WEBVTT - Death Roots: Dreams and Science of Carnivorous Plants 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.920 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:14.720 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:17.560 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick and Robert. 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:21.040 I want to put you in a scenario a bit seasonal. 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:23.840 Oh yeah, that's the seasonal Halloween scenario. You do? You 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:26.280 want to go with me on a hike? Alright, it's 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:30.800 late October and you are on a solitary fall hike 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:33.600 through the woods, and the leaves are starting to turn 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:36.640 orange and red, the air is dry, and you feel 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:40.080 like an adventure, so you head off trail. Not always 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:43.080 a good idea, but let's just say you're brave. If 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:47.160 this is how all terrible stories start, how all tragedies begin, 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:49.720 you leave the trail, Well, it starts very nice. So 0:00:49.760 --> 0:00:51.800 you're off trail and you find a little mountain brook 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:55.040 and it's twisting among the rocks, and you decide, oh, 0:00:55.080 --> 0:00:57.840 how sweet, I'm gonna follow this upstream, maybe I'll find 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:01.520 its source. And on the way you come across a 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:05.040 cluster of what looked like oak trees, thick trunks with 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:07.759 roots spread out exposed over the bank of the brook, 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:11.839 and there's an odd smell it's a little bit sweet, 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:14.440 with just a hint of deep earthiness, kind of like 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:20.000 overripe fruit. So you approach the stand of trees and 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:22.800 the ground is covered with a mat of these beautifully 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:26.080 colored fallen leaves. And as you come near the trunk 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:29.200 of the nearest tree, your foot knocks against a smooth 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:33.200 stone tangled in the outer roots. But wait a second, 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:38.240 that's no stone. It's smooth and white, partially buried with 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:42.600 two eye shaped hollows. And then suddenly, with a rushing 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:45.039 sound and a scattering of leaves up into the air, 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:49.120 something envelopes you. The light gets blotted out. You feel 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:52.360 these wooden fibers pressing into your skin from all sides. 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:55.120 What's going on? You struggle to free yourself, but you 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:59.240 find that you're becoming sluggish, disoriented. There's a powerful smell. 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:05.360 Your throat burns, and then the digestive enzymes come. Another 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:09.800 visitor disappears into the grove of the killer tree. Ah. 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:12.760 I knew it was a killer tree once the digestive 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:16.200 enzymes in the woods started happening, because my first instinct 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:18.079 would be, oh, something was in the tree. I got 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:20.320 myself tangled, and then something was in the tree, and 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:23.560 it jumped down upon me some sort of predator of 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:27.079 some sort. I guess that's the more logical thing to think, right, Yeah, 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:29.600 I list until the wood comes, or that somebody has 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:31.480 set some kind of trap for you. This is a 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:35.360 human design, That's probably what I would guess. But Robert, well, 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:38.359 what first comes to your mind when I say killer tree? 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:41.400 I'm sure you've got like a fictional anchor point that 0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:44.320 you go to. Oh, I mean there's so many, uh, 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:48.040 there's so many examples of killer trees, and especially in fantasy, right, 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:50.959 I mean it makes you think of the ants or 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:54.160 especially like the dark sort of tree people from Dungeons 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:57.200 and Dragons. I'm not really familiar with those. Well, what 0:02:57.240 --> 0:02:59.480 happens when you fight a tree person? Well, you know 0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:04.120 they're big there, wooden, there, their lumbering. I think there 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:07.400 are a few a few different varieties. There's basically, you know, 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:09.919 they're animate trees and then they're sort of wooden people 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:12.400 and they're good, good ones, and they're bad ones. Of 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:14.280 course though the ants that we encounter and the Lord 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:17.079 of the Rings are are are good. So when you're 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:19.760 battling a tree person, do you like, do you have 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:22.880 to have a paladin with a blessed wood chipper or something. 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:26.360 I don't recall there being a requirement for magical weapons. 0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:28.320 Of course, you know, some creatures can only be fought 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:31.400 with natural weapons, but with with magical weapons. But I 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:34.960 believe that the tree creatures in this case are just big, 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:39.840 tough trees, because that's the thing they're they're they're they're large, 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:42.480 They're flesh is different than us. So the idea of 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:45.560 them becoming animate, the idea of them turning against us 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:48.680 is terrifying. Uh, and they do turn against us. I mean, 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:52.440 we live in a very um tree friendly city, so 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:57.200 anytime the wind blows, anytime the anytime the rain freezes, 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:01.720 the trees rattle and threaten us. When they fall, they 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:04.800 can cause significant damage and even lost life. There is 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:07.880 a killer tree hanging over our house right now. Rachel 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:10.160 and I are working on getting something done about that. 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:12.480 But yeah, it's this old dead pecan tree. It just 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:16.600 looks like it is aching to plunge its killer branches 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:21.119 through somebody's roof. And so yeah, there, of course killer 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:23.320 trees in reality, But the kind we're thinking of are 0:04:23.360 --> 0:04:25.560 the ones that are a little more conscious, with some 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:30.520 directed actions to the agency, maybe some arms, some tentacles, 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:33.840 some some gaping maws with thorn teeth. Of course one 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:35.280 of the big ones. And this one entered my mind 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:37.960 when you were taking me through descriptions. Of course, in 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:41.560 Poulter Guys, there's that just horrifying scene that scarred me 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:44.080 from an early age, where you have you have multiple 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:46.520 things going on it once, like there's the creepy clown 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:49.600 um doll on the bed, but then there's the tree 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:53.120 outside the window that's like trying to eat the child man. 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:55.799 So I haven't seen Poulter Guys in years. I honestly 0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:58.520 don't remember this scene. I guess I got back one 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:02.000 of many. They they're a lot of nightmare imagree up 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:04.520 against the wall and up up their amount of it sticks. 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:06.880 So I gotta tell you that this episode. I wanted 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:10.240 to do this topic because I was inspired by having 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:15.240 recently watched the William Friedkin horror movie The Guardian from 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:18.719 nineteen for the first time. I remember the trailer for 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:21.440 this is like a creepy babysitter, creepy nanny, but I 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:23.279 never saw it, so I don't know what the what 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:25.560 the gimmick is. Well, i'll give you the premise. It's 0:05:25.600 --> 0:05:28.320 about a couple who has a baby and they're looking 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:31.000 for a nanny because they both want to go right 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:33.120 back to work immediately, so they're looking for a nanny 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:34.720 to take care of their child, and they end up 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:39.359 going with Camilla, the British nanny, who unfortunately is a 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:42.000 druid who has got a tree friend, and her tree 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:44.440 friend is a killer tree friend, and she likes to 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:47.599 take babies to the tree sacrifice them to the tree. 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:50.479 Except it's this weird thing where the tree sort of 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:53.279 absorbs the baby and then you can see the baby's 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:55.640 face embedded in the surface of the tree. So I 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:57.560 guess that the baby kind of melts into the tree 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:01.839 and becomes petrified. Anyway, she she's an evil druid, kidnaps babies, 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:04.200 sacrifices them to a killer tree. There are scenes where 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:07.800 the tree kills people. There's like Camilla gets attacked in 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:10.719 the woods by some by some creeps who just happened 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:12.640 to be hanging out in the woods, and the tree 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:16.000 defends her by essentially smashing them and tearing them up. 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:17.560 So would you say this is part of the druids 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:22.320 floitation uh movement of the man if only there were 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:24.520 such a genre, I would be all over that. I 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:27.279 would be like a film scholar of the genre. But anyway, 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:30.560 so do I recommend this movie. It's not a good movie, 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:33.760 but it's William Friedkin, so it's like a well made 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:36.920 bad movie, if it makes any sense. Yeah, he there's 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:39.719 a there's a certain segment of his filmography that that 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:42.960 definitely fits that were always worth checking out if you're 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:45.760 a fan of his. But you know, maybe not Tough Shell. 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:48.320 I guess I'd say it's not good, but it's worth seeing, 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:51.599 especially since the spoiler alert the climax of the film 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:55.320 involves a chainsaw. Oh welcome, of course it would um, 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:58.160 of course, there are plenty of other cinematic examples of 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:03.440 animate trees murdering reason just murderous plants. Um. Aside from ants, 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:06.640 there's the the I don't know if anyone remembers the 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:11.000 sexy Matron tree from the Last Unicorn. The tree becomes 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:15.640 animate and attempts to love our hero to death, or 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:18.840 one of our two heroes, the male hero s Medrick. 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:22.600 I believe, and uh, this sounds troubling. She has like 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:26.120 huge bosoms and all um weird. It's a it's a weird. 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:27.560 It's a weird film when you look back on it. 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:31.920 That's the strange elements. Uh. Scott Smith's novel The Ruins 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:35.240 and the two doesn't movie adaptation of it that concerns 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:38.760 man eating vines. Yeah, and they're sort of infectious, right, 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:40.760 So it's not just that the vines reach out and 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:43.440 grab you, but that there's a spore element where they 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:47.040 contaminate you with some kind of plant germ cell I 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:49.600 think so, yeah, yeah, which is interesting when you start 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:54.480 getting into some of the technical possibilities of man eating plants. Um, 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:56.880 let's say already mentioned Poulter guys. There, of course the 0:07:56.960 --> 0:08:00.560 vines and evil dead that are rather notorious. There's some 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:04.560 man eating plant action in Chinese Ghost Story, which I 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:09.280 have not seen yet. After reading a synopsis of part 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:12.120 of it yesterday, it's moved back up to the top 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:14.840 of my must watch list. You've got the Whamping Willow 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:18.680 and Harry Potter, you have you have a version of 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:21.160 the the evil dead vines that are mentioned in a 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:24.600 Cabin in the Woods, the quote angry molesting tree, which 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:27.920 I think you only see like a a just a 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:31.120 fragment of it as it like snatches a guard in 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:33.080 one scene, Man Cabin in the Woods is full of 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:37.000 just great little freeze frame moments. Oh yeah, tremendous. Uh. 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:41.960 They're various kaiju that, you know, giant monsters that have 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:45.120 had plant elements to them and certainly planning with fun 0:08:45.160 --> 0:08:48.360 guy elements to them. And I believe one of Michael 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:52.520 Shay's Niffed stories features a carnivorous plant kind of like 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:54.920 a venus fly traffic such. It has a like a 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:59.559 humanoid female part in the middle to lure males inside it. Weird, 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:02.040 but I don't have a clear memory of that, so 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:04.640 maybe I'm imagining it, but it seems like the kind 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:06.400 of thing that would be in one of his stories. Now, 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:10.800 almost all of these seem like modern fictional inventions. Do 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:15.559 are there are there animated trees, animated predatory trees or plants? 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:18.880 Going back in mythology, I would expect to find such 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:22.760 a thing. I expected to find some better examples, and 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:26.320 I was not able to find any. Um. Not to 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:28.920 say that I didn't miss something, but the closest, the 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:31.360 closest example that I came across and I got excited 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:35.000 about this was um is that is this example of 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:38.400 something called a jidra uh. And this is from the 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:41.960 traditions and folk beliefs of the Middle East. But here's 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:46.600 the caveat as related by medieval European travelers. And this 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:48.480 is a theme we're going to see time and time again. 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:54.640 The plants become animate and man killing only in foreign 0:09:54.920 --> 0:10:00.480 environments entered by westerners, right, European and American travel writers 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:04.360 and cataloguers of things going on in places other than Europe, 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:07.360 in America and the America's talk about man eating plants, 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:10.840 and in this case as again as related by medieval 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:13.640 European travelers, and this was explained by Carol Rose and 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:17.720 are always excellent giants, monsters, and dragons Encyclopedia. Uh. The 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:20.160 idea is this thing emerges from the ground like a plant, 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:24.240 and and it's rooted in place, and it just consumes 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:27.960 anything in its vicinity, you know, cattle, small animals, and 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:30.040 of course humans. The only way to kill it is 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:32.600 to detach it from its root, essentially chop it down. 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:36.000 And if you do, then you get to harvest its bones, 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:39.800 because I guess it has bones, which would be valuable. Um, 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:42.600 it has bones, apparently that's according to the myth. So 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:44.760 I don't know, if this means that it literally has bones, 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:47.800 that it's a like a rooted mammal of creature vertebrate 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:51.200 creature of some sort, or if bones and by bones 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:53.440 we mean it's like it's it's would you know, you 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:55.400 know that does sound valuable because you could probably use 0:10:55.400 --> 0:11:00.200 the bones of the jitdra to make a totally vegan stock, right, 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:02.400 so you roast the bones and then make it make 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:04.600 like you'd make a chicken ste or something, but this 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:07.040 would be vegan, I said, depending, well, depending on exactly 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:10.120 how you classify a monster like this. Now, I should 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:13.400 also add that it's thought that this myth probably also 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:17.400 derived from the man Drake, So you know, European influence 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:19.240 the idea of the man Drake, which is this kind 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:24.840 of like animal um vegetable hybrid creature, and then this 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:29.040 kind of evolves into this tale of the j dra Okay, 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:31.800 and I find it curious, though, you know, I looked 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:33.880 around for more examples, couldn't find it. I would have 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:37.320 expected plenty of the Elder, the noted first century Roman 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:40.920 historian who often spoke of foreign monstrosities, to have like 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:43.000 a clear cut example of a man eating plant in 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:46.280 foreign land. Oh yeah, plenty of the elders like the internet, right, like, 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:48.720 if you can think it up, it's on there. Yeah, 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:52.320 and if you can imagine it, plenty wrote about it. Yeah, 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:55.400 like people like beast people in other lands, the people 0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:58.000 with the bellies, the with head that had mouths in them. 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:04.319 I mean all sorts of strange human aid monstrosities, beastly monstrosities, dragons, etcetera. 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:07.959 So why no man eating plants? I don't know, now, Robert, 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:11.000 did you ever see him night Shamalan's The Happening? I 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:14.360 did not. I saw the it happened. There was some happening, 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:16.280 and it happened, and it was about trees that were 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:18.360 trying to kill Mark Wahlberg. I have no idea why 0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:22.080 they want to do that. But it wasn't really predatory behavior. 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:24.800 It was more like vindictive jerk behavior. So the trees 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:27.080 didn't want to eat us. They were like tired of 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:31.000 us being abusive to them. So it's even less in 0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:35.559 less biologically sound, yes, than than any of the examples 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:38.320 we've looked at as far. So Yeah, obviously, this idea 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:40.959 of the killer tree the man eating plant is one 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:43.880 that captures our imagination very easily, and I think I've 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:45.680 got a theory as to while, and let me know 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:48.000 what you think about. I think the reason we like 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:49.920 the image of the killer tree and it shows up 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:53.319 in all these stories is because the idea of a 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:56.320 man eating plant has a certain level of why not 0:12:56.840 --> 0:12:59.760 to it? Right, So, there are creatures in nature that 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:03.160 all large animals with claws and teeth and tentacles and 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:06.680 venom and such, and plants have things that are equivalent 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:11.160 to this. They've got thorns, vine, tendrils, poisons. Trees are 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:13.800 much larger than us, and then one sense they are 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:17.240 apt to be much quote stronger than any animal prey 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:20.880 that would try to resist them. So why not you know, 0:13:20.920 --> 0:13:23.760 if the continent of Australia can produce an animal that 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:25.440 has the fur of a mammal in the bill of 0:13:25.440 --> 0:13:29.880 a duck, why couldn't some deep, unexplored forest harbor a 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:32.200 tree that can reach out with a vine covered in 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:35.200 venomous thorns and snatch a hiker, wrap them up, roll 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:37.760 tight until he turns blue, and then pull him down 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:40.240 into a crevice in the roots structure and treat him 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:43.120 like a soft, salty meal. Yeah, I agree, I think 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:45.720 on on on one hand, certainly we look at all 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:48.920 the variety of nature. We see what's possible within nature, 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:51.680 and you ask yourself, well, why doesn't this exist? Maybe 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:54.880 it does exist, maybe some you know, a third or 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:57.520 fourth hand tail that I've heard about a man eating 0:13:57.559 --> 0:14:00.120 plant is from a traveler is actually true. And the 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:03.120 other hand, I think the reason it's so appealing is 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:09.040 because it's abhorrent, the idea it's crossing category exactly inherent taboo. Yeah, 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:11.040 because I find myself kind of like if I see 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:15.160 an example of an insect preying on a on a vertebrate, 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:19.120 like invertebrates eating vertebrates is something that kind of like, 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:23.320 it's wrong. The spiders got a frog, and it's well, yeah, 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:25.240 it's like that. You're not supposed to move in that 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:28.840 direction because to stick to your your own invertebrate kind. 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:31.320 But of course it happens. Now, of course I wouldn't 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:34.040 actually blame the spider for that. I think that's perfectly fine. 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:37.640 But no, no, no, no no judgments spiders. But but 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:41.200 from our human standpoints, even more important, because we've largely 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:44.760 removed ourselves from the risk of predation like which is 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:47.880 a pretty remarkable thing in the grand scheme of things, right, 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:51.360 and so we don't have to worry about other animals 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:53.840 eating us. And the idea of another animal eating us 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:57.280 is strange and awful and terrifying. Even more so the 0:14:57.320 --> 0:14:59.960 idea that a tree could do it. Yeah, yeah, totally. 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:03.560 You see, it goes backwards on the chain, the food chain, right, 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:06.640 it's reversing the food chain. That's it's not supposed to 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:09.360 be this way. So, except for the fact that we've 0:15:09.400 --> 0:15:12.240 never seen things like this happened, at an intuitive level, 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:15.720 it's like, what's so implausible about it? Uh? Then at 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:17.160 the same time, I think we may be able to 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:20.000 come up with some good biological reasons we don't actually 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:24.440 see organisms like this. But according to some we must say, 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:28.800 not very credible accounts, there is nothing all that implausible 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:32.480 about the man eating tree, the killer tree, because people 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:35.520 have written about these things as if they actually exist 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:39.560 within the past few hundred years, and that hearsay was 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:43.160 more more powerful previous exactly. So I want to talk 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:46.720 about one source, a very weird biology book from the 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:50.160 eighteen eighties called Sea and Land, written by a guy 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:53.400 named James William Buell. Now, just glancing through this thing 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:56.560 and looking at the author's introduction it is obvious that 0:15:56.640 --> 0:15:59.840 this is not a source of credible scientific information. It's 0:15:59.840 --> 0:16:03.160 more are one of those nineteenth century natural wonders books. 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:06.520 You've ever seen these kind of things where they're you know, like, wow, 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:09.840 look at all these illustrations of animals in their natural habitats. 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:13.400 But they're all grossly inaccurate. And it's really not all 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:17.240 that different from various versions of Plenty's work from previous time, 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:21.440 exactly except it's you know, eight years later whenever Plenty 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:24.200 was living. Uh yeah, exactly so. But it's got all 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:28.160 these allegations of weird sensational creatures mingled in with reports 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:31.040 about real animals, and I have to also says like 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:35.080 a very Eurocentric sense of exoticism about the planet. So 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:38.320 there's that kind of unsavory element to it. But it's 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:42.800 also full of gruesome and probably highly inaccurate illustrations about 0:16:42.880 --> 0:16:45.560 various animals and attack modes. And some of these illustrations 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:48.680 are great. There's a good one of an orangutang apparently 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:52.440 kicking a man to death, one of a swordfish stabbing 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:55.520 at a sailor through the hull of a boat. Not impossible, 0:16:55.880 --> 0:16:59.880 extremely rare, but as we've discussed in our Jumping Fish episode. 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:03.520 It has happened, okay, well, or well, individuals have been stabbed, 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:05.520 boats have been stabbed. I don't know if anyone, I don't, 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:09.600 I don't remember, of both happened would be really bad luck. Yeah, 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:11.560 but yeah, in this case, it looks like the swordfish 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:14.200 is trying to kill the guy. Okay, but in any case, 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:17.000 there's another one that's awesome. It's a giant crab hanging 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:19.560 from a tree, lifting a goat up into the tree 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:22.280 with its claw as if to devour it. But then 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:26.640 finally a tree with tentacles pulling a human victim into 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:29.679 the crown of its trunk. I have to say these 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:33.080 different accounts here. I couldn't help but think of a 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:36.080 Simpson episode and I don't even remember the context, but 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:38.480 they're being a scene where like a gorilla is in 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:41.600 a tree and a shark comes out of the river 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:46.000 underneath it and eats the gorilla as an example of 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:49.880 like natural predation or something. Oh wow, but yeah, So anyway, 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:54.159 so Buell says that travelers have told him stories of 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:57.440 a carnivorous plant that grows in Central Africa and South America, 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:00.480 and he says it's so voracious that even resorts to 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:02.640 eating humans. And I want to read a quote from 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:07.480 the book. He says, quote, this marvelous vegetable minotaur is 0:18:07.520 --> 0:18:11.080 represented as having a short, thick trunk, from the top 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:14.960 of which radiate giant spines, narrow and flexible but of 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:19.280 extraordinary tenaciousness, the edges of which are armed with barbs 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:22.600 or dagger like teeth. Instead of growing upright or at 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:25.720 an inclined angle from the trunk, these spines lay their 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:29.200 outer ends upon the ground, And so gracefully are they 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:32.680 distributed that the trunk resembles an easy couch with green 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:35.680 drapery around it. Uh. Then he goes on to say 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:39.159 that the unfortunate traveler will come along and quote the 0:18:39.200 --> 0:18:42.560 moment his feet are set within the circle of horrid spines, 0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:47.080 they rise up like gigantic serpents and entwine themselves about 0:18:47.160 --> 0:18:49.840 him until he is drawn upon the stump, when they 0:18:49.880 --> 0:18:53.679 speedily drive their daggers into his body and thus complete 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:57.359 the massacre. The body is crushed until every drop of 0:18:57.400 --> 0:19:00.240 blood is squeezed out of it and becomes absorbed orbbed 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:03.680 again by the gore loving plant. When the dry carcass 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:06.800 is thrown out, and the horrid trap is set again. 0:19:08.400 --> 0:19:13.200 I'm some elements of that sound reasonable, especially later when 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:17.000 we get into real world carnivorous plants and the idea 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:20.320 that plants are living things that that live and move 0:19:20.359 --> 0:19:23.359 at an entirely different speed. And therefore when you see 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:26.920 like fast moving actions such as from a venus fly trap, 0:19:27.240 --> 0:19:30.040 it is very much like a like a crossbow, a 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:33.600 heavy crossbow that's been painstakingly loaded over time and then sprung. 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:36.359 So I could I could see this idea of like 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:40.639 a sprung trap working within the conceivably working within the 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:44.800 confines of of of actual botany. Yeah. Yeah, with a 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:47.520 certain type of movement, you can imagine it less so 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:49.919 when especially with something we're gonna hear about in the 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:52.160 second though. I also want to add a funny note that, 0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:55.199 in contrast to the passage I just read that in 0:19:55.240 --> 0:19:58.240 the introduction, Buell says his purpose in writing the book 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:01.400 is to quote bring us into a closer relation with 0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:04.960 and a better understanding and appreciation of the mysterious and 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:10.520 infinite wisdom of Nature's God. I mean that certainly sounds 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:14.160 like a devil created tree. There ever is such a thing, 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:17.679 But anyway, um So Mule says that a gentleman of 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:21.800 his acquaintance who lived sometime in Central America affirms the 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:24.840 existence of a plant like this there, except with a 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:28.080 few variations. So he says that instead of lying on 0:20:28.080 --> 0:20:31.320 the ground, the filaments of the plant quote moved themselves 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:34.399 constantly in the air, like so many huge serpents in 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:38.439 an angry discussion, occasionally darting from side to side as 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:42.320 if striking at an imaginary foe. Now that sounds completely 0:20:42.400 --> 0:20:44.440 that sounds like not a plant. Yeah, I mean the 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:46.080 closest thing I can think of that is, say, like 0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:49.240 a pussy willow with with the wind blowing through it, 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:51.719 you know, right. But anyway, He goes on to describe 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:54.640 how this tree would crush its prey and an embraceive spines, 0:20:54.680 --> 0:20:57.800 and he compares it to the method of execution from 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:01.679 alleged medieval torture dungeons known as the iron maiden. He 0:21:01.760 --> 0:21:04.480 also claims that in some regions the locals are said 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:07.679 to punish criminals by casting them into the tree, which is, 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:10.800 to anybody practicing witchcraft, you go straight into the tree, 0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:14.240 and that the plant is known as yatte vo Spanish 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:17.240 for I see you, though I double checked the translation. 0:21:17.320 --> 0:21:21.040 Apparently it has a tensed inflection really meaning I already 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:24.199 see you, which is even a little creepier. I do 0:21:24.359 --> 0:21:28.280 like that a and almost certainly non existent man eating plant. 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:32.160 The comparison is made to the almost certainly non existent, 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:36.800 at least functional and functional terms iron maiden. Yeah, yeah, 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:39.000 that that is the case, right, Like I've heard, there's 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:42.199 no good evidence that iron maidens were actually used. That 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:45.720 is my understanding. That they became kind of you know, 0:21:46.480 --> 0:21:48.680 they became it. They were an invention and then took 0:21:48.720 --> 0:21:50.960