by Cole Herrold
In the pages of the unknown, there is a constant stream of cases or accounts that indicate multiple origins to the phenomenon. Bigfoot is a classic example as there is the cryptozoological approach of a physical animal, the Ufological approach where there appear to be reports of bigfoot and UFOs at the same time or in some connection to each other, and then there is the interdimensional aspect where some individuals have claimed that bigfoot has phased out of reality, turned into a ball of light, or cloaked itself. The Loveland Frogmen are another case that mixes both Ufology and Cryptozoology as the 55' reports of wand tech-wielding, and baggy pants-wearing creatures are connected to reports of very biologically behaving humanoid frogs. These cases are often confusing when trying to look at them from a physical cryptozoological standpoint, and most researchers who do tend to take these accounts seriously often claim that they are separate entities bigfoot, bigfoot type aliens, frogmen, and aliens that look similar, etc. This tends to be where I stand on this phenomenon as often there are extreme differences in appearances and behavior compared to the earthbound phenomenon.
Often times a cryptid case is later on included into Ufological or some other Fortean lore, but on occasion, the opposite will occur. One particular case of this variety is a cult favorite Ufological topic known as the Vegetable Man. The original account came from Gray Barker and was covered in Brad Steiger's book Alien Meetings. The Vegetable Man was a bizarre, assumedly extraterrestrial visitor that communicated in a bizarre high-pitched whining recordesque telepathic manner and had an extremely bizarre appearance. It had large ears, big, slanted eyes that had yellow and red swirls in it, similar to a stereotypical hypnotist tool. It was extremely thin with long arms which had fingers tipped with stingers and suckers. IT had large feet capable of making great distance and, in many sketches of the beast, a long carrot-like body. The creature was allegedly wounded or suffering from some need and proceeded to use its sucker-like fingers to drain the blood of a Jennings Frederick before running off at high speed.
This case has always been one of my favorites for just how unique and bizarre it was, and I always wanted to hear about more cases of similar creatures. When traversing on one of my many trips to West Virginia, I had come across another case in a place already known for a monster. It was in the Mothman Museum at Point Pleasant that I came across a quaint little book called Monsters and Ghosts of West Virginia by Erin Turner and Isaac McKinnon. The book essentially was a throwback to the books I read as a kid by Daniel Cohen books which were aimed at children yet covered all the classic and great cases of the unknown. I had purchased it for my Cryptozoology collection and Fortean Library and, upon flipping through it, found it to be a great little book for kids to get into the world of the unknown. As I flipped through the pages, I saw that they included a page on the Veggie Man. Thinking it to be the classic case, I began to read the story, but to my shock and absolute glee, it was not a rehash of the classic encounter, but in fact, the author's own encounter with the leafy liaison.
The Veggie Man, as the author came to call it, was sighted in the most appropriate place possible for a traveling turnip, and that was in his/her own garden. (The exact account does not state which author encountered the beast, but I am inclined to believe it was Erin Turner). It was on a warm day when the author was out enjoying his/her garden when she/he noticed some weeds attempting to stake an assault on the garden. Not going to let some shrub soldiers stand in the health of his/her garden, she/he proceeded to bend down and pull out the plaintive plant. As she/he managed to yank and remove the root and stem of this would-be conqueror, her/his eyes were drawn to something moving in between the stalks of Sunflowers. His/her attention was drawn to this strange development, for as she/he looked, it appeared as though some strange plant had made root in-between the rows of sunflowers. The remarkable part, however, was the size of it as this huge herb was almost as tall as his/her sunflowers which were between 6 and 10ft tall. This plant was easily 7ft tall and shadowed over him/her, almost as though it was trying to blend in with the local flora. The author began to try to determine what kind of plant it was. The "stalk" of it appeared to be quite thick, and even if one would try to grab it, they could not touch the back of the stalk with two hands. The stalk had two long branches which dangled down and ended in two separate finger-like vine projections. As the author stared at this anomaly, panic gripped him/her as the fact that a huge plant like this could not have just grown without his/her knowledge, and it looked like no known plant he/she had ever seen, adding even more to the mystery.
The author, slightly terrified by the unknown that stood before him/her yet still curious, slowly pushed himself/herself up and began to slowly make his/her way through the homemade green jungle. As he/she began to slowly make her/his way to the plant, he/she noticed an eruption in the sunflowers they began to shake wildly. The green plant began to shake and shimmy and what she/he had thought was a stalk revealed to be not a single piece of plant but two legs that had been standing so close together it bore the impression of a single stalk. The plant realizing its camouflage failed, began to make its way through the field of sunflowers taking great strides and its tendrilled arms swung like a persons or like the vegetative equivalent of Paddy the bigfoot from the Patterson-Gimlin Film. The creature moved with incredible speed and proceeded to race through the forest of flowers until it arrived at the woodland on the other side. The author, following the bizarre beast, watched as it made its way to its old-growth brethren and stopped. It was at this moment that she/he realized this strange figure had two large yellowish golden eyes and that it was staring at him/her. From there, it returned to the wilderness to disappear into the forest. The author stood there unbelieving at the strange anomaly he/she bore witness to and was slowly processing the fullness of the events that occurred. With shaken legs, he/she eventually returned to her/his house and began to try to figure out what she was seen by searching the bizarre beast on the internet. The only thing she came close to connecting it with is the Vegetable Man seen by Frederick.
Aside from the Vegetable Man, which is linked to the world of Ufology, vegetative humanoids are a rarity in the world of cryptozoology and just as rare in the worlds of folklore and myth, yet they do occur. The most well-known of these varieties of creatures can be found in the Harry Potter franchise yet predates the young adult series all the way back to the writings of Pliny the Elder. The mandrake is a humanoid plant that, when removed and uprooted, unleashes a cry that can kill an individual upon hearing it. The mandrake was sought after by ancient healers and those in dire need of medical aid because the creature had incredible healing abilities. The creature could be turned into various ointments, salves, and juices to cure ailments such as headaches, pain in the ears, gout, epilepsy, cramps, and colds. It's understandable why these creatures were so sought after, especially with such abilities.
Another creature of the vegetable variety is the Naree Pon of Thailand. These creatures first came to my attention when binging Destination Truth. It was in the episode “Thai Tree People/Ayia Napa Monster” that I was first made aware of these bizarre humanoid plants. What was more interesting was the specimens that were displayed in a particular Buddhist monastery. They looked like fetal humans for the most part that had been dried out and mummified, except their heads were shaped in a bizarre way, almost like the bulbs of a plant. Their alleged origin comes from Buddhist beliefs that they were made to distract lustful hermits and yogis who could potentially assault the god Indra's wife. While specifics on sightings are slim on the show, a very ambiguous encounter was recounted by potential eyewitness Walin Bartley who felt that a strange creature she saw beneath a tree was, in fact, the Naree Pon.
The Moss Man of Florida, not related to the He-Man character, is another potential arboreal abomination. This creature had a greenish-gray Spanish moss-like humanoid body that reached heights of around 7ft tall and bore glowing amber-colored eyes, and stalked the beaches and swamps of Red Reef Park, West Palm Beach, and Hillsboro Beach. The creature was seen multiple times in the 70s and 80s, often slinking around the swamps or relaxing on the beach before being spotted by eyewitnesses.
While similar plant people have been sighted, it still raises the questions of how this could occur and what they could be. There has never been anything close to an animal-plant hybrid aside from the so-called carnivorous plants, which adapted to an insect-based diet to help with the lack of nitrogen in their environment. The idea of moving, the assumedly sentient plant, is something on a whole different level. Plants will move to certain resources sunflowers, for example, will follow the movement of the sun, yet sunflowers will not uproot themselves and move to an entirely different location as the Veggie Man did. This is something of a much more complex evolution than anything we have seen before.
This case is exceptionally interesting on an evolutionary level, for it raises so many questions. Many of which we currently can not answer and are left to simply hypothesize and scratch our heads. I have always been a big proponent that there are countless creatures that are offshoots of evolution. When looking at prehistoric mammals, sharks, and dinosaurs, the amount of absurd creations is astronomical and to assume that such things could not occasionally happen in our lifetime is slightly presumptive. We recently have discovered fish that are taking steps to become terrestrial and birds that have essentially risen from the dead thanks to evolution. Why is it that other organisms, through some mutation, not necessarily a breeding population of a species, but a mere fluke organism or pocket of organisms could not occur? Stranger things have happened, and it's much more plausible than to say these creatures pop in from other dimensions or land on planet earth for no real apparent reason.
While the Fortean in me truly wants to connect the Veggie Man seen by the author of Monsters and Ghosts of West Virginia and the Vegetable Man cataloged by Gray Barker, there are a variety of distinctions that seem to illustrate two different creatures. It could be possible that this could be a juvenile and the Vegetable Man was the adult variant or that the Veggie Man was actually a Veggie Woman and the Vegetable Man was the Male of the species. Yet while I can't rule this out, the Vegetable Man case seemed to indicate something of a human level or advanced intelligence even if it is not of extraterrestrial origin as opposed to the Veggie Man who seemed to behave in a shy, reluctant manner, not unlike an animal. If this is an animal, it would have the perfect camouflage to avoid humans since how often do we actually observe our surroundings. There could be tons of these creatures in our parks and forests hiding in plain sight, and we would never know, and perhaps that would be the best.
Quick Facts:
Species/ Potential Species: Plant/ Insectivorous plant?
Location: West Virginia
Sighted: Unspecified
Works Cited:
Monsters and Ghosts of West Virginia by Erin Turner and Isaac McKinnon
“Mandrake”. Medieval Bestiary. http://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast1098.htm
“Naree Pon “.Cryptid Wiki. https://cryptidz.fandom.com/wiki/Naree_pon
Destination Truth “Thai Tree People/ Ayia Napa Monster”. Syfy. April 12, 2011.
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