The Man-Eating Trees of Madagascar: Fact or Myth?

Insectivorous plants that hunt small animals are known to everyone. But it is extremely difficult to believe that there are trees that can catch and digest a person. Nevertheless, for almost a century and a half, scientists and enthusiasts have not given up trying to find carnivorous trees, which were described at the end of the 19th century by the German traveler and naturalist Karl Lische.

In 1881, the expedition of the German scientist Carl Lische visited the remote mountainous regions of the island of Madagascar. From the trip, Lische brought back not only herbariums, drawings and stuffed animals, but also a strange story about a man-eating tree. The traveler told about a strange and cruel ritual of one of the local tribes, which he witnessed.

According to Carl Lische, the Malagasy sacrificed a man to a strange tree. It was 2.5 meters high and resembled a pineapple. From the top of its trunk grew long and wide leaves that touched the ground. Each leaf looked like an open door, with sharp thorns along the edge. The savages pushed the victim into the embrace of the tree, which tore his flesh with leaves and swallowed him whole. Lische came to the tree a few days later and saw that all that was left of the victim was his skull, lying between the roots.

The German traveler's story, creepy and not very plausible, interested lovers of exotica. People began to come to Madagascar with the goal of finding the formidable plant. The first serious expedition, which included scientists, took place in 1920. It was led by the governor of the American state of Michigan, Chase Osborne. Despite the fact that the researchers crossed the island several times and visited all its parts, they failed to find the trees.

But the story of Karl Lische continued to excite the minds of scientists. Especially since information about such plants periodically arrived from different corners of the planet. In 1925, a certain Bryant published an article about how he saw a tree on one of the islands of the Philippines, in the branches of which human remains were hanging.

In the 1970s, Mariano da Silva reported a killer tree he saw while traveling in the jungle on the border of Brazil and Guyana. It hunted not people, but small monkeys. The primates were attracted by the brightly colored, sweet-smelling fruits and would climb up the branches. The tree's leaves would wrap themselves around the little creature in a thick cocoon and digest it for several days, covering it in caustic juice. Then the leaves would straighten out again and only a few of the largest bones would fall to the ground—all that was left of the prey.

All such stories only irritated the representatives of official science, since they were more like the fruits of a wild imagination. Despite the abundance of fables about man-eating trees, no one has been able to provide evidence of their existence. Science knows only small carnivorous plants that can digest an insect or a small rodent.

In 1935, the American Botanics magazine decided to put an end to the tales of the killer tree. The editors offered a $10,000 prize to anyone who could prove the existence of such plants. It was a substantial sum, so there were many applicants for the prize. Retired British officer Hurst was one of those who thought he had the money in his pocket. This brave man set out to look for the man-eating trees alone.

Hirst wandered around Madagascar for four months, pestering locals with questions about the miracle trees. He managed to discover a new species of carnivorous plant. It was a squat tree with large fleshy flowers. The Briton photographed several skeletons of large mammals at its foot.

But Hurst was accused of forgery. Allegedly, he himself laid out the remains of the animals before taking photographs, for the sake of a scientific sensation. Angry at the ridicule of skeptics, the researcher again went to Madagascar for evidence. But the officer never returned. Rescue expeditions were unable to find his tracks either. Perhaps he did find the man-eating tree and became its victim?

In our days, the Czech traveler Ivan Mackerel set out in Hearst's footsteps. He and a group of like-minded people also decided to look for the man-eating tree, and at the same time for traces of the missing Englishman. The expedition failed to achieve its goals - Hearst disappeared into thin air, and mythical trees grew only in local fairy tales.

True, Mackerel did discover several new species of carnivorous plants that hunted insects. These representatives of the flora had a special part in the form of a pitcher with slippery inner walls. Once inside, the victim could no longer get out and was dissolved by the juice of the plant.

But Ivan Makkerl did find one killer tree. Local residents took the scientist to a plant that the Malagasy call "kumanga." It does not eat people or animals, but it can kill them with its fumes. Birds that land on the tree's branches fall dead. And during flowering, when deadly substances are emitted especially actively, carcasses of large animals can be found near its trunk. But kumanga does not eat flesh, so the tree cannot be called a man-eater.

It turns out that the question raised at the end of the 19th century still remains open. The search for a plant capable of killing and digesting a person continues all over the world. However, serious scientists no longer participate in these amusements.