Episode 45: Stranger Sacrifices & Eldritch Ethnobotany- Yateveo

Hello and welcome back to another episode of Rooted! This week we are digging into something a little out-of-the-norm, The Man Eating Tree…also known as the Yateveo or “I see you” tree. 

Native to madagascar, the Yateveo was said to be an absolute horror of the jungle, which terrorized the Mkodo tribe for centuries upon centuries, eating both their friends AND their enemies with seemingly no rhyme or reason. 

 You may be wondering what a man-eating tree looks like, and well, who could blame you…so Imagine if you will a MASSIVE 8 foot tall pineapple with 8 long pointy serpent-like branches that are covered in poisonous toothy barbs- perfect for snatching and strangling it’s victims. If that isn’t conjuring enough eldritch horror  for you, the tree itself also apparently wipers “ Yate Veo” or “I see you” to lure those wandering around the area close enough to snare them into their thorny grasp before ripping them to pieces and lowering them into its trunk. 

While there was only one tree large enough to actually snack on people, the forest was saif to be littered with plenty of tiny little yacca- like growths working their way up to that size, snatching lemurs and leap frogs left and right as they got bigger and bigger through the years. 

For about 15 years in the 1910’s and 20’s this tree was talk of the town…or really, every small town across the country, as pretty much every paper published snippets of the same story by famed adventurer Karl Leche. These snippets were so inspiring that they led international man of intrigue and eventual 27th  governor of Michigan Chase Osborn to go on a months long expedition across madagascar where he searched and searched for the tree…only to come home empty handed- but that didn’t stop him from publishing his tell all tale “Madagascar: Land of the Man-eating Tree, “ to spread the word far and wide about this stranger ensnaring tree. 

However, Osborn wasn’t the only person to never see the tree. In fact, NO ONE ever saw the tree, but it wasn't until 1955 smash hit Salamanders and other Wonders by Willy Ley that we could all finally admit to ourselves that they weren’t real, with Ley Writing “ The facts are pretty clear by now. Of course the man eating tree does not exist. There is no such tribe.” ouch, our collective myth loving hearts. 

While the man-eating tree turned out to be nothing more than a myth, it shall live on forever in our hearts as a grand example of the brutality and beauty of nature, and the importance of doing proper research. 

That’s all I’ve got for this week, but I’ll be back next week with a real plant to dig into!