Cultural Depictions
Carnivorous plants have long been the subject of popular interest and exposition, much of it highly inaccurate. Fictional plants have been featured in a number of books, movies, television series, and video games. Typically, these fictional depictions include exaggerated characteristics, such as enormous size or possession of abilities beyond the realm of reality, and can be viewed as a kind of artistic license. The most famous examples of fictional carnivorous plants in popular culture include the 1960s black comedy The Little Shop of Horrors, the triffids of John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids, and others. Other movies, such as The Hellstrom Chronicle (1971), and television series utilize accurate depictions of carnivorous plants for cinematic purposes.
The earliest known depiction of carnivorous plants in popular culture was a case where a large man-eating tree was reported to have consumed a young woman in Madagascar in 1878, as witnessed by Dr. Carl Liche. Liche reported the events in the South Australian Register in 1881. The woman, pictured in an accompanying artwork, was supposed to have been a member of the Mkodos, a "little known but cruel tribe". The account has been debunked as pure myth as it appears Dr. Liche, the Mkodos, and the tree were all fabrications.
Read more about this topic: Carnivorous Plant
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