Surely many have heard about flowers eating animals and insects. Today, science knows about several hundred such plants. To characterize them, terms such as “carnivorous flowers” or simply “predatory plants” are used. Most of them feed on small insects, but there are specimens that can even digest a frog.
There are also house plants that feed on insects. Fans of predator flowers claim that their pet does an excellent job of fighting mosquitoes and flies, significantly reducing the population.
What are these plants and why did they become insectivores?
Such flowers can be found on all continents except Antarctica. Most of them are herbaceous perennial plants. They belong to two families– Bubbly and Sundew. Plant predators are also found in the countries of the CIS. Some of them, for example, Alpine butterfly, are listed in the Red Book of their countries.
These plants feed on insects steel in the process of evolution. Most of them settle on poor soils where there is a lack of nitrogen and other vital substances. Thus, by eating insects, they receive the necessary nutrition. In the process of evolution, the ability to digest animal protein was developed, and the flowers themselves acquired a lot of qualities that could attract attention. Many of these plants have a smell that insects associate with honey nectar, and they use the peculiar color of leaves and flowers as a distracting maneuver.
There are predators whose inflorescence grows in the form of a water lily. It collects water when it rains, like a cup, and remains in excellent shape for a long time. Attracted by the opportunity to drink water, the unfortunate insects land on the petal and slide down to the bottom of the bowl. After the victim drowns, the plant's juice enters the process, which in its action resembles gastric juice.
The process of catching a gullible insect looks like this. As soon as a bee or butterfly lands on the petals, the hairs with enzymes enter into the hunting process. The structure of the petal has a lot of traps that can reliably hold an insect and it is almost impossible to escape from the bait. Special enzymes containing poison kill the victim, and the juices from his body flow into the plant tissue. All that remains of the insect is its chitinous shell, which cannot be digested.
However, protein food for predators is only a source of microelements missing in the soil, because photosynthesis remains the main nutrition.
Carnivorous plants
There are about one hundred thousand plants that eat insects in the world. Let's look at the most famous of them.
Genlisey
Genlisea's habitat is South America and Africa. The herbaceous plant has traps in the form of a spiral. Thanks to the fibers inside the trap, the insect is held for further absorption. It is noteworthy that only those leaves that grow below, along the surface of the earth, are carnivorous. They feed on small insects and simple microorganisms, acting as roots, while the upper leaves are absolutely safe.
Darlingtonia
An unusual insectivorous plant in the form of a bulb. In the process of evolution, it formed sharp petals in the form of animal fangs. For hunting, Darlingtonia uses a special claw. Outwardly, it looks like an asymmetrical flower with fibers inside. An insidious predator uses its color to lure its prey, which confuses the insect with the help of bright spots on the surface.
Insectivorous plants with water lily traps
- Nepenthes.
- Cephalotus saccular.
- Sarracenia.
Nepenthes
It, like many insectivorous plants, has petals in the form of a water lily. There are at least one hundred and twenty species of this plant. Some of them are quite large and can even eat small mammals, such as mice. Nepenthes is widespread in Asia, Australia and India. Monkeys use this flower as a source of water. This is why the aborigines nicknamed Nepenthes “monkey bowl.” It grows in the form of a vine with a small root system.
Bucket-shaped flowers always contain water. Insects that land on a water lily simply drown in it, and then the gastric juice of the plant enters the process.
Cephalotus saccular
Large strong water lilies with teeth at the edges they attract insects with the help of a specific smell. The surface of the water lilies itself is smooth and the victim easily slips to the bottom of the inflorescence, from which it is no longer possible to get out. Most often, large tropical ants become victims.
Sarracenia
It can only be found in the northern USA and Canada. The carnivorous Sarracenia catches its prey using water lily-shaped inflorescences. Digestive juice is formed on the petals, which are reliably protected from moisture. It attracts insects with its specific smell, reminiscent of nectar. Sat on the surface petal, the victim is paralyzed by the instantly released narcotic poison.
Insectivorous plants that live in water
- Suction bubble.
- Bubble Aldrovanda.
These predators prefer to live in swampy areas where there is plenty of food for them in the form of mosquitoes and swamp flies.
Suction bubble
This insectivorous plant can be found in many parts of our planet. It is absent, perhaps, only in the Far North. With the power of bubbles, which are hollow inside, the bubble sucks in its victim. Since the plant lives in water, water fleas and tadpoles become its prey. The process of catching prey is very fast and efficient. A small vacuum cleaner tries to suck up everything that floats past with water, and then releases it, leaving everything you need for yourself.
Bubbly Aldrovanda
Lives in water, and prefers swampy areas where there are many insects and tadpoles . Thread-like stems, located in the water, form dense growth. The bristles are elongated, and the crustacean plates have swellings. Thanks to these swellings, Aldrovanda senses the victim and instantly collapses it. The digestion process takes longer, at the end of which only the shell remains of the insect.
Most predator plants prefer to catch their victims using a sticky surface.
Sticky fat woman
Its method of catching is similar to sticky tape, which until recently was used in every home against flies. Zhiryanka leaves have a pleasant pink color, and in places, bright green color. With the help of cells capable of digesting animal food, the plant attracts insects, since the smell emanating from the trunk reminds them of nectar. Having sat on a sticky surface, the victim can no longer fly up and becomes food for the flower. There are species that go into hibernation and hide in a dense rosette throughout the winter months.
Byblis rainbow
Externally, this Australian predator looks like a sundew, but in fact the plant is a special type of carnivorous flora. The rounded leaves have hairs that secrete a pink mucus that is very aggressive. Cute flowers are painted in all the colors of the rainbow, and inside the inflorescence there are large stamens. After the victim sits on the flower, it sticks tightly to it.
Venus flytrap
A small insectivorous plant with a thick stem and pretty white flowers, it is happily bred in home greenhouses. It has no more than four leaves on each stem. The prey, falling on the predator's leaf, slams into the trap, after which gastric juice enters the process. The sheets flatten and thicken, increasing in volume. If the victim is large, then it takes at least a week to digest it. The bait, like many predators, is the mucus secreted by the leaf.
A small plant with thin sticky leaves are considered a real glutton among other plant predators. In one day, Lusitanian Rosolite can catch and digest up to thirty large insects. He lures them with the help of a sweet sticky mass secreted on the surface of the leaf.
Insectivorous plants in the house
Recently, among fans of home vegetation, growing insectivorous flowers at home has become very popular. You won’t surprise anyone with something as exotic as the Venus flytrap or Sarracenia. People are attracted to everything bright, unusual and dangerous. Some people keep predatory animals or poisonous reptiles, while others prefer piranhas among all the inhabitants of the aquarium. Flower growers are not lagging behind.
What does it take for a plant to be a predator? I felt great in a city apartment.
There are more than 600 species of predator plants in nature. Traps, traps, trapping pits and decoy smells - the victim has virtually no chance of survival.
Why do the victims of these plants voluntarily climb into deadly traps? Cunning plants share their secrets.
A hungry fly is looking for something to eat. Sensing a smell similar to the aroma of nectar, she sits on a fleshy red leaf - it seems to her that it is an ordinary flower. While the fly drinks the sweet liquid, it touches with its paw a tiny hair on the surface of the leaf, then another... And then walls grow around the fly. The jagged edges of the leaf close together like jaws. The fly tries to escape, but the trap is tightly closed. Now, instead of nectar, the leaf secretes enzymes that dissolve the insides of the insect, gradually turning them into a sticky pulp. The fly suffered the greatest humiliation that can befall an animal: it was killed by a plant.
Plants versus animals. The swampy savannah, stretching 140 kilometers around Wilmington, North Carolina, USA, is the only place on Earth where the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) is indigenous. There are also other types of carnivorous plants here - not so famous and not so rare, but no less amazing. For example, Nepenthes with jugs similar to champagne glasses, where insects (and sometimes larger animals) find their death. Or the sundew (Drosera), which wraps its sticky hairs around its prey, and the bladderwort (Utricularia), an underwater plant that sucks up its prey like a vacuum cleaner.
Darwin was fascinated by green predators. He once wrote: “The sundew interests me more than the origin of all species in the world.”
Plants that feed on animals cause us inexplicable anxiety. Probably the fact is that this order of things contradicts our ideas about the universe. The famous naturalist Carl Linnaeus, who in the 18th century created the system of classification of living nature that we still use today, refused to believe that this was possible. After all, if the Venus flytrap actually eats insects, it violates the order of nature established by God. Linnaeus believed that plants catch insects by chance, and if the unfortunate insect stops twitching, it will be released.
Charles Darwin, on the contrary, was fascinated by the willful behavior of green predators. In 1860, shortly after a scientist first saw one of these plants (it was a sundew) on a moorland, he wrote: “The sundew interests me more than the origin of all species in the world.” Darwin spent more than one month on experiments. He placed flies on the leaves of carnivorous plants and watched them slowly tighten the hairs around their prey; he even tossed pieces of raw meat and egg yolk to the voracious plants. And he found out: in order to cause a plant reaction, the weight of a human hair is enough.
A flower is blooming on the South African royal sundew, the largest member of the genus. The leaves of this lush plant can reach half a meter in length.
Photo: Most plant predators eat some insects and force others to help them reproduce. To avoid catching a potential pollinator for lunch, sarracenias keep their flowers away from trap jugs - on long stems. "> 
Most plant predators eat some insects and force others to help them reproduce. To avoid catching a potential pollinator for lunch, sarracenias keep their flowers away from trap jugs - on long stems.
“It seems to me that hardly anyone has ever observed a more amazing phenomenon in the plant kingdom,” the scientist wrote. At the same time, the sundews did not pay any attention to the drops of water, even if they fell from a great height. Reacting to a false alarm during rain, Darwin reasoned, would be a big mistake for the plant - so this is not an accident, but a natural adaptation. Subsequently, Darwin studied other species of predator plants, and in 1875 he summarized the results of his observations and experiments in the book “Insectivorous Plants.” He was especially fascinated by the extraordinary speed and strength of the Venus flytrap, which he called one of the most amazing plants in the world.
Darwin discovered that when a leaf closes its edges, it temporarily turns into a “stomach” that secretes enzymes that dissolve prey. After long observations, Charles Darwin came to the conclusion that it takes more than a week for the predator's leaf to open again. Probably, he suggested, the denticles along the edges of the leaf do not meet completely, so that very small insects could escape, and thus the plant would not have to waste energy on low-nutrient food. Darwin compared the lightning-fast reaction of the Venus flytrap - its trap slams shut in a tenth of a second - to the contraction of the animal's muscles. However, plants have neither muscles nor nerve endings. How do they manage to react exactly like animals?
Photo: A tiny, thimble-sized, insectivorous plant of the genus Cephalotus from Western Australia prefers to feast on crawling insects. With guiding hairs and an alluring smell, it lures ants into its digestive bowels. "> 
The tiny, thimble-sized, insectivorous plant of the genus Cephalotus from Western Australia prefers to feast on crawling insects. With guiding hairs and an alluring smell, it lures ants into its digestive bowels.
Plant electricity. Today, biologists studying cells and DNA are beginning to understand how these plants hunt, eat, and digest food—and most importantly, how they “learned” to do it. Alexander Volkov, a plant physiologist from Oakwood University (Alabama, USA), is convinced that after many years of research, he has finally managed to uncover the secret of the Venus flytrap.
When an insect touches a hair on the surface of a flycatcher's leaf with its foot, a tiny electrical discharge is generated. The charge accumulates in the leaf tissue, but it is not enough for the slamming mechanism to work - this is insurance against a false alarm. But more often than not, the insect touches another hair, adding a second to the first, and the leaf closes. Volkov's experiments show that the discharge moves down liquid-filled tunnels that penetrate the leaf, causing pores in the cell walls to open. Water rushes from the cells located on the inner surface of the leaf to those located on its outer side, and the leaf quickly changes shape: from convex to concave. The two leaves collapse and the insect is trapped.
The underwater trap of bladderwort is no less ingenious. It pumps water out of the bubbles, lowering the pressure in them. When a water flea or some other small creature, swimming by, touches the hairs on the outer surface of the bubble, its lid opens, and low pressure draws the water inside, and with it the prey. In one five-hundredth of a second the lid slams shut again. The cells of the vesicle then pump out the water, restoring the vacuum in it. Many other predatory plant species are like fly tape, using sticky hairs to capture their prey.
Photo: Silhouettes of captured insects, like shadow theater figures, look through the leaf of the Philippine Nepenthes. The waxy surface of the inner wall of the jug prevents insects from getting free, and enzymes at its bottom extract nutrients from the victim. "> 
The silhouettes of captured insects, like shadow theater figures, look through the leaf of the Philippine Nepenthes. The waxy surface of the inner wall of the jug prevents insects from getting free, and enzymes at its bottom extract nutrients from the victim.
Photo: A water-filled North American hybrid entices bees with the promise of nectar and a rim that looks like the perfect landing site. Eating meat is not the most effective way for a plant to provide itself with the necessary substances, but, undoubtedly, one of the most extravagant. "> 
The water-filled North American hybrid entices bees with the promise of nectar and a rim that looks like the perfect landing pad. Eating meat is not the most effective way for a plant to provide itself with the necessary substances, but, undoubtedly, one of the most extravagant.
Pitcher plants resort to a different strategy: they catch insects in long leaves - pitchers. The depth of the jugs reaches a third of a meter in the largest ones, and they can even digest some unlucky frog or rat. The jug becomes a death trap thanks to chemicals. Nepenthes rafflesiana, for example, growing in the jungles of Kalimantan, secretes nectar, on the one hand, attracting insects, and on the other, forming a slippery film on which they cannot stay. Insects that land on the rim of the jug slide inside and fall into the viscous digestive fluid. They desperately move their legs, trying to free themselves, but the liquid pulls them to the bottom. Many predatory plants have special glands that secrete enzymes that are strong enough to penetrate the hard chitinous shell of insects and reach the nutrients hidden underneath.
But purple sarracenia, found in swamps and poor sandy soils in North America, attracts other organisms to digest food. Sarracenia helps function a complex food web that includes mosquito larvae, midges, protozoa and bacteria; many of them can only live in this environment. Animals grind up the prey that falls into the jar, and smaller organisms enjoy the fruits of their labors. The sarracenia eventually absorbs the nutrients released during this feast. “By having animals in this processing chain, all the reactions are accelerated,” says Nicholas Gotelli of the University of Vermont. “When the digestive cycle is complete, the plant pumps oxygen into the pitcher so that its inhabitants have something to breathe.” Thousands of sarracenia grow in the swamps of the Harvard Forest, owned by the university of the same name, in central Massachusetts.
Aaron Ellison, the forest's chief ecologist, is working with Gotelli to figure out what evolutionary reasons led the flora to develop a penchant for a meat diet. Predatory plants clearly benefit from eating animals: the more flies the researchers feed them, the better they grow. But what exactly are sacrifices useful for? From them, predators obtain nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients to produce light-trapping enzymes. In other words, eating animals allows carnivorous plants to do what all flora do: grow by getting energy from the sun.
The work of green predators is not easy. They have to spend a huge amount of energy creating devices for catching animals: enzymes, pumps, sticky hairs and other things. Sarracenia or flycatcher cannot photosynthesize much because, unlike plants with regular leaves, their leaves do not have solar panels that can absorb light in large quantities. Ellison and Gotelli believe that the benefits of a carnivorous life outweigh the costs of maintaining it only under special conditions. The poor soil of swamps, for example, contains little nitrogen and phosphorus, so predator plants there have an advantage over their counterparts who obtain these substances in more conventional ways. In addition, swamps have no shortage of sun, so even photosynthetically inefficient carnivorous plants capture enough light to survive. Nature has made such a compromise more than once. By comparing the DNA of carnivorous and “ordinary” plants, scientists discovered that different groups of predators are not evolutionarily related to each other, but appeared independently of each other in at least six cases. Some carnivorous plants, although similar in appearance, are only distantly related. Both the tropical genus Nepenthes and the North American Sarracenia have pitcher leaves and use the same strategy to catch prey, but they come from different ancestors.
The buds hang like Chinese lanterns, luring bees into intricately constructed pollen chambers.
Bloodthirsty, but defenseless. Unfortunately, the very properties that allow carnivorous plants to thrive in difficult natural conditions also make them extremely sensitive to changes in the environment. Many wetlands in North America receive excess nitrogen from fertilization of surrounding agricultural fields and emissions from power plants. Carnivorous plants are so perfectly adapted to low nitrogen content in the soil that they cannot cope with this unexpected “gift”. “Eventually they just die from overexertion,” Ellison says.
There is another danger emanating from people. The illegal trade in carnivorous plants is so widespread that botanists try to keep secret the locations where some rare species are found. Poachers are smuggling Venus flytraps by the thousands from North Carolina and selling them from roadside stands. For some time now, the state Department of Agriculture has been marking wild specimens with a safe paint that is invisible in normal light but shimmers in ultraviolet light, so that inspectors who find these plants on sale can quickly determine whether they come from a greenhouse or a swamp. Even if poaching can be stopped (which is also doubtful), predator plants will still suffer from many misfortunes. Their habitat is disappearing, giving way to shopping centers and residential areas. Forest fires are not allowed to run rampant, which gives other plants the opportunity to grow quickly and win competition with Venus flytraps. The flies are probably happy about this. But for those who admire the amazing ingenuity of evolution, this is a great loss.
In the plant kingdom you can find amazing specimens that not only captivate the eye, but also surprise with their way of life. One of the secrets of the Earth's nature is carnivorous plants.
We all know from childhood that flowers and grass are food for animals, but it turns out that the opposite happens. Insectivores, also called carnivores, are a direct example of this. Carnivorous plants are those living organisms that obtain some or most of their nutrients (but not energy) from the capture and consumption of animals or protozoa, usually arthropods. Carnivorous flora are adapted to grow in places with thin fertile soil or little nitrogen, such as acidic swamps and rock outcrops. Charles Darwin wrote Insectivorous Plants, the first known treatise on carnivorous flora, in 1875. This book became a turning point in the research of these unusual representatives of the plant world.
How and what do carnivorous plants feed on?
Carnivorous plants have leaves adapted to trap small animals, most often insects. That is why they are also called insectivores. Having caught such a flower in a “trap”, an invertebrate arthropod animal dissolves in its digestive juice. As a result, the living organism of the predator plant receives the nutrients necessary for its full existence. It is worth noting that enzymes dissolve the soft tissue of the insect. They cannot “digest” skeletons or exoskeletons, so numerous remains of their victims accumulate inside some flowers.
Some flowers can absorb the juices of dead animals using the surface of the leaves. However, only true carnivorous representatives of the flora have the ability to obtain nutrients from animals, first by attracting them to themselves in order to capture them, and then digesting and assimilating the nutritional juices of the captured victim. This behavior is called carnivorous syndrome.
Five main mechanisms for catching prey have been discovered in predator plants, which do not depend on whether the plant belongs to a particular family:
- Jug-shaped containers - capture prey using a rolled-up leaf that contains a mixture of digestive enzymes or a colony of bacteria.
- Traps in the form of leaves covered with sticky mucus.
- Rapidly collapsing leaves.
- Catchers in the form of a vacuum bubble that sucks in the prey.
- Crab claw-like traps, also known as eel traps, force the prey to move toward the digestive organ with the hair pointing inward.
These traps can be active or passive, depending on whether the movement facilitates the capture of prey.
The size of insectivorous flowers is relatively small, and the largest animal ever captured by one of these flowers was a small rat. More than 150 different types of insects are known to be identified as prey to such plants, but arachnids (spiders and mites), molluscs (snails and slugs), earthworms and small vertebrates (small fish, amphibians, reptiles, rodents and birds) are also potential victims. prey.
Where do carnivorous plants grow?
Carnivorous flowers are found in almost all ecosystems; their distribution area is soil poor in nutrients and minerals. That is, acidic, without nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. These representatives of the flora can be seen on every continent except Antarctica. Predatory plants are especially numerous in North America, Southeast Asia and Australia.
Carnivorous plants usually prefer to settle in damp places, which should also be open and sunny. They don't like competition, so you can find them where other flowers and herbs don't do well.
The insectivorous flowers can be found in wet grasslands in the southeastern United States or in peat bogs in northern North America and Eurasia. Some of them grow in the quiet waters of ponds and ditches around the world. Others are on wet, rocky cliffs or wet sand. Often these representatives of the flora are found in places where fires periodically occur, which also helps reduce competition.
Many inquisitive botanists ask the question: where does Sundew live? Or where does the Flycatcher grow? In answer to them, we note that although carnivorous plants are scattered throughout the world, in one place - the Green Swamp Nature Reserve, in the southeastern part of North Carolina, you can find several representatives of the unique carnivorous flora. In particular, four species of the genus Sarracenia, the same number of species of the genus Sundew (Drosera), ten species of the genus Utricularia, three species of the genus Pinguicula and one Venus flytrap (Dionaea) grow here.
Features and types of carnivorous plants
It is known that carnivorous flowers can exist without hunting insects. However, biologists believe that nutrients obtained through predation help them grow faster and produce more seeds. As a result, they become more persistent and can spread to new areas. There is also a plant that only kills insects, but does not “eat” them. This is the Cape guinea pig (Plumbago auriculata).
All carnivorous flowers are divided into:
- actively catching, with sensitive hairs and moving parts. This includes the Venus flytrap.
- passively catching ones, which in turn come with mucous and sticky secretions on the foliage, and with traps - bubbles, jugs, etc. Sarracenia and Nepenthes are examples here.
Many species of flora have colored leaves that are attractive to insects and also produce sweet nectar. In total, science knows 630 species of such insectivorous multicellular organisms, the most prominent representatives are:
- sundew- one of the largest carnivorous plants. Distributed on all continents except Antarctica. Reaches 1 meter in height and lives up to 50 years. The trap is sticky moving tentacles.
- venus flytrap- has a trap with latches that close around the prey when it touches one of the sensitive hairs.
- butterwort It is most widespread in North and South America, Europe and Asia. Zhiryanka is characterized by rich green or pink foliage. It produces mucus that acts like glue on insects.
- pemphigus found in bodies of water and in moist soil of almost all continents except Antarctica. This is the only representative of the flora in which the bubbles serve to catch prey.
- nepenthes grows in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Seychelles, India, Australia, Sumatra and Borneo. Nepenthes is a vine 10-15 meters high. It has water lily leaves to catch insects. These “vessels” contain liquid in which the caught bugs die. The largest Nepenthes are capable of catching and absorbing even small mammals (mice, rats).
- genliseya became widespread in South and Central America, as well as in Africa. She is armed with a "crab claw". Getting into such a “claw” is easy, but getting out is almost impossible due to the hairs growing at the entrance that hold the prey. The unusualness of Genlisea is in its leaves: the above-ground foliage carries out photosynthesis, but under the soil the underground leaves, in the shape of a spiral, catch and digest the simplest microorganisms.
Carnivorous plants have long been a subject of popular interest. Representatives of the flora are presented in a number of books, films, television series and video games. These are typically fictional images that include exaggerated characteristics, such as being enormous in size or having abilities beyond the limits of reality, and can be seen as a kind of artistic interpretation. Two of the most famous examples of fictional carnivorous flowers in popular culture are the 1960s black comedy Little Shop of Horrors and the triffids in John Wyndham's Day of the Triffids.
Nature never tires of surprising us with its mysteries and surprises. It would seem that it is a stalk with leaves, and also carnivorous! It turns out that there is a fairly significant category of plants that live on someone else's death. These are the so-called “Plutonians” - named after the mysterious lord of death and rebirth - Pluto. More common names are “carnivorous plants” and “carnivorous plants.”
These plants are further proof of the mystery of evolution. For example, in order to survive in shady, damp places, the so-called epiphytes move to live on a taller and more powerful neighbor, although without harm to him; Predatory plants, scientists believe, evolved due to an extreme lack of nitrogen in the soil.
In total, about 500 species of predator plants are known. Among the most famous “predators” - sundews, nepenthes and sarracenias - the main part of their prey is insects (hence another name for these plants - insectivores). Others - water bladderworts and aldrovands - most often catch planktonic crustaceans. There are also “predatory” plants that feed on fry, tadpoles, or even toads and lizards. There are three groups of such insectivorous plants - plants with trap leaves, in which halves of leaves with teeth on the edge close tightly, plants with sticky leaves, in which the hairs on the leaves secrete a sticky liquid that attracts insects, and plants in which the leaves are shaped a jug with a lid filled with water.
Why do plants need “predation”?
The fact is that all carnivorous plants grow on poor soils, such as peat or sand. In such conditions, there is less competition among plants (few are able to survive here), and the ability to catch live prey, break down and assimilate animal protein compensates for the deficiency of mineral nutrition. Carnivorous plants are especially numerous in wet soils, swamps and swamps, where they compensate for the lack of nitrogen at the expense of captured animals. As a rule, they are brightly colored, and this attracts insects that are accustomed to associate bright coloring with the presence of nectar.
What is characteristic of predator plants?
They have various adaptations for catching small animals, mainly insects and arachnids, digest their victims with “digestive juice” secreted by special glands, and absorb the resulting nutrient pulp, thus supplementing the nitrogen they need from the soil with nitrogen from animal tissues. As a rule, leaves are transformed into insect-catching organs. They are covered with glue, bear adhesive hairs, and can bend inward, closing like a palm forming a fist. The leaf can be turned into a jug with a lid, from which an insect cannot escape.
There is reason to believe that some cultivated plants are not averse to eating “meat.” Thus, rainwater accumulates at the base of pineapple leaves, and small aquatic organisms reproduce there - ciliates, rotifers, worms, insect larvae. There are suspicions that pineapple is able to digest and absorb them.
The most famous types:
Sundew
The genus Drosera (sundews) includes about 130 plant species. They live in tropical swamps, in the long-drying soils of the Australian subtropics, and even beyond the Arctic Circle in the tundra. In central Russia you can find round-leaved sundew. Sundews usually catch small insects, but some species are capable of catching larger prey.
Sundew leaves are covered in red or bright orange hairs, each topped with a shiny droplet of liquid. Tropical sundews' leaves resemble a necklace of many hundreds of dewdrop beads sparkling in the sun. But this is a deadly necklace: attracted by the shine of the droplets, the reddish color of the leaf and its smell, the insect gets stuck in the sticky surface.
The victim's desperate attempts to free herself lead to more and more neighboring hairs leaning toward her, and in the end she finds herself covered in sticky mucus. The insect dies. The sundew then secretes an enzyme that dissolves the prey. Only the wings, chitinous cover and other hard parts remain intact. If not one insect lands on a leaf, but two at once, then the hairs seem to share their responsibilities and cope with both.
Zhiryanka
It acts almost in the same way as a sundew, luring insects with the sticky secretions of its long, tapering leaves, collected in a basal rosette. Sometimes the edges of the leaves bend inward, and the prey in such a tray becomes locked. Other leaf cells then secrete digestive enzymes. After absorbing the “dish,” the leaf unfolds and is ready to act again.
Venus flytrap
The genus Dionaea includes only one species, Dioneae muscipulata, better known as the Venus flytrap. This is the only plant in which the catching of insects by the rapid movement of the trap can be observed even with the naked eye. In nature, the flycatcher is found in the swamps of North and South Carolina.
In an adult plant, the maximum size of the trap is 3 cm. Depending on the time of year, the type of trap changes noticeably. In summer, when there is a lot of prey, the trap is brightly colored (usually dark red) and reaches its maximum size. In winter, when there is little prey, the traps decrease in size. Along the edges of the leaf there are thick spines that look like teeth; each leaf (“jaw”) is equipped with 15-20 teeth, and in the middle of the leaf there are three guard hairs. An insect or other creature attracted by a bright leaf cannot help but touch these hairs. The trap collapses only after irritating the hairs twice in the interval from 2 to 20 seconds. This prevents the traps from being triggered when it rains.
It is no longer possible to open the trap. If the leaf misses or something inedible gets into it, it will open again after half an hour. Otherwise, it will remain closed until it digests the victim, which can take up to several weeks. As a rule, leaves work in this way only two or three times before they die and are replaced by new ones.
Nepenthes
The genus includes about 80 species of plants from tropical rain forests. Most of them are vines reaching several meters, but there are also low shrubs. Nepenthes traps are adapted to catching very large prey. The largest Nepenthes can also catch small rodents, toads and even birds. However, their usual prey is insects.
Nepenthes catch prey in a completely different way than all other carnivorous plants. Their tubular leaves, shaped like jugs, collect rainwater. In some, the tip of the leaf is curled like a funnel through which water flows inside; in others it is folded over the opening and covers it, limiting the amount of moisture entering to prevent overflowing during heavy rains. Two serrated wings run along the outside of the jug from top to bottom, serving both to support the jug and to guide crawling insects. Along the inner edge of the pitcher are cells that secrete sweet nectar. Under them there are many hard hairs facing downwards - a bristly palisade that prevents the victim from getting out of the jug. The wax secreted by the cells of the smooth surface of the leaves of most Nepenthes makes this surface so slippery that no claws, hooks or suction cups can help the victim. Once caught in such a jug-trap, the insect is doomed; it sinks deeper and deeper into the water and drowns. At the bottom of the jug, the insect decomposes, and its soft parts are absorbed by the plant.
Nepenthes (pitchers) are sometimes called “hunting cups” because the liquid they contain can be drunk: there is clean water on top of the jug. Of course, somewhere below are the undigested solid remains of the plant's "dinners". But with some caution you cannot reach them, and almost every jug contains a sip or two, or even a lot more water.
Sarracenia
The genus includes 9 species from the Sarracenia family. All members of the family are marsh plants. The flowers are very bright. And even non-flowering sarracenias attract attention: emerald, with a dense network of crimson veins, trap leaves dripping with sweet juice resemble fairy-tale flowers. Attracted by the bright trap, the insects land on the trap and die.
Darlingtonia- a swamp plant in North America, one of the strangest in the world: it amazes with its pitchers in the shape of the hood of a cobra, preparing to attack (hence the other name - Cobra Plant). Insects are caught by the smell, and the hairs on the walls of the leaves provide only downward movement.
In Australia you can find Giant Byblis (Byblis gigantea), completely covered with leaves with sticky hairs and glands with a very sticky substance. It is this plant that is still rumored to be a man-eating plant. According to legends, human remains were found more than once near these plants. Local Aborigines used its leaves as super glue.
Domestic Carnivores
There is an opinion that predator plants cannot be kept at home. Indeed, they most often die after some time, however, there are species of predator plants that are most suitable for indoor conditions. These are the Venus flytrap, various sundews, small species of nepenthes, tropical species of fatworts and most types of sarracenia.
The Venus flytrap is grown in coarse, fibrous peat. The plant requires maximum sunlight throughout the year, and in winter, when there is not enough sunlight, the plants have to be illuminated. Water abundantly in the summer; it is even better to keep the pots with plants one-third immersed in water, using boiled or rain water for watering. In winter, watering is reduced, but the soil is not allowed to dry out completely. Requires high air humidity.
Growing individual hybrid species of Nepenthes is not difficult, with the only caveat that they require constant high humidity to form pitchers. Nepenthes are grown on soil consisting of fibrous peat and sphagnum moss or on pure sphagnum moss. The main thing is that the soil is always loose and well aerated. These plants should be watered abundantly and with soft water, avoiding the slightest drying.
Many representatives of sundews are very difficult to keep indoors. Nevertheless, some tropical species of sundews are very unpretentious and can grow in aquariums with high air humidity, since their leaves are very delicate and easily dry out in the dry atmosphere of the room. The most suitable for growing indoors are the South African sundew Drosera alicia and the American sundew Drosera capillaris (this is the hardiest sundew).
Sarracenias grow well indoors without much care. The soil mixture should be loose and non-nutritious: washed quartz sand, cut sphagnum and high-moor peat (1:2:3) with the addition of pieces of charcoal. Sarracenias often suffer from waterlogging, so they need good drainage. Watering - with distilled or pure snow (rain) water. The optimal place for them in an apartment is a window sill, preferably under a constantly open window, wintering at 10-15°C.
The Venus flytrap is loved by children and adults alike; they stick their fingers into it and watch its small soft mouth slam shut. An amazing fact is that the reaction speed is only one-thirtieth of a second! This plant also knows how to play the “edible-inedible” game, and if the food is suitable, the leaf will open again only after 6-10 days. But if the leaf slammed shut in vain, then after 1-2 days the flycatcher will go hunting again.
It is the Venus flytrap that is most often bred at home and started feeding. Caught flies and even small pieces of ordinary meat are also suitable. Therefore, if such an exotic creature has settled in your house, setting the meat table, do not forget to invite your green friend to join him.
Incredible facts
Among all the strange plants in the world, there are even some that absorb flesh.
Well, maybe not exactly flesh, but insects, but, nevertheless, they are considered carnivorous. All carnivorous plants are found in places where the soil is poor in nutrients.
These amazing plants are carnivorous, since they catch insects and arthropods, secrete digestive juice, dissolve the prey and in the process receive some or most of the nutrients.
Here are the most famous carnivorous plants that use different types of traps to lure your prey.
1. Sarracenia
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Sarracenia or North American carnivorous plant is a genus of carnivorous plants that are found in areas of the east coast of North America, Texas, the Great Lakes, southeastern Canada, but most are found only in the southeastern states.
This plant uses trapping leaves in the shape of a water lily as a trap. The plant's leaves have become a funnel with a hood-like structure that grows over the hole, preventing rainwater from entering, which could dilute the digestive juices. Insects are attracted to the color, smell and nectar-like secretions at the edge of the water lily. The slippery surface and narcotic substance lining the nectar cause insects to fall inside, where they die and are digested by protease and other enzymes.
2. Nepenthes
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Nepenthes, a tropical carnivorous plant, is another type of carnivorous trap plant that uses trapping leaves in the shape of a pitcher. There are about 130 species of these plants, which are widespread in China, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Madagascar, Seychelles, Australia, India, Borneo and Sumatra. This plant also received the nickname " monkey cup", as researchers have often observed monkeys drinking rainwater from them.
Most Nepenthes species are tall vines, about 10-15 meters, with a shallow root system. The stem often reveals leaves with a tendril that protrudes from the tip of the leaf and is often used for climbing. At the end of the tendril, the water lily forms a small vessel, which then expands and forms a cup.
The trap contains a liquid secreted by the plant, which may be watery or sticky, in which the insects that the plant eats drown. The bottom of the cup contains glands that absorb and distribute nutrients. Most plants are small and they only catch insects, but large species such as Nepenthes Rafflesiana And Nepenthes Rajah, can catch small mammals such as rats.
3. Carnivorous plant Genlisea
Composed of 21 species, Genlisea typically grows in moist terrestrial and semi-aquatic environments and is distributed in Africa and Central and South America.
Genlisea is a small herb with yellow flowers that use a crab claw type trap. These traps are easy to get into, but impossible to get out of because of the small hairs that grow towards the entrance or, in this case, forward in a spiral.
These plants have two different types of leaves: photosynthetic leaves above the ground and special underground leaves that lure, catch and digest small organisms, such as protozoa. The underground leaves also serve as roots, such as water absorption and anchorage, since the plant itself does not have any. These underground leaves form hollow tubes underground that look like spirals. Small microbes are drawn into these tubes by the flow of water, but cannot escape from them. By the time they reach the exit, they will already be digested.
4. Californian Darlingtonia (Darlingtonia Californica)
Darlingtonia californica is the only member of the Darlingtonia genus that grows in northern California and Oregon. It grows in swamps and springs with cold running water and considered a rare plant.
Darlingtonia leaves are bulbous in shape and form a cavity with an opening underneath a balloon-like structure and two sharp leaves that hang down like fangs.
Unlike many carnivorous plants, it does not use trap leaves to trap them, but instead uses a crab claw type trap. Once the insect is inside, they are confused by the specks of light that pass through the plant. They land in thousands of thick, fine hairs that grow inward. Insects can follow the hairs deep into the digestive organs, but cannot return back.
5. Pemphigus (Utricularia)
Bladderwort is a genus of carnivorous plants consisting of 220 species. They are found in fresh water or moist soil as terrestrial or aquatic species on all continents except Antarctica.
These are the only carnivorous plants that use bubble trap. Most species have very small traps in which they can catch very small prey such as protozoans. Traps range from 0.2 mm to 1.2 cm, and larger traps catch larger prey such as water fleas or tadpoles.
Bubbles are under negative pressure relative to their surroundings. The trap's opening opens, sucks in the insect and surrounding water, closes the valve, and all this happens in thousandths of seconds.
6. Butterwort (Pinguicula)
Butterweed belongs to a group of carnivorous plants that use sticky, glandular leaves to lure and digest insects. Nutrients from insects supplement mineral-poor soil. There are approximately 80 species of these plants in North and South America, Europe and Asia.
Butterwort leaves are succulent and usually bright green or pink in color. There are two special types of cells found on the upper side of leaves. One is known as the pedicel gland and consists of secretory cells located at the top of a single stem cell. These cells produce a mucous secretion that forms visible droplets on the surface of the leaves and acts like Velcro. Other cells are called sessile glands, and they are found on the surface of the leaf, producing enzymes such as amylase, protease and esterase, which aid in the digestive process. While many butterwort species are carnivorous all year, many types form a dense winter rosette that is not carnivorous. When summer comes, it blooms and produces new carnivorous leaves.
7. Sundew (Drosera)
Sundews constitute one of the largest genera of carnivorous plants, with at least 194 species. They are found on all continents except Antarctica. Sundews can form basal or vertical rosettes from 1cm to 1m in height and can live up to 50 years.
Sundews are characterized by moving glandular tentacles, topped with sweet sticky secretions. When an insect lands on the sticky tentacles, the plant begins to move the remaining tentacles in the direction of the victim in order to further trap it. Once the insect is trapped, small sessile glands absorb it and the nutrients are used for plant growth.
8. Byblis
Byblis or rainbow plant is a small species of carnivorous plant native to Australia. The rainbow plant gets its name from the attractive slime that coats its leaves in the sun. Although these plants are similar to sundews, they are in no way related to the latter and are distinguished by zygomorphic flowers with five curved stamens.
Its leaves have a round cross-section, and most often they are elongated and conical at the end. The surface of the leaves is completely covered with glandular hairs, which secrete a sticky mucous substance that serves as a trap for small insects landing on the leaves or tentacles of the plant.
9. Aldrovanda vesiculosa
Aldrovanda vesica is a magnificent rootless, carnivorous aquatic plant. It is usually feeds on small aquatic vertebrates using a trap.
The plant consists mainly of free-floating stems that reach 6-11 cm in length. Trap leaves, 2-3 mm in size, grow in 5-9 curls in the center of the stem. The traps are attached to the petioles, which contain air that allows the plant to float. It is a fast growing plant and can reach 4-9mm per day and in some cases produce a new whorl every day. While the plant grows at one end, the other end gradually dies.
The plant trap consists of two lobes that slam shut like a trap. The trap's openings point outward and are covered with fine hairs that allow the trap to close around any prey that comes close enough. The trap slams shut in tens of milliseconds, which is one example fastest movement in the animal kingdom.
10. Venus flytrap (Dionaea Muscipula)
The Venus flytrap is perhaps the most famous carnivorous plant that feeds mainly on insects and arachnids. It is a small plant with 4-7 leaves that grow from a short underground stem.
Its leaf blade is divided into two areas: flat, long, heart-shaped petioles capable of photosynthesis and a pair of terminal lobes hanging from the main vein of the leaf, which form a trap. The inner surface of these lobes contains red pigment, and the edges secrete mucus.
The leaf lobes make a sudden movement, slamming shut when its sensory hairs are stimulated. The plant is so developed that it can distinguish a living stimulus from a nonliving one. Its leaves slam shut in 0.1 second. They are lined with thorn-like cilia that hold prey. Once the prey is caught, the inner surface of the leaves is gradually stimulated, and the edges of the lobes grow and merge, closing the trap and creating a closed stomach, where the prey is digested.
