Monster Plants and the Humans who Invent Them | Monstrum

For millennia humans have turned to plants to heal the sick and wounded, to ward against evil, and grant magical powers. But what happens when plants themselves become conscious, and turn killers?

The world is full of monsters, myths, and legends and Monstrum isn’t afraid to take a closer look. The show, hosted by Emily Zarka, Ph.D., takes us on a journey to discover a new monster in each new episode. Monstrum looks at humans' unique drive to create and shape monster mythology through oral storytelling, literature, and film and digs deep into the history of those mythologies.

For audio descriptions, go to Settings - Audio Track - English Descriptive.

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Written and Hosted by: Dr. Emily Zarka
Director: David Schulte
Executive Producer: Amanda Fox
Producer: Thomas Fernandes
Editor/Animator: P.W. Shelton
Illustrator: Samuel Allan
Executive in Charge (PBS): Maribel Lopez
Director of Programming (PBS): Gabrielle Ewing
Additional Footage: Shutterstock
Music: APM Music

Descriptive Audio & Captions provided by The Described and Captioned Media Program

Produced by Spotzen for PBS Digital Studios.

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Bibliography

Chang, Elizabeth Hope. Novel Cultivations: Plants in British Literature of the Global Nineteenth Century, University of Virginia Press, 2019.

Darwin, Erasmus. The botanic garden, part II. containing the loves of the plants, a poem. With philosophical notes. Volume the second. J. Jackson, 1789.

Emboden, William A. Bizarre Plants: magical, monstrous, and mythical. Macmillan Publishing Co., 1974.

Foersch, N. P. "Natural History of the BOHON-UPAS, Or POISON-TREE of the Island of JAVA." The New Wonderful Magazine and Marvellous Chronicle, vol. 2, no. 13, 1794, pp. 79-86.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “Rappaccini’s Daughter.”

Howe, Andrew. “Monstrous Flora: Dangerous Cinematic Plants of the Cold War Era.” The Green Thread: Dialogues with the Vegetal World, edited by Patrícia Vieira, et al., Lexington Books, 2015, pp. 147-164.

Miller, T.S. “Plants, Monstrous.” The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters, edited by Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, Ashgate Publishing, 2014.

Lehner, Ernst and Johanna. Folklore and Symbolism of Flowers, Plants, and Trees. Tudor Publishing Company, 1960.

Marsden, William. The history of Sumatra, containing an account of the government, laws, customs, and manners of the native inhabitants, with a description of the natural productions, and a relation of the ancient political state of that island. By William Marsden, ... Printed for the author, and sold by Thomas Payne and Son; Benjamin White; James Robson; P. Elmsly; Leigh and Sotheby; and J. Sewell, 1783.

Swift, Jonathan. The Wonderful magazine, and marvellous chronicle; or, New weekly entertainer. A work recording authentic accounts of the most extraordinary productions, events, and occurrences, in providence, nature, and art. ... Vol. 2, C. Johnson, no. 14, 1793.

Miller, T. S. “Lives of the Monster Plants: The Revenge of the Vegetable in the Age of Animal Studies.” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, vol. 23, no. 3 (86), 2012, pp. 460.

Miller, T.S. “Plants, Monstrous.” The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters, edited by Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, Ashgate Publishing, 2014.

Price, Cheryl Blake. “Vegetable Monsters: Man-Eating Trees in Fin-de-Siécle Fiction.” Victorian Literature and Culture, vol. 41, no. 2, 2013, pp. 311–27.

Ryan, John Charles. “Tolkien’s Sonic Trees and Perfumed Herbs: Plant Intelligence in Middle-earth.” The Green Thread: Dialogues with the Vegetal World, edited by Patrícia Vieira, et al., Lexington Books, 2015, pp. 37–58.

Swift, Jonathan. The Wonderful magazine, and marvellous chronicle; or, New weekly entertainer. A work recording authentic accounts of the most extraordinary productions, events, and occurrences, in providence, nature, and art. ... Vol. 2, C. Johnson, no. 14, 1793.

“The Vampire Vine.” The Review of Reviews. United Kingdom, Office of the Review of Reviews, 1891.

Williams Jericho. “An Inscrutable Malice: The Silencing of Humanity in The Ruins and The Happening.” Plant Horror: Approaches to the Monstrous Vegetal in Fiction and Film, edited by Dawn Keetley and Angela Tenga, Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2016, pp. 227-242.

[Mrtfarrugia]

I remember using killer plants to defend my house from a horde of zombies.

[konradklukowski]

Now we need a episode on all the flesh abominations/Things/mutated cancer blobs/etc. This type of monster beacame popular in recent times and it made me curious where the whole idea where it came from.

[jackielinde]

I'm watching this and thinking, "This has got to piss off the Dynamite Tree and the Manchineel Tree. Both are real live man killers."

[shoesncheese]

I grew up on the southern United States and we had the invasive species Kudzu which absorbs abandoned cars, telephone poles, and even homes. A simple image search online will show you how invasive it really is. Under ideal conditions, kudzu can grow one foot per day.
"Invasion of the Body Snatchers", "Day of the Triffids", and both "Little Shop of Horrors" movies were favorites of my childhood.

[pellaz]

The Little Shop of Horrors is the definitive movie that started my obsession for collecting pitcher plants and venus flytraps. The DC comic's Swamp Thing is another plant/environment-themed monster hero. I grew up reading the comics and watching the movies.

[jackofallclaws]

I really hope we get a Voodoo Dolls episode in this series. Mainly because it would be a great semi-sequel to the Haitian Zombies episode. Actually, maybe this could probably be expanded into a new trilogy of videos. The first one Voodoo Dolls, the second one Killer/Living Dolls and the final episode could be Robots.

[-zorkaz-]

Those nightmarish plants from The Ruins are worth mentioning - just terrifying. The Vegetable Lambs of Tartary, Sachamamas, Yeduas and Stray Sods are examples of less aggressive but older plant based creatures, but in Japanese mythology I believe there is more than one example of man-eating tree yōkai that grow on the blood-soaked soil of battlefields. Anyway, great videos as always! Such an awesome approach to exploring monsters ... can't wait for the next one!

[TheHornedKing]

I like the Blights from DnD. Sentient, monsterous plants that originate from a stake used to kill a vampire, which was then corrupted by the vampire's blood and spawned this tree which then spawns these Blight plants, which in a way are kinda like undead plants, which I think is really cool. They really just want what all plants want, but goes about it in a way that will quickly transform the land into a corrupted, overgrown, toxic hellscape.

[jacobshore]

Neat how you mentioned Piranha Plants! (I think more along the lines of Zelda’s Deku Babas myself, but Piranha plants are probably more famous.)

[Professor_Fate]

"Maneater of Hydra" -- Best ever movie about the love between a man and his genetically modified vampire tree.

[AdamYJ]

Don't forget some of the human-shaped, plant-based swamp monsters from popular culture. Still often considered monsters, but not always antagonists. There's the monster in Theodore Sturgeon's short story "It". As well as comic book characters like The Heap, Swamp Thing and the Man-Thing.

[crypto]

We used to have a big duhat tree at home, and it certainly was very monstrous in how it covered our yard in a purple blanket of pulp and seed every summer. Slipping and falling was a very real danger.

[FlyingFocs]

I think my first exposure to killer plants was in Jumanji. And considering it was the big yellow one trying to eat Peter that made me realize WHY I stopped watching when I was younger, it must've really left an impression.

[sojoboscribe]

Correction, The plant is only called Audrey Jr. in the FIRST movie. In the Broadway and 1986 movie based on it, the plant is Audrey II.

Also, in the first movie, the plant has an additional power, it can hypnotize people when they refuse to help it voluntarily.

And, of course, most people know the 1986 movie originally DID end with the plant winning (same as the Broadway play) but audiences didn't like that ending, so they hastily make a new one.

[BelartWright]

Resident Evil had the infamous Plant 42. Sentient plants are always terrifying.

[discordfan]

One monstrous plant that comes to my mind (other than Audrey II) is the Tree from Junji Ito's "Splatter Film". In that story, a group of people have been taking honey from a tree from South America that was worshipped as a god. When they eat too much of the honey, they're literally squashed like bugs. The tree's branch is so long, it can reach anywhere in the world, and eating its honey is like a mosquito drinking blood from people.

[renecorrea]

I would like all these chapters to be in the future season of Monstrum.
*Sea Serpents
*Leviathan
*The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow ✅
*Phantom Vehicles
*Boogeyman
*Ghosts
*Possessed Dolls
*Shadow People
*Undead
*Goblins
*Bigfoot
*Man-Eating Plants ✅
*Killer Clowns
*Killer Robots
*Swamp Monsters
*The Mummy
*Scarecrows
*The Invisible Man
*Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
*Merfolk
*Demons
*Skeletons
*Jack O'Lantern
*Gnomes
*Sea Monsters that attacked Submarines
*Alien Abductions ✅
*Ogres
*Ghouls
*Lich
*Cyborgs
*Witches
*Kaiju
*Cthulhu ✅
*The Rake

[hunterGk]

I had forgotten that this used to be a thing, I loved Little Shop of Horrors as a kid! And there was an 80's cartoon called Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors where the bad guys were evil plants, it was awesome. Then my English teacher played Day of the Triffids in class (Video day!!). Thank you, Storied, for throwing me back there and educating me at the same time 😅

[eomguel]

'They grow much faster than bamboo. Take care or they'll come after you'
- Jumanji, 1995

[allenellisdewitt]

7:15 I'm not saying there wasn't racism, but from a narrative stand-point, it makes more sense to introduce a plant from somewhere that the reader has never been/seen if you want it to be otherworldly. "Oh, this is a flower that grows here in London... you've just never seen it... and it eats lots of people... don't know why no one has ever talked about it before..." It's just better story telling, no need to search for more if there isn't any present.