - what is not a description of a creepy monster from another low-budget, but no less scary, horror film? And if you are one of those who considers them cute little animals that eat fruit, then you will probably change your mind when one of these creatures grabs your face and sucks out all your blood... but, unfortunately, it will be too late for you . Mother Nature has worked hard to create the most eerie and disgusting plant, giving it all the hallmarks of a bat and adding a tuft of rope-like tentacles for good measure. This product of childhood nightmares is called the Chinese mouse flower.

6. BUDDHA’S HAND
I don’t know what crazy genius decided that this thing looks like the hand of Buddha, to me it’s more like hentai tentacles that are about to engulf another busty beauty. In fact, the vile tentacles turn out to be quite edible, one might even say tasty, citrus fruit, which is incredibly popular in China and Japan. If you remember the network of toilet-like restaurants, it’s not difficult to understand why the Chinese are crazy about eating this curiosity, but I didn’t expect this from the prim Japanese. In fact, the Buddha's hand is a strange-looking lemon, which often contains nothing but the peel. Fructina attracts eastern peoples not only with its unusual appearance, but also with its aromatic properties: in Japan, tea is brewed from it, and in China it is kept at home as a talisman, which brings good luck and happiness to the home, wards off all evil spirits and bestows longevity. These lemon tentacles are also used to make jam, marmalade and violet-scented perfume. And a little about serious things: traditionally it is believed that Buddha can cunningly twist, fold and turn his fingers during prayer, and at such moments his hands are very similar to these monstrous lemons. Whatever you want, but if this is really the case, then if I had the opportunity to meet Buddha or good-natured Freddy Krueger in a dark alley, I would most likely choose the latter.

7. VENUS FLYTRAP / DIONAEA MUSCIPULA
I dare to suggest that just a couple of million years ago these monsters ate dinosaurs and were the rightful masters of the planet. But evolution is the enemy of maximalism and all the giants have already either died out or acquired more earthly sizes in order to survive, so today the flycatcher is a small plant that feeds exclusively on insects, caterpillars, slugs and frogs. How it works: inside the mouth-leaf there are many tiny sensitive hairs. A prey crawling onto a leaf irritates these hairs, which in turn send a signal to the cells of the inner part of the leaf to contract and the “mouth” begins to close. After some time, the inside of the leaf begins to secrete digestive fluid and the victim, exhausted from unsuccessful attempts to get out, begins to slowly digest (this process takes quite a long time. For example, it will take a flycatcher about a week to digest a slug).

8.CEDAR-APPLE RUST FUNGUS
What turns a juicy, healthy apple into a rotting lump of vile horror that harbors a whole brood of worms? If your answer is cedar-apple rotting mushroom (abbr. KYAGG), then, most likely, you were smart and simply read this tricky interweaving of letters that adorns the beginning of this story! KYAG is a fungal infection that transforms apple and cedar fruits beyond recognition. You can even make horror films about this abomination right now: infected fruits turn into disgusting monsters in just a few months. Here's how it happens: from a tiny fungal spore, an impressively sized spherical body develops - from 3.5 to 5 centimeters in diameter; when wet, this abomination exfoliates, forming disgusting tendrils. As a result, pine nuts and apples turn into little evil Cthulhus.

10. CHINESE FLEECEFLOWER
The fruits of the “rune flower” have frightening shapes that make them look like little potato people. The Chinese uproot these tiny underground inhabitants from the earth in order to use their naked, defenseless bodies as a panacea for all diseases, including impotence, cancer, AIDS, dementia, etc., etc.... Before turning into life-giving powder, the little men are subjected to all kinds of torture, including: boiling, skinning, soaking in moonshine and dismemberment. Mark my words, soon the potatoes will get tired of Chinese oppression and rebel against all humanity. So think twice before you decide to restore your “mojo” with the help of a “runic flower”.

11. PORCUPINE TOMATO
The Porcupine tomato is a one and a half meter monster growing in Madagascar, the leaves of which are covered with terrifying-looking orange spines. This thorny miracle has incredibly beautiful purple flowers, collected in clusters, with which it lures its victims to itself: and now you bend down to pick one of them and find yourself impaled on “deadly” thorns. In addition to the fact that the Porcupine tomato is prickly and poisonous, it is almost impossible to kill: it does not care for most chemicals and can survive severe cold and even severe drought. As you already understood, this creation of nature is a monster-like weed that has set the goal of its existence to take over your garden plot. In a short time, one plant can produce a whole army of Porcupine tomatoes, which in a few weeks will turn into 1.5 meter giants, each of which will fight to the last and shed more than one liter of your blood before being uprooted from the ground.

H.G. Wells has a fantastic story, “The Strange Orchid,” in which the hero almost dies in the arms of a bloodthirsty flower. The reason for its writing was newspaper publications about Madagascar, Brazil, Nicaragua and other hard-to-reach places. Each such message caused a storm of indignation among armchair scientists, although plants that ate insects and even small animals were known even then.

The man-eating tree awaits its victims

One of the first mentions of it appeared in the New-York World magazine in 1880. This was the story of the German explorer Karl Lihe about a sacrifice he witnessed in the jungles of Madagascar, before his eyes a beautiful young woman from one of the local tribes was sacrificed... to a tree.
This tree reached a height of 2.5 meters, and was shaped like a pineapple, with leaves as sharp as knives. Snake-like vines entwined it, and at the top there were two formations that resembled either plates or palms facing each other. They secreted a thick juice that apparently had narcotic properties.
While the aborigines were performing a ritual dance, the woman climbed the tree and began to lick the sap, which was becoming more and more abundant. At some point, she apparently fell into oblivion and fell between the “palms,” which began to come closer, squeezing her body. There was a crunch of bones. The tentacle vines trembled, crawled towards the woman and began to attach themselves to her body. The unfortunate woman’s blood flowed down the trunk, mixing with the sweet sap of the killer tree. The terrible monster digested its victim for ten days, after which it “belched up” the unfortunate woman’s skull.

According to Karl Lihe, the bloodthirsty man-eating tree was well known to the inhabitants of Madagascar, who had long called their island “the land of the man-eating tree.” However, none of the subsequent expeditions were able to discover anything resembling a monster in the jungle, and the explorer was considered a liar.

Tree-eater or green vampire

On August 27, 1892, the Illustrated London News published a report about a tree growing in Nicaragua that ate dogs. Naturalist J. Dunstan was studying plants near one of the lakes in Nicaragua when he heard the heart-rending barking of his dog. Rushing to where the dog was barking. Dunstan discovered that it was entwined with a network of rope-like roots and fibers, as well as a disgusting black vine that secreted a thick sticky mass. With great difficulty, Dunstan managed to break this net and free the dog, whose skin was covered with wounds, apparently caused by a vine that was about to drink the dog's blood. Local residents knew this terrible plant well and called it “snake tree.” In their opinion, it could suck all the blood out of the dog in a few minutes.
Tree-eater English ethnographers also met in the virgin forests of Central America. The leader of the expedition, Dr. Caleb Enders, wrote: “We have heard more than once from the Indians that in the thick of the forests there are carnivorous plants that supposedly feed on living creatures. One of them looks like a thick cactus, studded with sharp dagger thorns. As soon as a careless person comes close to him, green “knives” instantly clamp him from all sides and pierce his body. Blood begins to flow from the cuts, which the green vampire quickly absorbs through the porous, sponge-like bark.”

Further, Enders describes in detail the meeting with this tree, which, fortunately, there were no casualties.
Another incident occurred in the Sierra Madre de Chiapas mountains in Mexico. American traveler Steve Spike witnessed how a bird sat on the branch of a vampire tree, and it, like a living snake, wrapped itself around the victim and squeezed it, greedily absorbing the blood that came out. After some time, the tree dropped a corpse, squeezed out like a lemon, to the ground, not impressed by this spectacle. Spike touched one of the branches, and in the blink of an eye it squeezed his hand with a death grip. The traveler managed to pull his hand away, leaving “a piece of his skin as a souvenir for the green vampire.”
In approximately the same area of ​​Mexico in 1933, the French explorer Byron de Prophet also saw a huge man-eating tree. The bird landed on one of its huge leaves, which curled up and stuck its spines into the bird's body.

Man-eating tree in Africa

A sensation in 1958 was a photograph of a man-eating tree taken by biologist Claus von Schwimmer in the wilds of Central Africa. Schwimmer organized an expedition intending to explore the upper reaches of the Kapomobo River in Northern Rhodesia. Five whites and 20 porters, led by an experienced hunter and translator from the Barotse tribe, took part in it. The travelers ascended the river in motor boats, then went deeper into the jungle, where in a large clearing they saw a lone tree similar to an Indian banyan tree, which, in addition to its thick main there were several more thinner trunks. The crown of the tree consisted of long, wide leaves, and many vines hung from the branches. In addition, the tree gave off a surprisingly strong, pleasant smell, which made travelers rush towards it, but then Schwimmer saw a thick layer of bones under the tree and shouted for people to stop. Everyone obediently froze, but one of the porters came too close to the green monster. The vines hanging from the tree began to move and reached out to the man, entwining him. It was not possible to snatch the poor fellow from the clutches of the green monster. The only thing the expedition members could do. - to avenge the murder.
Armfuls of brushwood were brought to the foot of the tree, which was immediately set on fire. The man-eating tree, as if sensing imminent death, “shot” its tentacle vines into the fire and immediately retracted them back. Soon the lower branches and the thin trunks that supported them began to smoke. The burning monster emitted a horrific stench
Von Schwimmer's report so outraged researchers in tropical Africa that a criminal case was opened against him on charges of falsification and fraud, but the British, who were in the jungle with Schwimmer, testified under oath that he was telling the truth. Moreover, Professor de Groost from Cape Town found several people in Rhodesia who had been Schwimmer’s porters, who confirmed his story.
A year later, the Brussels Tropical Institute organized a new expedition to Rhodesia. Based on the records of the first expedition, she easily managed to discover both the “clearing of death” and a huge number of bones of various animals and people under a layer of ash.

Tree-eater - eater of Brazilian monkeys

In the 70s of the last century, the Brazilian naturalist Mariano da Silva, traveling through South America, discovered a tree in a tropical forest on the border between Brazil and Guyana that attracted monkeys with its intoxicating smell. Having smelled it, the animals, forgetting about caution, climbed up the trunk until the leaves of the crown closed over them, enclosing them in a dense cocoon. The drugged monkeys died without even having time to squeak. As da Silva writes, for three days the green monster digested its prey and then “belched” the gnawed bones onto the ground.
The debate about whether man-eating trees exist continues to this day, because while most of them are described only in the diaries of travelers, science has yet to deal with these monsters, which are distant relatives of such insectivorous plants as sundew, Venus flytrap and nepenthes, which there are more than 70 species in the tropical forests of South Asia, Indonesia, New Guinea and Australia.

Charles Darwin, in a letter to a friend, called the sudden appearance of flowering plants in fossil rocks "the terrible mystery of evolution." The first flowering plants bloomed at the height of the era of dinosaurs, in the first half of the Cretaceous period - about 140 million years ago. And look what harmless flowers have achieved in the process of evolution! Cute creatures not only harmlessly decorate our flower beds, but also cleverly use these same insects for their own pollination - for which some flowers, (for example, ofris) have even learned to take on the appearance of female bees. Others, like real predators, devour insects.

But if these buttercup flowers have learned to eat small things, then maybe some large species of carnivorous plants and people would not mind gobbling them up? Are you laughing? But in vain. This is what the English magazine Illustrated London News reported on August 21, 1892.

“It so happened that the naturalist Mr. Dunstan was collecting plants for a herbarium on the ponds that surround Lake Nicaraguan, and suddenly heard the desperate howl of his dog. The naturalist hurried to where the sounds were coming from. How surprised he was to find his four-legged friend caught in a trap from rope-like roots, branches and stems. It was a plant similar to a grape, with bare intertwined stems of a dark color, covered with a thick layer of viscous juice flowing from its pores, Mr. Dunstan tried to free the unfortunate animal. It was not easy to cut through the tough, muscle-like stems of the strange plant predator. When the dog was finally rescued from captivity, Dunstan saw that the unfortunate dog was bloody, and his whole body was covered with ulcers. The animal died from the loss of blood that was sucked out of him. When Dunstan! chopped the “grapes”, they wriggled around his hand as if alive. He had to exert remarkable force to free himself from the stems clinging to him, which left blisters and red inflamed spots on the skin. This tree, if I may say so, was well known to the locals. The appetites of this plant are varied and insatiable - in five minutes it is capable of sucking all the moisture out of a large piece of meat, then throwing it away in the same way as spiders throw used flies out of their web...
Well, how do you like the story? Of course, science fiction writers of the late 19th century did not write such things. But, on the other hand, Professor Andrew Wilson did not pretend to be a writer.

Many peoples had colorful legends about cannibal plants. New legends were born already in the enlightened 19th and 20th centuries.

The tropical monstera liana from the araceae family is familiar to many lovers of indoor floriculture. Before rain, droplets of moisture appear on the edges of its cut leaves, which is why it is nicknamed “crybaby.” It was precisely representatives of the Monstera genus that European newspapers accused of cannibalism in the 60s of the 19th century. As if in South America they found skeletons of people who fell asleep under a liana and were strangled by it. Allegedly, having killed its victims, the monster drank their blood. This is why they gave the plant such a “terrible” name (related to the word “monster” - “monster”).

According to another version, some South American plant killed people by first stunning them with the aroma of its flowers. In fact, at that time there was a war going on here and people died for completely different reasons. Already in our time, the Australian biblis was accused of cannibalism.

In 1924, former Michigan Governor Chase Salmon Osborne published a book entitled Madagascar - Land of the Man-Eating Tree. Osborne became aware of this cannibal from a letter written in 1878 by the German traveler Karl Lich to the Polish professor Fredlowski, published in several newspapers and magazines.
So, Lich and his companion Hendrik met in Madagascar when they went together on an expedition to the wild Mkodos tribe. They were invited to take part in a local sacrifice ritual.

The explorers, accompanied by savages, went deep into the forest and stopped on the bank of a river where a strange tree grew. Its trunk reached a height of two and a half meters. The tree was brown in color and shaped like a pineapple. Eight huge leaves grew from its top and fell to the ground. The inside of each leaf was covered with thorns.

The cup-shaped top of the tree contained sticky nectar. Also from the top there were long tendrils sticking out in all directions and six thin snake-like vines growing, fluttering in the wind.

A young woman was sacrificed. The Mkodos led her to a tree trunk and forced her to climb it. Then the savages began to demand that she drink the liquid from the cup-like top. The girl squatted down. But as soon as her lips touched the nectar, the wriggling stems, like snakes, suddenly came to life and wrapped themselves around the legs and body of the unfortunate woman.

The two-meter antennae, which had previously been sticking out in different directions, also quickly shot up, tightly grasping the victim. After this, the large leaves that had previously been lying on the ground began to move. They also rose and, like thick blinds, finally slammed shut over the woman’s crumpled body. At the same time, the victim was squeezed so tightly that blood, mixed with the sweet sap of the killer tree, flowed down the tree trunk.

Mkodos rushed to the trunk to lick and collect this sacrificial “kvasir”. Because of the liquid, the savages went into a frenzy and immediately staged a terrible orgy, at the sight of which Lich and Hendrik, feeling awkward, left. Both researchers, however, continued to observe the terrible tree. For ten days the leaves remained raised and closed. After this, they returned and found the tree in its normal state. The only reminder of the recent sacrificial meal was a white skull lying at the foot of the tree.
Heartbreaking story, isn't it?

The former governor of Michigan, Mr. Chase Osborne, was so shocked by what Karl Lich described that he himself went to Madagascar in search of this plant monster. He traveled all over the island and constantly heard stories from local residents about the man-eating tree. All Madagascar tribes knew this. Even some European missionaries assured that it really exists. But, nevertheless, Osborne returned to America empty-handed - no one could show him a living cannibal. But this failure did not dissuade the researcher. Moreover, in defense of the unusual fact, according to Osborne, was the fact that since ancient times Madagascar was called the Land of the Man-Eating Tree. He also describes a tree similar to the Madagascar cannibal, only smaller in size, which he saw in London at an agricultural exhibition. Osborne says the plant eats large insects and even small mammals. Mice, for example, are attracted by the smell of a flower, into which they enter through a hole. After the animal penetrates the clever hole-trap, the petals close tightly. Soon the mouse dies, and a liquid resembling stomach juice digests it. This unusual carnivorous plant is found in tropical regions of India. Osborne writes that he was never qualified by botanists.

Another naturalist, Mariano da Silva, described a tree he discovered in 1970 in a forest between Brazil and Guyana. According to him, it killed monkeys, which it lured with the special smell of its fruits. When the naive animal climbed its branches for prey, the leaves of the tree wrapped around its body in a dense cocoon. It digested its prey for several days, and then dumped what was left of it on the ground.
In South Africa there is a tree that the Zulus call umdglebi - "sinister." It emits deadly carbonic acid gas, poisoning everything in the area. It extracts gas from the soil. Anyone who inhales it experiences a terrible headache. Death occurs in the coming hours.

In the middle of the 17th century, the Dutch botanist Rumphius, who lived in Malaysia, wrote: “Neither bushes nor grass grow under this tree - not only under its crown, but even at the distance of a thrown stone. The soil under it is barren, dark and as if charred. Toxicity the tree is such that the birds that sit on its branches, having swallowed the poisoned air, fall to the ground and die. Their feathers cover the ground. Not a single person dares to approach it, unless his arms, legs and head are protected by the thick fabric of his branches. caustic, that when they were sent to me in a strong bamboo container, when I placed my hand on the container, I felt a slight tingling sensation.”

Based on various legends about cannibal plants, the English science fiction writer Herbert Wells wrote the story “The Strange Orchid.”