A Definitive List Of History’s Creepiest Cryptids — And Where They Allegedly Live
The Ya-Te-Veo
The idea of man-eating plants has been utilized in plenty of modern media, like the 1986 movie Little Shop of Horrors. It isn’t a completely far-fetched idea — after all, species like the Venus flytrap show that carnivorous plants exist. Taking that idea to the extreme is simply good entertainment.
However, an 1874 New York World article written by a purported German explorer named Karl Leche claimed that man-eating plants were real.
According to Leche — who was actually the author Edmund Spencer writing under a pseudonym — he met a tribe known as the Mkodo when he was exploring Madagascar. While he was with the tribe, Leche claimed to have witnessed a bizarre ritual sacrifice in which the tribe offered up a human to a carnivorous tree. The bloodthirsty plant then devoured the sacrifice.
Though the Madagascar tale was eventually confirmed to be a hoax, a different book by author James W. Buel, Sea and Land, had already introduced the public to another story of the man-eating tree in 1889. This one was given the name ya-te-veo, and this legendary plant not only appeared in Africa but also Central and South America.
The ya-te-veo name endured, and terrified those who believed in it, as it supposedly used its long branches to catch unsuspecting prey, including insects, bigger animals like horses, and humans who got too close to it.