Man-eating Trees

You can be a vegetarian to read this. I will not speak about what we are eating but what might be able to eat us.

There are many myths and legends about plants eating meat. Well known plants eating living organisms could also be a decoration of our homes or gardens. These decorative plans usually eat insects or small spiders. But imagine that there should be a plant which should be able to “swallow” a human being. Jokes? Well as once referred to myths and legends I will continue.

Since 19^th century there are reports about of various legendary carnivorous plants that are large enough to kill and consume a person or a large animal. These were called man-eating trees.

The earliest report of a man-eating tree was written by Edmund Spencer for the New York World on 26 April 1874. In the article was described that a German scientist Karl Liche witnessed a human sacrifice to a man-eating tree during some local ritual in Madagascar. This story was picked up by many other newspapers that time. Later an announcement came out saying that the story was false but who knows exactly what happened? The tree was given further publicity by the book by former Governor of Michigan Chase Osborn:” Madagascar, Land of the Man-eating Tree”.  Osborn claimed that both the tribes and missionaries on Madagascar knew about that tree.

Another man-eating tree was “found” in place called “Nubia”. Phil Robinson wrote in his tales about his uncle’s travels around the world that ended up in “Nubia” and described the plant:

“This awful plant, that rears its splendid death-shade in the central solitude of a Nubian fern forest, sickens by its unwholesome humors all vegetation from its immediate vicinity, and feeds upon the wild beasts that, in the terror of the chase, or the heat of noon, seek the thick shelter of its boughs ; upon the birds that, flitting across the open space, come within the charmed circle of its power, or innocently refresh themselves from the cups of its great waxen flowers ; upon even man himself when, an infrequent prey, the savage seeks its asylum in the storm, or turns from the harsh foot-wounding sword-grass of the glade, to pluck the wondrous fruit that hang plumb down among the wondrous foliage. And such fruit! Glorious golden ovals, great honey drops, swelling by their own weight into pear-shaped translucencies. The foliage glistens with a strange dew, that all day long drips on to the ground below, nurturing a rank growth of grasses, which shoot up in places so high that their spikes of fierce blood-fed green show far up among the deep-tinted foliage of the terrible tree, and, like a jealous body-guard, keep concealed the fearful secret of the charnel-house within, and draw round the black roots of the murderous plant a decent screen of living green.”

Scary isn’t it? The story continues in describing how the tree captured and ate one of the crew members and how the uncle tried to shoot at the tree and fight it with a knife and that the tree fought back.

There is a lot of drama in Robinson’s story and by a science there is a possibility that a carnivorous plant in this case tree could trap a bigger prey, since the plants could be bigger and stronger that time. But the fact that the tree could fight back is really a fiction. Even there are some plants able to “defend” themselves by shrinking or leaking a venom liquid, there is no fight. As soon the tree could fight it shouldn’t be a tree but an animal (bug, insect, something like that).

Let’s put in that there are also man-eating tree legends in Africa and South America and they are a legend of a same kind such as American Big Foot.

What about the science and its opinion about man eating trees?

The carnivorous plant with the largest known traps is probably Nepenthes rajah, which produces pitchers up to 38 cm (15 in) tall with a volume of up to 3.5 liters and this plant can trap even small mammals. Then we can go on and think if these plants should be possible to be cultivated into man eating trees or in the past they could grow so big to be able to eat a human.

Another story which is real and not so old could be connected with the legend. But in this case the man is eaten by the “tree” from inside. We are talking about Epidermodysplasia verruciformis (also called Lewandowsky-Lutz dysplasia). It is named after the physicians who first documented it, Felix Lewandowsky and Wilhelm Lutz.

It is an extremely rare autosomal recessive genetic hereditary skin disorder associated with a high risk of carcinoma of the skin. It is characterized by abnormal susceptibility to human papillomaviruses (HPVs) of the skin. The resulting uncontrolled HPV infections result in the growth of scaly macules and papules, particularly on the hands and feet. In fact the patients arms and legs begin to look like tree limbs or roots. The condition can be devastating and paralyzing the patient.  

The condition usually has an onset of between the ages of 1–20but can occasionally present in middle-age. The cause of the condition is chromosome mutation ad there is no serious treatment for this disease. Several treatments have been suggested, even surgery, and have been more than less effective but still there haven’t been any full recovery yet known. Most important is the education of the patient, early diagnosis and excision of the tumoral lesions take preference to prevent the development of cutaneous tumors.

One of the most terrifying cases of this disease is described in following story below. Warning: If you are sensitive don’t watch it, some pictures are really tough. See the story of the “treeman”: