Materials and legends of cannibalism

Man-eating flowers grow in the primeval forests and swamps of the Amazon River in America. they are very delicate and beautiful, with a diameter of 1.5 meters, petals about 1.4 centimeters thick, a flower with five petals and leaves 30 or 40 centimeters long, and rely on flies to transmit pollen and absorb the nutrients of other plants to live. Let's take a look at the materials and legends of cannibalism.

Information on cannibalism

Man-eating flower is a mysterious plant, with some animal-like habits, it must swallow at least ten fresh lives to produce a flower, and one in ten, that is, one of the ten flowers can receive a small green fruit through constant living life support. However, according to locals, May to October is its main growing season every year. When it first emerged from the ground, it was about the size of a ping-pong ball. After months of slow growth, the bud changed from the size of a ping-pong ball to the size of cabbage. Then five fleshy petals slowly opened, and it had been two days and two nights before the flowers were in full bloom.

Reproduction of cannibalism

It is hard to believe that the huge flowers that cannibals finally come out can only last for 4 to 5 days, and it is said that during these 4 or 5 days, the flowers will constantly release a strange stench so that large animals can avoid it naturally, and let some smelly insects pollinate it. When the petals wither, they turn into a pile of rotten black matter, and soon the fruit ripens, with many tiny seeds hidden in it, ready to fall into the ground to find a suitable place to germinate.

The legend of cannibalism

In recent years, many newspapers and magazines have published reports about man-eating plants, some in the primeval forests of the Amazon in South America, and some on the Indonesian island of Java. Although these reports give a detailed description of the morphology, habits, and locations of different man-eating plants, it is a great pity that in all the reports, no one has produced direct evidence-photographs or specimens-about man-eating plants. nor does it specify exactly which family or genus it belongs to. For this reason, many plants have doubts about the existence of man-eating plants.

The earliest news about cannibalism came from explorers in the second half of the 19th century, including a German named Karl Ritchie, who said after returning from his expedition, "I was in Madagascar in Africa." I have seen a kind of tree that can eat people with my own eyes. The local people regard it as a sacred tree, and an indigenous woman was once driven to climb the sacred tree because she violated the precepts of the tribe. As a result, eight leaves with hard thorns on the tree wrapped her tightly, and a few days later, when the leaves reopened, there was only a pile of bones. " As a result, frightening rumors of the existence of man-eating plants in the world spread everywhere.

These rumored reports puzzled botanists, so in 1971 a group of South American scientists organized an expedition to Madagascar. They conducted an extensive search in the area where there were rumored cannibalism trees, but did not find the terrible plant, but found many pitcher plants that could eat insects and some stinging nettles that could sting. The results of this investigation added to scholars' doubts about the authenticity of the existence of man-eating plants.

In 1979, Adrian Shrek, a lifelong British authority on carnivorous plants, said in his newly published monograph carnivorous plants: so far, no official records and reports about man-eating plants have been found in academic circles. Even the famous botanical masterpiece, the Natural Division of plants edited by German Engler, and the worldwide Dictionary of flowering plants and Ferns There is no description of the cannibalism tree.

In addition, Wallace, a famous British biologist, described many rare tropical plants in Malaysia in his masterpiece "Journey to the Malay Islands", which he wrote after visiting the Nanyang Islands, but he did not mention cannibalism. Therefore, most botanists tend to think that there may be no such plants in the world that can eat people.

Since botanists are not sure, how can there be the idea of man-eating plants? Adrian Shrek and others believe that it is most likely imagined and exaggerated based on the characteristics of carnivorous plants catching insects, or it may be misrepresented by some unverified legends. According to the current data, it is known that there is indeed a kind of carnivorous plants (also known as insectivorous plants) with unique behavior on the earth. they are distributed in countries all over the world, with a total of more than 500 species. among them, the most famous ones are bottle grass, pitcher plant and raccoon algae that catch underwater insects.