xkcd: Dendrochronology

[Lynn McGuire]

xkcd: Dendrochronology
https://xkcd.com/2847/

Um, I am fairly sure that there was not a period of carnivorous trees in
1635. At least, I hope not.

Explained at:
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2847:_Dendrochronology

Lynn

[Ted Nolan <tednolan>]

In article <uhp5fn$kdab$3...@dont-email.me>,

They've featured in a number of SF stories.

Hmm, the Whomping Willow didn't actually ever eat the people it
killed, did it? (And yes, I know we never saw a death, but it wasn't
pulling any punches, there must have been some along the way..)
--
columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..

[Robert Carnegie]

On Monday, 30 October 2023 at 21:14:25 UTC, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
> In article <uhp5fn$kdab$3...@dont-email.me>,
> Lynn McGuire <lynnmc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >xkcd: Dendrochronology
> > https://xkcd.com/2847/
> >
> >Um, I am fairly sure that there was not a period of carnivorous trees in
> >1635. At least, I hope not.
> >
> >Explained at:
> > https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2847:_Dendrochronology
> >
> >Lynn
> They've featured in a number of SF stories.

And in _The Lord of the Rings_ - Tom Bombadil
rescues the hobbits from one.

Actual carnivorous plants settle for insects,
I think. There's an argument, though, that dead
animals at the foot of a tree are good fertilization.

I don't remember that the Krugg in Angus McAllister's
_The Krugg Syndrome_, alien trees conquering humans
by telepathy, are meat eaters. They do have animal
servants, and as I noted, blood and bone are good
for plants.

In Diane Duane's Star Trek original novel
_Doctor's Orders_ (1990), the commander of the
Enterprise - Dr McCoy, put there after sassing Kirk -
wants to discourage Klingons from raiding the
otherwise-developed planet while Kirk is on it,
so he says some Enterprise crew were eaten by
the trees which don't or perhaps do appreciate visitors.

[John W Kennedy]

One of the many changes in the 1939 movie is that the Fighting Trees are
aade little more than a comic interlude. In the book, they’re a sentry
corps, and if the Tin Woodman hadn’t been there, Dorothy’s party would
have had to walk around the entire forest. Could they be
anthropophagous? I don’t know.

Old Man Willow in the Old Forest.

--
John W. Kennedy
Algernon Burbage, Lord Roderick, Father Martin, Bishop Baldwin,
King Pellinore, Captain Bailey, Merlin -- A Kingdom for a Stage!

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <uhp5fn$kdab$3...@dont-email.me>,
Lynn McGuire <lynnmc...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Hal Heydt]
In Graydon Saunders "Commonweal" series you have eel trees that
will try to eat you. There is also screaming buttweed, a ground
cover that overcomes it's victims through phychic attaacks so
that the die and provide fertilizer. Plus various other plants
intended to be weapons. (It's a vicious ecology anywhere people
aren't actively suppressing inimical plants, animals, and
insects.)

[Harold Hill]

Steve Jackson's _The Fantasy Trip_ role playing game had Am Bushes, which launch pods that release a poison gas to try to kill animals that come close to serve as fertilizer.

[Hamish Laws]

On Tuesday, October 31, 2023 at 8:36:15 AM UTC+11, Robert Carnegie wrote:
> On Monday, 30 October 2023 at 21:14:25 UTC, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
> > In article <uhp5fn$kdab$3...@dont-email.me>,
> > Lynn McGuire <lynnmc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >xkcd: Dendrochronology
> > > https://xkcd.com/2847/
> > >
> > >Um, I am fairly sure that there was not a period of carnivorous trees in
> > >1635. At least, I hope not.
> > >
> > >Explained at:
> > > https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2847:_Dendrochronology
> > >
> > >Lynn
> > They've featured in a number of SF stories.
> And in _The Lord of the Rings_ - Tom Bombadil
> rescues the hobbits from one.
>
> Actual carnivorous plants settle for insects,
> I think.

It's not unknown for mice to end up in a pitcher plant's traps, searching on the web small reptiles aren't uncommon either and some of the aquatic plants catch small fish and tadpoles.