Ten Plants That Put Meat on Their Plates
In addition to the well-known Venus flytrap, many other plant species feed on bugs or crustaceans
- By Sarah Zielinski
- Smithsonian.com, January 08, 2010
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(Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in England)
King sundew
Though the king sundew (Drosera regia) grows only in one valley in South Africa, members of the Drosera genus can be found on all continents except Antarctica. Charles Darwin devoted much of his book Insectivorous Plants to the sundews. Sticky mucilage on Drosera plants traps prey—usually an insect attracted to light reflecting off drops of dew or to the plant’s reddish tentacles—and eventually suffocates it. Digestive enzymes then break down the plant’s meal.
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Comments (9)
These r great pics.
Posted by Katie on May 1,2010 | 08:24 PM
Kieth, I believe active and passive refers to how the prey is caught. Sundews don't actively catch insects. The insect is caught by the mucilage, then the sundew digests it. Venus flytraps, Waterwheel plants, and Bladderworts are the only carnivorous plants that actively TRAP insects.
Posted by Ben Hofvendahl on April 12,2010 | 10:40 PM
Also, The Bladderworts are aquatic, so even if it wasn't an active trap, its prey couldn't "fly in".
Posted by Ben Hofvendahl on April 12,2010 | 09:26 PM
There are also Venus flytraps in the marshy bogs of the Blue Hill reservation in eastern Massachusetts, along with pitcher plants.
Posted by mofembot in france on February 11,2010 | 02:06 PM
I was disappointed at the omission of Utricularia. However they do not actively trap; the trap while sophisticated is purely mechanical and works even when the plant cells are killed.
Posted by jon w on February 10,2010 | 05:16 PM
I suggest reading the wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utricularia#Trapping_mechanism) to be clear about the trapping mechanism. It is neither like a venus fly trap nor is it at all like a lobster trap. The plant does not activate it in response to stimuli as is the case with the venus fly trap or waterwheel. Rather, it uses suction to maintain a vacuum in its bladders which are sealed with sets of fine hair-like triggers. A small disruption in the trigger disrupts the seal, causing the water to rush into the bladder. Then the same suction action which created the vacuum also serves to keep the prey trapped there.
This is entirely different from a lobster trap which is just based on having a large opening for the entrance side which leads to a small opening on the inside. But it is also not like a venus fly trap or waterwheel where the plants actually move themselves in response to stimuli. I would probably describe the bladderwort's trap as "active" because of its dynamic nature (and to contrast it against plants which trap only via sticky substances, which it clearly does not do), but it isn't the same as the other two mentioned.
That said, I do still fault the original sentence because I would argue that some sundews should also count as active. Although they use a sticky substance to ensnare their prey, many also actively curl around their prey in order to maximize the contact and hence minimize the possibility of escape. Without this curling motion they are not as effective.
Posted by Keith Irwin on February 10,2010 | 04:27 PM
Actually the bladderwort is active in capturing its prey. The closed bladder when its trigger is stimulated by a small animal suddenly opens creating a suction which pulls in the animal and traps it. Digestion occurs and the bladderwort receives some nutrition. I found some in a lake on Mt. Desert Island in Maine once.
Posted by Sinclair Hamilton on February 8,2010 | 10:48 AM
Bladderworts are more like lobster traps in which bugs fly in and then become trapped.
Posted by Sarah Zielinski on January 27,2010 | 10:10 AM
Is there a genus of actively trapping carnivorous plants called Utricularia spp. ? ( bladderwort ) This would seem to contradict the statement in the description of waterwheel that only two species do this .
Posted by Bob Dalrymple on January 22,2010 | 12:45 PM