Human carnivorous plants, from legend to truth

It looks like a giant pineapple tree, over 2.5m high, covered 2 meters wide on the ground. It has a multitude of long, large arms, such as the forearm, twisting, rising.

Legend

Its leaves are wide, cambered, at the edge of the jagged edges. This plant with this ferocious, ugly appearance is one of the most frightening threats of humans in the wild world. It is a carnivorous plant.

That's at least according to a South Australian Register article many years ago. The article said that the cannibal is a 'specialty' of Madagascar and is worshiped as a mascot by the Mkodo tribe people here. They often organize a sacrifice ceremony for trees with offerings of young women.

At the beginning of the ceremony, they were forced to drink lots of sap. Then they were thrown in the middle of the bush. The leaves slowly spread out, covering the victim. The hideous long tassels tighten on the poor girl. The more they are, the more they tighten. A few days later, people will only see the victim's bones entangled in a frenzy.

Draw on the South Australian Register's carnivorous plants

The story is vividly described along with illustrations that have become an obsession for any adventurer who arrived in Madagascar. On the one hand, they wanted to see it with their own eyes. But on the other hand, everyone was afraid that he might become his victim, because he heard that the tree was voracious.

With such a half-hearted, half-hearted mood, for decades, thousands of people have crushed Madagascar's forests, but no one has seen human carnivorous plants. All people know about it is still the story of the Aboriginal people. People write stories about it, make movies about it and never see it, don't even know if it really exists or not.

And the truth

The carnivorous plant has become an interesting topic not only for curious people but also for serious scientists. Many well-known names in biology, including Charles Darwin have also studied this subject, and finally come to a conclusion: human carnivores exist only in legends.

In fact, there are also some plants that take nutrients by becoming carnivorous plants - carnivorous plant. However, most of their victims are just insects. Plants take nutrients from the bodies of those ill-fated animals to grow.

Carnivorous plants have many ways to trap animals. A warm lid with leaves grows like a vase with a hat to open. Inside the vase are substances with a very sweet smell that appeal to insects. Once the insect has fallen into the bottle, the mucus that clings to the wing will prevent it from escaping and quickly decomposes.

The veneer plants use nectar to entangle insects into the wings. On the petals there are countless small hairs that are very sensitive to the stick around. When insects enter, the hairs will bind the victim and cause them to suffocate. A slime will decompose the insect's corpse into a delicious meal for the pistil.

A mouse is eaten by the Nepenthes rajah

The carnivorous plants are quite diverse, but none of them are large enough, as well as enough toxins to kill and decompose a human. So far, the largest carnivorous plant has been known as Nepenthes rajah. This species grows quite a lot in Southeast Asia, belongs to the family of warm plants. Only thing, its 'warm' can be as high as 35cm, 18cm in diameter, inside contains 2.5 liters of digestive solution.

Nepenthes rajah has the ability to trap large insects and even small animals such as rats, frogs, and lizards. But it certainly cannot harm people. In some places, farmers also planted Nepenthes rajah around rice fields to resist rice rodents eating rice. People can also pour rice, meat, etc. inside the 'kettle' and wait for the digestive solution of the ripening plant to get strange dishes.