Carnivorous Plants And You

You could be here!

I recently saw an excellent exhibit of carnivorous plants at the local nature preserve. And
now I have something else to be afraid of. Who knew there were so many carnivorous plants? Below is some general information from Wikipedia.

Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans typically insects and other arthropods.

Charles Darwin wrote Insectivorous Plants, the first well-known treatise on carnivorous plants, in 1875.

True carnivory is thought to have evolved independently six times in five different orders of flowering plants, and these are now represented by more than a dozen genera. These include about 630 species that attract and trap prey, produce digestive enzymes, and absorb the resulting available nutrients.

Pitcher plants just hanging out enjoying the day (or so you think).

Five basic trapping mechanisms are found in carnivorous plants.

Pitfall traps (pitcher plants) trap prey in a rolled leaf that contains a pool of digestive enzymes or bacteria.
Flypaper traps use a sticky mucilage.
Snap traps utilize rapid leaf movements.
Bladder traps suck in prey with a bladder that generates an internal vacuum.
Lobster-pot traps force prey to move towards a digestive organ with inward-pointing hairs.

These traps may be active or passive, depending on whether movement aids the capture of prey. For example, Triphyophyllum is a passive flypaper that secretes mucilage, but whose leaves do not grow or move in response to prey capture. Meanwhile, sundews are active flypaper traps whose leaves undergo rapid acid growth, which is an expansion of individual cells as opposed to cell division. The rapid acid growth allows the sundew tentacles to bend, aiding in the retention and digestion of prey.

The sundew species Drosera glanduligera employs a unique trapping mechanism with features of both flypaper and snap traps; this has been termed a catapult-flypaper trap.