The search for rumored creatures such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster is called “cryptozoology” (the word means “the study of hidden animals”). Most “cryptozoologists” are not scientists but writers and enthusiasts who collect, share, and speculate about monster legends.
Now, a plant that captured and ate human beings would certainly qualify as a monster! So it isn’t surprising that cryptozoology books also tell tales of “cryptobotany” (“the study of hidden plants”). The most famous of these plant-monster yarns is the so-called “man-eating tree of Madagascar” (a vast tropical island off the east coast of Africa).
The claimed “man-eating tree” of Madagascar, called l'arbre anthropophage (“the cannibal tree”) in french. This was the cover illustration for the September 8, 1878 issue of a french magazine titled Journal des Voyages et des Aventures de Terre et de Mer (“Expedition Journal: Adventures on Land and Sea”)