The myths of different peoples have long described plant monsters who do not hesitate to eat prey from flesh and blood, and the German scientist Klaus von Schwimmer personally had to face an African man-eating tree.
After such an event, experts concluded that it was brought by aliens on a ship from another planet during their visit to Earth. Our story begins in 1957, when an unusual message appeared in respected German publications regarding a representative of the flora that eats birds along with animals and people.
Readers' opinions were divided, as skeptics saw in him another duck of journalists, and the rest of the faces were sure of the real existence of this monster. After much debate, the eyes of scientists and researchers turned to the author of the article, who was often seen in a coffee shop. He had to tell in detail about a dangerous expedition to the central part of the continent, where the mysterious city of Mujang was located near the Copombo River.
Previously, safari lovers often mentioned this place, surrounded by the jungle, where there was a lot of game, and the locals warmly greeted the guests. But scientists rarely visited this corner, preferring to bypass the territory and explore other African regions. Such stories only piqued the curiosity of one businessman who, due to his old age, could not go on a trip himself, but was ready to finance a group that agreed to travel a long way.
Our hero had an excellent reputation as a hunter and biologist studying rare species of flora and fauna, so the patron was quite happy with his candidacy, after which the specialist, along with five colleagues and twenty porters from the Baroste tribe, ended up in the mysterious forests. The morning of a new day brought along with the wind an unusual aroma of spices, not typical for tropical plants.
People immediately took this signal with caution, but then it turned out that each member of the group felt their favorite tastes of the products. The smell beckoned them to go into the depths of the forest, after which they all moved in that direction. Soon a 100-meter glade appeared before the eyes of the expedition, where a single tree, resembling a banyan tree, grew.
In addition to the trunk, many vines were seen here, entangling the branches, but then the unbearable aroma simply pushed the witnesses of the event to come closer to this miracle and step onto the lawn, despite the intuition shouting to them about danger. Then a clear order to sleep under a crown with whitening soil arose in my head, but the scientist through binoculars saw human skulls there along with the remains of animals. He realized that it was a terrible trap for unwary victims, after which he struck his companions, who were ready to obey the plant killer, and then the men closed their nostrils and moved away from him.
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The shocked German decided to check how this cannibal would react to legal prey. He decided to choose a bird-shaped bait and shot it with a gun. The vulture crashed down near the feet of the man who threw it towards the enemy. Suddenly the vines began to stir and dragged him inside. Further events shocked even seasoned hunters, because after a light snack, the tree decided to continue its bloody meal.
One branch threw itself forward and wrapped around the body of a person, wanting to drag him to itself. The comrades quickly chopped off her with a machete and went to the camp, but after a while they heard the eerie cry of their African porter, who was in the very center of a living ball of vines. Only the shoulders and head were visible from this mass, but the resistance and desire to get out of the clutches of death did not lead to the result. The victim hid under new branches creeping from a height, so people decided to burn the killer, despite the scientist's weak arguments regarding the scientific discovery.
In the morning, the group plugged their noses with resin balls and, having collected brushwood, began to implement the plan. She lit armfuls, and then threw them into a tree, which shoots out its tentacles in response to the attack, and then a terrible stench spread around. The battle with the plant monster ended only in the evening after only a layer of ash was left of it. People put its location on the map and went home, but many questions remained unanswered.
How could an ordinary representative of the flora create the illusion of different smells? Perhaps a complex organism was behind this, and this served only as a decoy for a psychic attack on the victims. Some heard the aromas of cheeses, while others recognized meat or strawberries, but the secret of the monster died with him. Colleagues took up arms against the researcher who destroyed such a valuable specimen, and also accused him of lying.
During the trial, the members of the expedition under oath confirmed such facts, and then the Australian professor de Gross was able to talk with the natives and get identical information. The new expedition found a clearing with the bones of victims, which became powerful evidence of the discovery of a scientist who, after such an adventure, was invited to lead tempting projects. He refused the temptation, and the country's authorities preferred to close the dangerous territory from people.
The researchers did not even doubt that the tree was brought here from outer space, and then its spores sprouted on the earth's soil. Now many of them do not lose hope of finding an analogue in other places of the planet, inaccessible to mankind.