Plant monsters

A plant monster is a creature that is largely composed of vegetative matter. They often possess physical and biological characteristics similar to a plant, which may include the ability to project venom, the ability to cultivate mass via photosynthesis, and the ability to produce offspring as a plant might.

An off-shoot (or stem) of the generic plant monster is the much-beloved swamp monster. Swamp monsters are creatures that are born, bred and/or otherwise connected to the swamp. Though not always the most dominating form of monster in horror fiction, they have sloshed their way through the muck of time since the 1940s.


 * One of the most famous of fictional plant monsters is Audrey, Jr. - the man-eating plant from Roger Corman's 1960 dark comedy, The Little Shop of Horrors. A botanist named Seymour Krelboyne cultivated a special plant, which was a crossbreed between a Venus Flytrap and a butterwort. Upon discovering that his hybrid plant required blood for nourishment, Seymour began feeding it by pricking his own finger and letting the blood drip into Audrey's open petals. As the planet grew stronger, it also developed sentience and acquired the power of speech, commanding Seymour to follow his orders and to bring him living food, which Seymour does, by providing him with body parts from a man who had been run over by a train.


 * On the 1960s sitcom series The Addams Family, Morticia Addams maintained several carnivorous plants, including a quasi-sentient Venus Flytrap, which was kept inside the Addams' home.


 * In the 1990 film The Guardian, the evil Druidess known as Camilla evolved into a half-human/half-tree creature.


 * On Angel, the members of Angel Investigations, as well as the otherwordly warrior known as the Groosalugg discovered a subterranean tree demon, whose roots extended beneath the streets of Hollywood. The tree demon sustained itself via the life energy of human beings, and even captured Winifred Burkle and Charles Gunn. Angel and the Groosalugg went to rescue them and Angel allowed the tree demon to feed off of him, knowing that his lack of life energy would actually counteract the demon's power, thus destroying it.


 * The Syfy television series Z Nation experimented with different types of zombies, including zombie-plant hybrids, which developed in a greenhouse and called Batch 47.