for millennia humans have turned to
plants to heal the sick and wounded to
ward against evil and grant magical
powers but what happens when plants
themselves become conscious and turn
killers more monstrous associations link
vegetation to malevolent sorcery demonic
influence or evil and typically
human-like qualities characteristics
like extremely large size enhanced
mobility including sentient movement an
insatiable carnivorous diet and
poisonous excretions can all make a
harmless plant into a terrifying monster
the most common unifying element of
terror among these so-called monstrous
plants their ability and desire to kill
humans
i'm dr emily zarka and this is monstrum
poisonous plants like hemlock and
belladonna are lethal to humans and have
been employed as such given these
potentially devastating consequences
some of this vegetation was associated
with mystical properties especially if
they also possessed an unusual
appearance orchids were associated with
witchcraft deadly nightshade and
mandrakes with satan these real world
deadly plants helped inspire the
folklore around their monstrous cousins
the ones that killed consciously on
their own one early example appears in
the medieval period in a natural history
encyclopedia published in 1491 maidenbox
ortus sanititis includes a description
and illustration of the bozer tree
it was said to exude toxic fumes that
caused death for miles around for any
living thing even humans some 250 years
later in 1783 an article appeared in the
london magazine by dutch surgeon n p
forsh who told of the existence of a
strange tree the javanese uppas
he alleged that on the island of java
there existed a tree whose biology was
so sensational it had previously been
dismissed as myth by european
naturalists according to forsh
indigenous peoples called this plant the
bohun upas with the permission of the
government and the help of two malayan
priests forsh claims that he was able to
observe the tree himself from a distance
of course as not only the bark of the
tree but the fumes emanating from its
resin are lethal to all life
the only humans who approach the tree
are condemned criminals given a chance
at clemency if they can successfully
harvest the poisonous secretions the
existence of force and his record of the
tree are still contested historical
documents show that a surgeon named john
nichols force did indeed exist and that
the man lived in the east indies
this surgeon expressed interest in
writing a book about his travels so it
is possible he concocted the bohun upa
story as a publicity stunt however other
historians attribute the london magazine
article to an anonymous source who spun
the tale from scratch either way there
is a real tree with poisonous sap we now
call the onitarous toxicaria that was
undoubtedly well known among inhabitants
of its natural habitats
but it wasn't until sensationalized
accounts like this one in the 18th
century that this deadly plant was
turned into a plant that killed many
such stories weren't just tabloid fodder
but were nonetheless just as sensational
naturalist erasmus darwin wrote of the
javanese uh tree and its poisonous vapor
in his 1789 text the botanic garden
offering the compelling image of a
barren land surrounding the plant
punctuated only by the skeletons of men
and animals while not the man-eating
plant trope we've come to recognize as
characteristic of killer flora these
early literary appearances planted
imaginative seeds that would flourish in
the 19th century as the steam engine
advanced and expediated trade routes
transport of plants from one side of the
globe to the other became more
successful in the 19th century
improvements in glass and steel
production used to build greenhouses and
the invention of the hot house made
cultivation of foreign plant species
possible in previously unfit climates
alongside this perennial privilege
plants as intruders was an increasingly
dominant narrative in the 1800s wild and
unkempt at best or sentient and mobile
in the most horrifying variations the
idea of encroaching vegetation appeared
across literary genres fictional travel
accounts increasingly featured exotic
killer plants gothic tales and short
stories of weird vegetation became
popular meaning an influx in the
perception that flora could consume
animal flesh including the occasional
human this is in part due to a
scientific text and another darwin
charles darwin's 1875 book insectivorous
plants popularized the flesh eating
plant
the vibrantly illustrated text details
the naturalists experiments with
carnivorous plants their movements
digestive processes and favorite food
sources
nature it became apparent supported
natural monsters and inevitably fiction
writers would expand upon their
existence in dramatic ways fake accounts
of man-eating plants emerged in
publications around that same decade
perhaps the most widely popularized of
these tales was the man-eating tree of
madagascar on april 28 1874 the new york
world published an incredible story
detailing the account of carl lech's
discovery of a tentacled carnivorous
man-eating pitcher plant in madagascar
he claimed the tree was worshipped by
locals secreted a hallucinogenic sap and
used vine-like tentacles to trap its
victim while pointed leaves squashed
them to death more than 10 years later
in 1888 the story was revealed as a hoax
but by that time fiction writers were
filling in the gaps of imaginations
turning newspaper stories into
sensational horror narratives take
arthur conan doyle's the american's tale
a short story about a giant carnivorous
venus fly trap in montana or phil
robinson's the man eating tree where an
african man sucking tree with beautiful
golden fruit serves as a lure to grab
nearby prey with its boughs before using
large vampire-like leaves to suck the
blood of its victims in lucy h hooper's
1889 carnivorine the mad scientist trope
enters into the genre with a botanist
who attempts to prove an evolutionary
connection between plant and animal
as a result of his experiments the plant
develops paddle-like feet making it
mobile and a taste for human flesh
resulting in an uncontrollable killer
monster and in 1891 the horrible plant
called the devil's snare was introduced
by an american naturalist living in
nicaragua
like a weeping willow without foliage
the thick dark black vines appear like a
mass of interlacing thick muscular
fibers vines that suck blood of course
in 1894 h.g wells the flowering of the
strange orchid tells the tale of a
british orchid collector whose newest
procurement from the indies whose buds
resemble little white fingers ends up
nearly strangling him using
sucker-adorned roots to drink his blood
noticing a trend here
the plants in these narratives come from
outside of europe
many killer plant stories from the 19th
century and beyond represent the
unconquered and uncontrollable natural
world colonialism plays a role here as
writers turned passively poisonous flora
into predatory man-eating beasts
painting the foreign as dangerous and
terrifying as a means to affirm western
superiority at the turn of the 20th
century plants were increasingly
considered with curiosity suspicion and
fear in both scientific texts and horror
fiction the 1920s and 30s saw swell in
monstrous plant narratives
pulp science fiction was thriving at the
time but so were debates about teaching
evolutionary theory in schools ones that
made national headlines with the scopes
trial fostered by the uncertainty of the
cold war and the rapidly evolving
scientific discoveries of the 50s and
60s monster plants popped up regularly
on screen and in books
speculations surrounding the potential
impacts of nuclear mutation
extraterrestrial life bioweapons and
chemical herbicides present themselves
in monstrous plant narratives in the
famous the day of the trifids a
post-apocalyptic 1951 novel by john
wyndham mysterious plants are metaphor
for fears of the cold war when a comet
blinds most of the world's population
humankind becomes vulnerable to walking
stinging plants first bred by the soviet
union during genetic experimentation and
accidentally released into the world
the triffid plants evolved to prey on
humans using the global catastrophe to
dominate the planet that same year in
the film the thing from another world
killer extraterrestrial plants wreak
havoc on earth
inspired in part by growing reports of
ufos and aliens as well as rumored
accounts of soviet forces in the arctic
the film's plant-based alien life form
is defrosted by military personnel and
scientists in the north pole if this
plot sounds familiar that's because it
is both this movie and 1982's the thing
were based on a 1938 novel by john w
campbell jr in 1956 invasion of the body
snatchers would make monstrous plants
more terrifying by giving them the
ability to clone humans then the woman
eater paid homage to the 19th century
sensational mankiller plant narratives
with a carnivorous tree worshiped by
locals and 1960 brought us the hapless
skid row florist seymour who cultivates
a blood thirsty potted plant hoping to
use the novelty to advance his own
standing with his boss and propagate his
own love life in the original 1960s
version of the film audrey jr defeats
and eats seymour audiences of the 1986
version of little shop watch a more
pleasant and reassuring ending when it
is instead seymour who defeats audrey jr
audrey junior immortalizes its victims
faces in its blooming flowers
which the historian of me can't help but
interpret as a callback to the walk walk
tree first recorded in the late 14th
century book of surprises the bizarre
tree appears in multiple indo-arabian
legends where it is said to grow either
human heads or full-bodied humans
amongst its branches in the 1970s and
80s advances in bioengineering led to a
flurry of dangerous flora narratives in
response to anxieties about the
consequences of bioengineering venus
flytrap returns to the premise hooper
first introduced in the 19th century
when a botanist looking to prove human
life evolved from plants accidentally
creates a monster in 1985 super mario's
piranha plants inspired in part by the
real-life invasive plant species
hydronora africana immortalized killer
plants in video games and in 1989 the
plant-based kaiju biollante joined the
godzilla franchise
since the 21st century killer plants in
horror and science fiction narratives
have become more varied in appearance
origin and definition from the more
obvious interpretations creeping
carnivorous vines and anthropomorphic
tree stump babies
to unseen parasitic fungi that cause
humans to crave flesh and psychedelic
alien spores
we still have the tendency to transform
nature into something frightening the
biological systems of plants are
dramatically different from other life
forms most make their own food and
breathe what we exhale as waste it is
more challenging for us to draw
similarities between flora than fauna
even when we try to make comparisons
like with the mandrake large duck orchid
or bleeding heart flowers the analogy is
never fully formed this extreme
otherness can heighten the terror when
they turn monstrous exploiting our
discomfort with living beings whose very
existence is so dramatically different
from our own so next time you gaze
lovingly at the plant sitting serenely
in the corners of your home spilling
leaves over bookcase shelves and
silently swinging from macrame hammocks
remember that it is in the quietness
that seeming meekness that the killer
plant lies ready to strike so have you
talked to your plants today
if you love the outdoors we think you'll
really enjoy the newest digital series
from pbs called america outdoors
understory hosted by baratunde thurston
the show explores our passionate yet
complex relationship with the natural
world along the way you get to meet
everyone from surfing scientists to
fossil hunters there's a link in the
description we hope you go check it out
and then maybe go get some fresh air
rolling what is that
ooh past this one native
plant i really want a venus fly trap as
a pet
okay