A Kite-Eating Tree is a
deciduous tree of indeterminate type. According to Charlie Brown,
it is impossible to tell a kite-eating tree from non-kite-eating
trees by sight until it catches a kite in its branches, which it
slowly devours. Charlie Brown often envisioned such a tree with a
huge grin on its "face".
Many of the kites that Charlie Brown attempted to fly were eaten by
a particular Kite-Eating Tree, which he frequently engaged in
one-sided dialogue. Once Lucy van Pelt threw Schroeder's piano into
the Kite-Eating Tree, which it also ate, proving that the
phenomenon was not simply a product of Charlie Brown's
imagination.
Apparently the Kite-Eating Tree can even distinguish between
different "flavors" of kites; in a 1982 strip, Charlie Brown
wonders what "flavor" kite he should give the tree this year, and
finally settles on lemon, since he took strawberry the year
before.
Linus shows great concern because of the tree's presence, wondering
what kind of world he was living in that a Kite-Eating Tree could
exist. Later that year, Lucy threatens to throw Linus' blanket into
the tree; not long afterwards, she actually did.
Charlie Brown once
threatened the Kite-Eating Tree that if it took a bite out of his
kite, he would bite it, which he did, thus getting himself in
trouble with the Environmental Protection Agency. He ran away to
avoid being sent to jail and became the coach of a baseball team of
very small children. Later, Linus van Pelt convinced Charlie Brown
that it was safe to come home, because the tree had fallen over in
a rainstorm; nonetheless, the Kite-Eating Tree, or another of its
species, later returned.
Stop 1 of 4: The
cache is a matchstick container tethered in a Kite-Eating Tree.