Peggy Lynn Gray, age 10, of Victor, West Virginia, for her question:

Is it true that there are man eating plants?

Lots of people have heard tell of the man eating tree of Madagascar. Some who enjoy hair raising monster stories are curious about a man eating cactus and several other people eating plants of this type. The truth is, all of these hungry horrors are created entirely from the human imagination. There are no huge, man eating plants of this sort lurking anywhere in the world. None at all. Those we hear about were invented by the writers of tall tales and the makers of hairy scary monster movies. So don't believe a word of it. There are, however, a few small meat eating plants. They live in poor soil and trap insects to supplement their diets. The small sundew holds out leaves like fists of gooey flypaper. The graceful pitcher plant may trap a grasshopper. But chances are, such a bid meal would be fatal to the plant as well as to the grasshopper. Insect eating plants trap and digest nothing bigger than small bugs. Other members of the plant world attack us with their thorns and assorted snags, and certain parasite plants invade our bodies. But no monstrous people eating plan exists.