WEBVTT - From the Vault: Carnivorous Plants 0:00:05.760 --> 0:00:07.640 Hey, you welcome to stuff to blow your mind. My 0:00:07.720 --> 0:00:10.760 name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And it 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:13.360 is Saturday. The vault hangs open, and it is a 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:18.439 October vault. Isn't that right, Robert? That's right. That is 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:22.480 why the vault is full of monstrous, curling, twisting vines. 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:25.960 This week. Vines. They just want to grab hold of 0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:30.080 you and just drag you down into the carnivorous undergrowth. 0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:34.880 This was an episode published originally on October eighteen about 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:38.519 carnivorous plants and uh, and so we hope you will 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:41.200 stay around for the Tree of Terror. Yeah, imagine there's 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:42.760 gonna be a little bit of a little shop of 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:45.400 horrors in this one. Maybe I think we remember everything 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:49.080 we referenced. We talked about that what's that um William 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:53.479 Friedkin movie with like the killer Enchanted Tree, Killer Enchanted Tree. 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:57.120 Oh well, we talked about in the spoil it for you. 0:00:57.160 --> 0:00:58.920 I've already forgotten what it is and now I'm gonna 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:01.560 have to look it back up because that's sounds amazing. Okay, 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:03.840 without any further ado, let's just jump right into it, 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:07.919 back into the vault, back into the embrace of the Vines. 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:15.120 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:01:15.120 --> 0:01:23.920 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:26.760 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick and Robert. 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:30.200 I want to put you in a scenario a bit seasonal. 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:32.960 Oh yeah, that's a seasonal Halloween scenario. Do you do 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:35.320 you want to go with me on a hike high? Alright, 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:39.639 it's late October and you are on a solitary fall 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:42.520 hike through the woods, and the leaves are starting to 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:45.560 turn orange and red. The air is dry, and you 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:48.880 feel like an adventure, so you head off trail. Not 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:51.880 always a good idea, but let's just say you're brave. 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:55.440 If this is how all terrible stories start, how all 0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:58.760 tragedies begin, you leave the trail, Well, it starts very nice. 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:00.720 So you're off trail and you find a little mountain 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:04.240 brook and it's twisting among the rocks, and you decide, oh, 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:07.040 how sweet, I'm gonna follow this upstream, maybe I'll find 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:10.760 its source. And on the way you come across a 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:14.240 cluster of what looked like oak trees, thick trunks with 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:16.919 roots spread out exposed over the bank of the brook, 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:21.040 and there's an odd smell. It's a little bit sweet 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:23.640 with just a hint of deep earthiness, kind of like 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:29.200 overripe fruit. So you approach the stand of trees and 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:32.000 the ground is covered with a mat of these beautifully 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:35.280 colored fallen leaves. And as you come near the trunk 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:38.400 of the nearest tree, your foot knocks against a smooth 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:42.400 stone tangled in the outer roots. But wait a second, 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:47.440 that's no stone. It's smooth and white, partially buried with 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:51.760 two eye shaped hollows. And then suddenly, with a rushing 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:54.240 sound and a scattering of leaves up into the air, 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:58.320 something envelopes you. The light gets blotted out. You feel 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:01.560 these wooden fibers pressing into your skin from all sides. 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:04.320 What's going on? You struggle to free yourself, but you 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:08.440 find that you're becoming sluggish, disoriented. There's a powerful smell, 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:14.560 your throat burns, and then the digestive enzymes come. Another 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:19.359 visitor disappears into the grove of the killer tree. Ah. 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:21.960 I knew it was a killer tree once the digestive 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:25.400 enzymes in the woods started happening, because my first instinct 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:27.280 would be, oh, something was in the tree. I got 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:29.520 myself tangled and then something was in the tree and 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:32.760 it jumped down upon me, some sort of predator of 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:36.280 some sort. I guess that's the more logical thing to think, right, Yeah, 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:38.840 at list until the wood comes, or that somebody has 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:40.680 set some kind of trap for you. This is a 0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:44.400 human design, That's probably what I would guess. But Robert, 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:47.560 what first comes to your mind when I say killer tree? 0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:50.600 I'm sure you've got like a fictional anchor point that 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:53.120 you go to. Oh, I mean there's so many, uh, 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:57.240 there's so many examples of killer trees, and especially in fantasy, right, 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:00.200 I mean it makes you think of the ants or 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:03.360 especially like the dark sort of tree people from Dungeons 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:06.400 and Dragons. I'm not really familiar with those. Well, what 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:08.720 happens when you fight a tree person? Well, you know, 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:13.280 they're big, they're wooden, they're they're lumbering. I think there 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:16.440 are a few a few different varieties. There's they're basically, 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:18.320 you know, they're animate trees, and then they're sort of 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:21.039 wooden people, and they're good and good ones and they're 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:23.159 bad ones. Of course, the ants that we encounter and 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:25.880 the Lord of the Rings are are are good. So 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:28.719 when you're battling a tree person do you like, do 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:31.120 you have to have a paladin with a blessed wood 0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:34.520 chipper or something. I don't recall there being a requirement 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:36.960 for magical weapons. Of course, you know, some creatures can 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:39.560 only be fought with natural weapons, but with the with 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:42.560 magical weapons. But I believe that the tree creatures in 0:04:42.600 --> 0:04:46.719 this case are just big, tough trees, because that's the 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:50.279 thing they're they're they're they're large, They're flesh is different 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:53.039 than us. So the idea of them becoming animate, the 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:56.320 idea of them turning against us is terrifying. Uh, and 0:04:56.400 --> 0:04:58.359 they do turn against us. I mean, we live in 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:02.640 a very um uh tree friendly city. So anytime the 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:08.040 wind blows, anytime the anytime the rain freezes, the trees 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:11.480 rattle and threaten us. When they fall, they can cause 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:14.120 significant damage and even loss of life. There is a 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:17.120 killer tree hanging over our house right now. Rachel and 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:19.760 I are working on getting something done about that. But yeah, 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:22.160 it's this old dead pecan tree. It just looks like 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:26.839 it is aching to plunge its killer branches through somebody's roof. 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:31.280 And so yeah, there, of course killer trees in reality, 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:33.000 but the kind we're thinking of are the ones that 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:37.200 are a little more conscious with some directed actions the agency, 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:41.400 maybe some arms, some tentacles, some some gaping maws with 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:43.680 thorn teeth. Of course one of the big ones, and 0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:45.599 this one entered my mind when you were taking me 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:48.919 through descriptions. Of course, in poulter Geist, there's that just 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:52.200 horrifying scene that scarred me from an early age, where 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:54.160 you have you have multiple things going on it once, 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:57.880 like there's the creepy clown um doll on the bed, 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:00.320 but then there's the tree outside the window. It's like 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:03.400 trying to eat the child man. So I haven't seen 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:06.200 Poulder guys in years. I honestly don't remember this scene. 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:08.800 I guess I gotta go back to one of many. 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:11.600 They throw a lot of nightmare imagree up against the 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:13.840 wall and up up their amount of it sticks. So 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:16.200 I gotta tell you that this episode. I wanted to 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:20.080 do this topic because I was inspired by having recently 0:06:20.080 --> 0:06:24.960 watched the William Friedkin horror movie The Guardian from nineteen 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:28.080 for the first time. I remember the trailer for this 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:30.880 is like a creepy babysitter, creepy nanny, but I never 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:32.640 saw it, so I don't know what the what the 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:35.039 gimmick is. Well, I'll give you the premise. It's about 0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:37.680 a couple who has a baby and they're looking for 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:40.360 a nanny because they both want to go right back 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:42.440 to work immediately, so they're looking for a nanny to 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:44.160 take care of their child, and they end up going 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:49.120 with Camilla, the British nanny, who unfortunately is a druid 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:51.479 who has got a tree friend, and her tree friend 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:53.920 is a killer tree friend, and she likes to take 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:57.120 babies to the tree sacrifice them to the tree. Except 0:06:57.120 --> 0:07:00.000 it's this weird thing where the tree sort of observe 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:02.479 orbs the baby, and then you can see the baby's 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:04.840 face embedded in the surface of the tree. So I 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:06.760 guess that the baby kind of melts into the tree 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:11.040 and becomes petrified. Anyway, she she's an evil druid, kidnaps babies, 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:13.400 sacrifices them to a killer tree. There are scenes where 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:17.000 the tree kills people. There's like Camilla gets attacked in 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:19.920 the woods by some by some creeps who just happened 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:21.840 to be hanging out in the woods, and the tree 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:25.200 defends her by essentially smashing them and tearing them up. 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:27.400 So would you say this is part of the Druids ploitation, 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:31.520 uh movement of the nineties. Man, if only there were 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:33.720 such a genre, I would be all over that. I 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:36.440 would be like a film scholar of the genre. But anyway, 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:39.760 so do I recommend this movie. It's not a good movie, 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:42.960 but it's William Friedkin, so it's like a well made 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:46.200 bad movie, if that makes any sense. He there's a 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:49.680 there's a certain segment of his filmography that that definitely fits. 0:07:49.720 --> 0:07:52.880 That always worth checking out if you're a fan of his. 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:55.720 But you know, maybe not Tough Shell. I guess I'd 0:07:55.720 --> 0:07:58.360 say it's not good, but it's worth seeing, especially since 0:07:58.720 --> 0:08:01.320 the spoiler alert the client max of the film involves 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:04.840 a chainsaw. Oh well, of course it would. Um, of course, 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:08.600 there are plenty of other cinematic examples of animate trees, 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:12.680 murdering trees, and just murderous plants. Um. Aside from ants, 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:16.320 there's the I don't know if anyone remembers the sexy 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:20.960 Matron tree from the Last Unicorn. The tree becomes animate 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:25.000 and attempts to love our hero to death, or one 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:28.600 of our two heroes, the male hero s Medric I believe, 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.160 and uh this sounds troubling. Yeah, she has like huge 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:35.320 bosoms and all um weird, it's a it's a weird 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:36.760 It's a weird film when you look back on it. 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:41.120 Lots of strange elements. Uh. Scott Smith's novel The Ruins 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:44.680 and the two movie adaptation of it, the concerns man 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:48.200 eating vines. Yeah, and they're sort of infectious, right, So 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:50.440 it's not just that the vines reach out and grab you, 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:53.600 but that there's a spore element where they contaminate you 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:57.640 with some kind of plant germ cell. I think so, yeah, yeah, 0:08:57.640 --> 0:08:59.480 which is interesting when you start getting into some of 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:04.040 the the technical possibilities of man eating plants. Um, let's 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:06.559 say already mentioned Poulter guys. There, of course the vines 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:09.760 and evil dead that are rather notorious. There are some 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:13.719 man eating plant action in Chinese Ghost Story, which I 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:18.440 have not seen yet. After reading a synopsis of part 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:21.320 of it yesterday, it's moved back up to the top 0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:24.000 of mine must watch list. You got the whamping Willow 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:27.880 and Harry Potter, you have you have a version of 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:30.360 the the evil dead vines that are mentioned in A 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:33.800 Cabin in the Woods. They quote angry molesting tree, which 0:09:33.840 --> 0:09:37.120 I think you only see like a a just a 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:40.280 fragment of it as it like snatches a guard in 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:42.280 one scene. Man Cabin in the Woods is full of 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:46.199 just great little freeze frame moments. Oh yeah, tremendous. Uh. 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:51.120 They're various kaiju that, you know, giant monsters that have 0:09:51.640 --> 0:09:54.320 had plant elements to them and certainly planning with fun 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:57.560 guy elements to them. And I believe one of Michael 0:09:57.600 --> 0:10:01.719 Shay's Niffed stories features a carnivorous plant kind of like 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:04.720 a venus fly traffic suchet has a like a humanoid 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:08.800 female part in the middle to lure males inside it. Weird, 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:11.240 but I don't have a clear memory of that, so 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:13.800 maybe I'm imagining it, but it seems like the kind 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:15.559 of thing that would be in one of his stories. Now, 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:19.719 almost all of these seem like modern fictional inventions. Do 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:24.760 are there? Are there animated trees, animated predatory trees or plants? 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:28.080 Going back in mythology, I would expect to find such 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:31.960 a thing. I expected to find some better examples, and 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:35.480 I was not able to find any. Um, not to 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:38.400 say that I didn't miss something, But the closest, the 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:40.560 closest example that I came across, and I got excited 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:44.480 about this was is that is this example of something 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:48.200 called a jidra uh and this is from the traditions 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:51.240 and folk beliefs of the Middle East. But here's the 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:55.920 caveat as related by medieval European travelers. And this is 0:10:55.920 --> 0:10:57.679 a theme we're going to see time and time again. 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:03.600 The plants become animate and man killing only in foreign 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:09.679 environments entered by westerners, right, European and American travel writers 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:13.559 and cataloguers of things going on in places other than Europe, 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:16.559 in America and the America's talk about man eating plants, 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:19.439 right and in this case as again as related by 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:22.720 medieval European travelers, and this was explained by Carol Rose 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:26.800 and are always excellent giants, monsters and dragons Encyclopedia. Uh. 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:28.880 The idea is this thing emerges from the ground like 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:32.760 a plant, and and it's rooted in place, and it 0:11:32.840 --> 0:11:37.079 just consumes anything in its vicinity, you know, cattle, small animals, 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:39.160 and of course humans. The only way to kill it 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:41.800 is to detach it from its root, essentially chop it down. 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:45.200 And if you do, then you get to harvest its bones, 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:49.000 because I guess it has bones which would be valuable. Um. 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:51.800 It has bones. Apparently that's according to the myth. So 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:53.600 I don't know if this means that it literally has 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:56.960 bones and it's a like a rooted mammal creature vertebrate 0:11:57.000 --> 0:12:00.400 creature of some sort, or if bones and by bones 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:02.640 we mean it's like it's it's would you know, you 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:04.600 know that does sound valuable because you could probably use 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:09.360 the bones of the Jidra to make a totally vegan stock, right, 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:11.600 so you roast the bones and then make it make 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:13.800 like you'd make a chicken stock or something, but this 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:16.200 would be vegan, I said, depending, well, depending on exactly 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:19.320 how you classify a monster like this. Now, I should 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:22.600 also add that it's thought that this myth probably also 0:12:22.679 --> 0:12:26.599 derived from the man Drake, So you know, European influence 0:12:26.720 --> 0:12:28.400 the idea of the man Drake, which is this kind 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:34.000 of like animal um vegetable hybrid creature, and then this 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:38.479 kind of evolves into this tail of the j dra okay, 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:41.000 And I find it curious, though, you know, I looked 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:43.080 around for more examples, couldn't find it. I would have 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:46.520 expected plenty of the Elder, the noted first century Roman 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:50.120 historian who often spoke of foreign monstrosities, to have like 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:52.160 a clear cut example of a man eating plant in 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:55.240 foreign land. Oh yeah, plenty of the elders like the internet, right, 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:57.440 like if you can think it up, it's on there, 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:01.480 and if you can imagine it, plenty road about it. Yeah, 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:04.600 like people like beast people in other lands, the people 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:07.200 with the bellies, the with head it had nowls in them. 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:13.520 I mean all sorts of strange humanoid monstrosities, beastly monstrosities, dragons, etcetera. 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:17.160 So why no man eating plants? I don't know. Now, Robert, 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:20.200 did you ever see him? Night shamelans the happening. I 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:22.920 did not. I saw the trader. It happened. There was 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:25.240 some happening, and it happened, and it was about trees 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:27.040 that were trying to kill Mark Wahlberg. I have no 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:29.640 idea why they want to do that. But it wasn't 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:33.480 really predatory behavior. It was more like vindictive jerk behavior. 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:35.240 So the trees didn't want to eat us. They were 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:38.440 like tired of us being abusive to them. So it's 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:43.880 even less uh in less biologically sound, yes, than than 0:13:43.960 --> 0:13:46.240 any of the examples we've looked at this far. So yeah, 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:49.319 obviously this idea of the killer tree, the man eating 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:52.600 plant is one that captures our imagination very easily. And 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:54.480 I think I've got a theory as to while, and 0:13:54.559 --> 0:13:56.320 let me know what you think of this. I think 0:13:56.360 --> 0:13:58.560 the reason we like the image of the killer tree 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:00.880 and it shows up in all these stories reas, is 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:04.120 because the idea of a man eating plant has a 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:07.760 certain level of why not to it? Right? So, there 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:10.760 are creatures in nature that kill large animals with claws 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:14.400 and teeth and tentacles and venom and such, and plants 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:19.160 have things that are equivalent to this. They've got thorns, vine, tendrils, poisons. 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:22.640 Trees are much larger than us, and in one sense 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:25.760 they are apt to be much quote stronger than any 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:29.160 animal prey that would try to resist them. So why not, 0:14:29.880 --> 0:14:32.440 you know, if the continent of Australia can produce an 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:34.320 animal that has the fur of a mammal in the 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:38.120 bill of a duck, why couldn't some deep, unexplored forest 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:40.880 harbor a tree that can reach out with a vine 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:44.200 covered in venomous thorns and snatch a hiker, wrap him up, 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:46.720 roll tight until he turns blue, and then pull him 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:49.240 down into a crevice in the root structure and treat 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:52.120 him like a soft salty meal. Yeah, I agree, I 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:54.760 think on on on one hand, certainly, we look at 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:58.080 all the variety of nature, we see what's possible within nature, 0:14:58.640 --> 0:15:00.640 and you ask yourself, we'll wind a in this exists. 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:03.920 Maybe it does exist. Maybe some you know, a third 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:06.440 or fourth hand tail that I've heard about a man 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:09.040 eating plant is from a traveler is actually true. And 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:11.200 on the other hand, I think the reason it's so 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:16.080 appealing is because it's abhorrent, the idea it's crossing category 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:19.600 exactly inherent taboo. Yeah, because I find myself kind of 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:22.160 like if I see an example of an insect preying 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:27.720 on a on a vertebrate, like invertebrates eating vertebrates, something 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:31.120 that kind of like it's wrong, has got a frog 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:33.880 in its web. Yeah, it's like that. You're not supposed 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:36.200 to move in that direction because stick to your your 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:39.840 own invertebrate kind. But of course it happens. Now, of 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:42.080 course I wouldn't actually blame the spider for that. I 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:44.480 think that's perfectly fine. But no, no, no, no, no 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:49.080 judgments spiders. But but from our human standpoints, even more important, 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:52.880 because we've largely removed ourselves from the risk of fredation 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:56.280 like which is a pretty remarkable thing in the grand 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:59.360 scheme of things, right, and so we don't have to 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:01.840 worry about other animals eating us. And the idea of 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:05.080 another animal eating us is strange and awful and terrifying. 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:08.760 Even more so the idea that a tree could do it. Yeah, yeah, 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:11.920 I totally see. It goes backwards on the chain, the 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:15.040 food chain, right, it's reversing the food chain. That's it's 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:18.000 not supposed to be this way. So, except for the 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:20.320 fact that we've never seen things like this happened, at 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:24.480 an intuitive level, it's like, what's so implausible about it? Uh? 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:26.040 Then at the same time, I think we may be 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:28.400 able to come up with some good biological reasons we 0:16:28.480 --> 0:16:32.400 don't actually see organisms like this. But according to some 0:16:33.040 --> 0:16:36.360 we must say, not very credible accounts, there is nothing 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:40.720 all that implausible about the man eating tree, the killer tree, 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:43.720 because people have written about these things as if they 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:48.080 actually exist within the past few hundred years, and that 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:51.960 hearsay was more more powerful previous times exactly. So I 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:55.320 want to talk about one source, a very weird biology 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:59.000 book from the eighteen eighties called Sea and Land, written 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:02.040 by a guy named James William Buell. Now, just glancing 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:04.520 through this thing and looking at the author's introduction, it 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:07.360 is obvious that this is not a source of credible 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:11.240 scientific information. It's more one of those nineteenth century natural 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:14.560 Wonders books. You've ever seen these kind of things, where 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:17.200 there you know, like, wow, look at all these illustrations 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:20.639 of animals in their natural habitats. But they're all grossly inaccurate, 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:24.760 and it's really not all that different from various versions 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:27.879 of Plenty's work from previous times, exactly, except it's you know, 0:17:27.960 --> 0:17:32.120 eighteen hundred years later, however, whenever Plenty was living, Yeah, 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:34.679 exactly so, but it's got all these allegations of weird 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:38.679 sensational creatures mingled in with reports about real animals, and 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:42.119 I have to also say, like a very Eurocentric sense 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:45.320 of exoticism about the planet. So there's that kind of 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:48.720 unsavory element to it. But it's also full of gruesome 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:53.600 and probably highly inaccurate illustrations about various animals and attack modes. 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:55.880 Some of these illustrations are great. There's a good one 0:17:55.920 --> 0:17:59.880 of an orangutang apparently kicking a man to death, one 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:02.920 of a swordfish stabbing at a sailor through the hull 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:06.680 of a boat. Not impossible, extremely rare. But as we've 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:10.680 discussed in our Jumping Fish episode, it it has happened, okay, 0:18:11.040 --> 0:18:13.760 or well, individuals have been stabbed, boats have been stabbed. 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:15.480 I don't know if anyone, I don't I don't remember, 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:18.800 of both happen, it would be really bad luck. Yeah, 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:20.760 but yeah, in this case, it looks like the swordfish 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:23.400 is trying to kill the guy. Okay, but in any case, 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:26.200 there's another one that's awesome. It's a giant crab hanging 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:28.760 from a tree, lifting a goat up into the tree 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:31.480 with its claw as if to devour it. But then 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:35.879 finally a tree with tentacles pulling a human victim into 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:38.879 the crown of its trunk. I have to say these 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:42.280 different accounts here. I couldn't help but think of a 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:45.320 Simpson episode, and I don't even remember the context, but 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:47.680 there being a scene where like a gorilla is in 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:50.800 a tree and a shark comes out of the river 0:18:50.920 --> 0:18:55.199 underneath it and eats the gorilla as an example of 0:18:55.200 --> 0:18:59.080 like natural predation or something. Oh wow, But yeah, So anyway, 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:03.159 so you Will says that travelers have told him stories 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:05.919 of a carnivorous plant that grows in Central Africa and 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:09.080 South America. And he says it's so voracious it even 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:11.159 resorts to eating humans. And I want to read a 0:19:11.240 --> 0:19:15.200 quote from the book. He says, quote. This marvelous vegetable 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:19.880 minotaur is represented as having a short, thick trunk, from 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:23.879 the top of which radiate giant spines, narrow and flexible, 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:27.680 but of extraordinary tenaciousness, the edges of which are armed 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:31.520 with barbs or dagger like teeth. Instead of growing upright 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:34.320 or at an inclined angle from the trunk, these spines 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:38.080 lay their outer ends upon the ground, and so gracefully 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:41.320 are they distributed that the trunk resembles an easy couch 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:44.560 with green drapery around it. Uh. Then he goes on 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:47.399 to say that the unfortunate traveler will come along and 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:50.600 quote the moment his feet are set within the circle 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:54.840 of horrid spines, they rise up like gigantic serpents and 0:19:55.040 --> 0:19:58.480 entwine themselves about him until he is drawn upon the stump, 0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:01.720 when they speedily dry of their daggers into his body 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:05.680 and thus complete the massacre. The body is crushed until 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:08.320 every drop of blood is squeezed out of it, and 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:11.960 becomes absorbed again by the gore loving plant when the 0:20:12.040 --> 0:20:15.359 dry carcass is thrown out and the horrid trap is 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:21.840 set again. I'm some elements of that sound reasonable, especially 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:25.359 later when we get into real world carnivorous plants and 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:29.040 the idea that plants are living things that that live 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:32.120 and move at an entirely different speed. And therefore when 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:35.200 you see like fast moving actions such as from a 0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:38.399 venus fly trap, it is very much like a like 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:41.520 a crossbow, a heavy crossbow that has been painstakingly loaded 0:20:41.520 --> 0:20:44.760 over time and then sprung. So I could I could 0:20:44.800 --> 0:20:47.480 see this idea of like a sprung trap working within 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:53.720 the conceivably working within the confines of of of actual botany. Yeah. Yeah, 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:56.159 with a certain type of movement, you can imagine it. 0:20:56.320 --> 0:20:58.760 Less so when especially with something we're going to hear 0:20:58.760 --> 0:21:00.440 about in the second though. I also want to add 0:21:00.480 --> 0:21:03.439 a funny note that, in contrast to the passage I 0:21:03.520 --> 0:21:06.400 just read that in the introduction, Bull says his purpose 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:09.120 in writing the book is to quote bring us into 0:21:09.200 --> 0:21:12.920 a closer relation with and a better understanding and appreciation 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:18.040 of the mysterious and infinite wisdom of Nature's God. I 0:21:18.080 --> 0:21:22.160 mean that certainly sounds like a devil created tree. There 0:21:22.160 --> 0:21:25.399 ever is such a thing. But anyway, um so Bull 0:21:25.480 --> 0:21:28.680 says that a gentleman of his acquaintance who lived sometime 0:21:28.720 --> 0:21:32.600 in Central America affirms the existence of a plant like 0:21:32.640 --> 0:21:35.119 this there, except was with a few variations. So he 0:21:35.160 --> 0:21:38.760 says that instead of lying on the ground, the filaments 0:21:38.800 --> 0:21:41.760 of the plant quote moved themselves constantly in the air, 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:45.920 like so many huge serpents in an angry discussion, occasionally 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:48.720 darting from side to side as if striking at an 0:21:48.720 --> 0:21:52.400