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Page 3
The Medieval bestiary's most truly monstrous plant is the infamous upas, or poison,tree, rumored among explorers to grow in Africa and Southeast Asia. The upas, unlike the barometz and the barnacle, was not unnatural in appearance, but its leaves and bark exuded an airborne toxin so potent that living things for miles around could be slain by its vapours. In the nineteenth century, the famous theosophist Helena Blavatsky, in describing the mythical upas as an emblem of deceit, characterizes it as exceptionally beautiful, although one has to wonder how close inspection of the tree would be possible. According to fourteenth century European travelers, criminals in Malaysia were often executed by means of the tree's poison.
It is likely that the factual upas was Antiaris toxicaria, a Southeast Asian plant which is poisonous, and has been used by the region's aboriginal people to poison arrow tips, but does not approach the spectacular lethality of the mythical tree.
Despite the range of folkloric plant-based creatures, it is interesting to note that the plant monsters best known to popular culture are, for the most part, entirely modern. 'The Swamp Thing', the animated trees featured in Baum's 'The Wizard of Oz' and Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings', "Audrey II" and other giant Venus Flytraps and the infamous "Triffids" all have very few overt folkloric sources. It appears that the corporeal plant monster, long neglected in favour of the less alien animal- or human-based fiend, has finally been granted the attention it deserves.
The copyright of the article Mythical Trees and Spirits of the Woods - Page 3 in Monster Legends is owned by . Permission to republish Mythical Trees and Spirits of the Woods - Page 3 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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