ATTACK OF THE KILLER PLANTS
In 1878, three years after Charles Darwin first published his thesis on insectivorous plants, it was reported that a young woman in Madagascar had been devoured by a “man-eating tree”.
The sensational story, which circulated widely and was even published here in Australia, was easily debunked — yet carnivorous plants still enjoy a notoriety far beyond their relatively modest reallife appetites.
Unlike John Wyndham’s fearsome triffids or the voracious Audrey Jr in The Little Shop of Horrors, most leafy carnivores lead quiet, unassuming lives in the bogs and swamps of every continent except Antarctica and bother few creatures bar the very tiniest.
Carnivorous plants evolved to survive in acidic,
