Wild plants that eat insects. Types of carnivorous plants
plant predators- these are one of the most unusual representatives of the flora of our planet, one might say, a miracle of the natural world.
It is common to hear about animals that feed on other living beings, but the fact that creatures that are incapable of movement and any active interaction with their environment can also devour someone will seem incredible to many.
They are different from other plants and live in unbearable conditions for most green creatures, which is why they have to be predators.
Why do they do it?
The reason why carnivorous plants appeared is simple. They should receive the bulk of nutrients with the help of roots from the soil in which they are located, but due to the fact that in many parts of the world there is such a soil in which there are practically no substances necessary for the normal life of most plants, they had to adapt and get them by eating other creatures. Only in this way do they receive the components necessary for life.
These plants can eat not only insects, but also arthropods. They have a digestive system, just like animals. Scientists now know more than 600 species carnivorous plants. Each of them has its own diet and its own methods of catching prey. Besides, they have various ways luring victims and peculiar traps.
In addition to unusual abilities, these plants for the most part have a very beautiful and bright color, and many have a strong smell. Among this diversity, one can single out the most famous representatives of the predatory flora.
Types of carnivorous plants
- It's pretty rare plant, which naturally grows in the south of North America, for which it is also called Californian. Her habitat- reservoirs with running and cool water. And she lives under water.
This underwater predator feeds on various insects, small crustaceans and other river animals.
Their way of catching is quite peculiar.- she does not use her leaves directly, the victim is trapped through a crab claw, this is an asymmetric process, a kind of mini-maze. Once inside, the insect has no chance.
Darlingtonia affects him bright colors inside traps, which leads to complete disorientation in space and further death.
- In this case, the name speaks for itself. It can be called one of the most common and well-known representatives of carnivorous plants.
Flycatchers feed on insects and arachnids. It is able to distinguish a living organism from a non-living one.
Catching prey occurs as follows: The flycatcher has two leaves, which, when the victim hits them, instantly collapse and close, but if the insect reacts quickly, then there is an opportunity to get out.
The edges of the trap-like trap gradually begin to grow together. Digestion of prey takes place inside this peculiar stomach. Moreover, despite its danger, the flower has a very nice smell, thanks to which it attracts greedy insects. The picturesque appearance of toothy trap leaves makes it a fairly popular room decoration.
- . This plant lives in Asia, his home is rainforests. Nepenthes are classified as bushy vines. They catch the prey at the expense of pitcher-shaped appendages on the leaves, in which there is a viscous juice, where the victim drowns, and further gives its nutritional components to the plant.
The edges of the jars, smeared with wax, trimmed with bristles or spines, do not allow getting out of the tank, and the bright color of its inner side attracts the attention of potential prey.
There are many varieties of Nepenthes, the smallest of them prey purely on insects, but large representatives of the genus can also absorb small mammals, for example, mice, their jugs are the size of a bottle and can hold up to a liter of digestive fluid.
Traps differ not only in size, but also in the shape of jugs, in some Nepenthes they lie on the ground, in others they hang from the leaves, like outlandish fruits.
- She grows on far east Russia and therefore tolerates cold well. Rosyanka is small in size and preys on insects mainly during the pollination period of the flower, although it does not disdain small insects that simply accidentally fall on the leaves.
Its leaves are collected in a dense rosette and have movable tentacles with sweet nectar.
When the victim sits down to enjoy the juice, he falls into the trap, tightly sticking to the droplets at the ends of these tentacles.
The nutrients contained in the body of the ingested insect are needed by the flower in order to form an ovary and allow the seeds to ripen.
It is worth noting that Rosyanka is used for medicinal purposes and often grows on windowsills as an exotic pet.
- This North American endemic grows in swamps, like most other predators, but, unlike them, also has decorative flowers with a pleasant smell.
Its lower leaves resemble translucent scales, and the trap leaves are elongated into long tubes up to eighty centimeters high, speckled with protruding veins.
From above, this pipe is covered by a leaf outgrowth that prevents water from flowing inside during rain - the Nepenthes jars are covered with a similar "umbrella".
The bright color of the traps and the aroma of the secretions of the nectar-bearing glands beckon insects to certain death, but the larvae of blowflies and ossphexes are used to living inside the leaves of Sarracenia, taking part of the prey from the plant.
It is important to note that Sarracenia is easy to care for and can grow outdoors where winters are mild enough for it.
ATTENTION: The feeding of the Venus flytrap is a spectacular process, but it is impossible to overfeed the flower, because after the prey is digested, the leaf dies off, and due to the loss of leaves, it may weaken or even die.
ATTENTION: like any plant in a temperate climate, sundew needs a dormant period in winter. At this time, the pot with the plant should be sent to a cool and fairly dry place. Otherwise, it will deplete and die.
NOTE on domestic carnivorous plants: Darlingtonia Californian, Nepenthes, Sundew and many others.
Not being directly related to each other, many carnivorous plants, quite independently of each other, developed the same methods of survival in adverse conditions, on lands poor in nitrogenous compounds, having learned to extract nutrients from other people's bodies. These extraordinary creatures will decorate any flower collection.
Nature never ceases to amaze us with its mysteries and surprises. It would seem that a stalk with leaves, but also carnivorous! It turns out that there is a fairly significant category of plants that live 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 higher and more powerful neighbor, however, without harm to him; Predatory plants, according to scientists, evolved due to the extreme lack of nitrogen in the soil.
In total, about 500 species of predator plants are known. In the most famous "predators" - sundews, nepenthes and sarracenia - insects make up the bulk of the prey (hence the other name for these plants - insectivorous). Others - water bladderworts and aldrovands - most often catch planktonic crustaceans. There are also such "predatory" plants that feed on fry, tadpoles, or even toads and lizards. There are three groups of such insectivorous plants - these are plants with trap leaves, in which the halves of the leaves with teeth along 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 jug with a lid filled with water.
Why do plants "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 people are able to survive here), and the ability to catch live prey, break down and assimilate animal protein makes up for the lack of mineral nutrition. Carnivorous plants are especially numerous on moist soils, swamps and swamps, where they compensate for the lack of nitrogen at the expense of caught animals. As a rule, they are brightly colored, and this attracts insects that are accustomed to associate bright color with nectar.
What is characteristic of carnivorous plants?
They have various devices for trapping small animals, mainly insects and arachnids, digest their victims with the "digestive juice" secreted by special glands, and absorb the resulting nutritious slurry, thus supplementing the nitrogen they need, obtained from the soil, with nitrogen from animal tissues. Leaves are usually turned into insect trapping organs. They are covered with glue, carry sticky hairs, can be bent inward, closing like a palm gathered into a fist. The leaf can be turned into a jar with a lid, from which an insect that has entered it cannot escape.
There are reasons to believe that some cultivated plants not averse to eating "meat" So, rainwater accumulates in the bases of pineapple leaves, and small aquatic organisms breed there - ciliates, rotifers, worms, insect larvae. There are suspicions that pineapple is able to digest and assimilate them.
The most famous types:
Sundew
The genus Drosera (sundew) includes about 130 plant species. They live in tropical swamps, and in the long-drying soils of the Australian subtropics, and even beyond the Arctic Circle in the tundra. AT middle lane In Russia, you can meet round-leaved sundew. Usually sundews are caught small insects, but some species are able to catch larger prey.
The leaves of the sundew are covered with red or bright orange hairs, each of which is topped with a shiny droplet of liquid. In tropical sundews, the 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 himself lead to the fact that more and more neighboring hairs are leaning towards him, and in the end he is covered with sticky mucus. The insect dies. The sundew then releases an enzyme that dissolves the prey. Only the wings, chitinous cover and other hard parts remain intact. If not one insect, but two at once, sits on a leaf, then the hairs, as it were, share their duties and cope with both.
Zhiryanka
It acts almost the same as the sundew, luring insects with sticky secretions of its long, tapering leaves, collected in a rosette. Sometimes the edges of the leaves are bent inward, and the prey in such a tray is locked. Other leaf cells then secrete digestive enzymes. After the "dish" is consumed, 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 capture 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 season, the type of trap changes markedly. In summer, when there is a lot of prey, the trap is brightly colored (usually dark red) and reaches maximum dimensions. In winter, when there is little prey, the traps decrease in size. Along the edges of the leaf there are thick spines, similar to teeth, each leaf ("jaw") is equipped with 15-20 teeth, and in the middle of the leaf there are three sentinel hairs. An insect or other creature attracted by a bright leaf cannot but touch these hairs. The collapse of the trap occurs only after a double irritation of the hairs in the range from 2 to 20 seconds. This prevents the traps from triggering when it rains.
It is no longer possible to open the trap. If the leaf misses or something inedible gets into it, it will reopen in half an hour. Otherwise, it will remain closed until it has digested the prey, which can take up to several weeks. As a rule, the leaves, before dying off and being replaced by new ones, work in this way only two or three times.
Nepenthes
The genus includes about 80 plant species from tropical rainforests. Most of them are vines reaching several meters, but there are also low shrubs. Nepenthes traps are adapted to capture 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 predatory plants. In their tubular leaves, shaped like pitchers, rainwater accumulates. In some, the tip of the leaf is folded like a funnel, through which water flows inward; in others it is curved over the opening and covers it, limiting the amount of incoming moisture to prevent overflow when heavy rains. By outside The pitcher has two serrated wings from top to bottom, which serve both to support the jug and to guide crawling insects. Along the inner edge of the jug are cells that secrete sweet nectar. Beneath them are many hard hairs, turned downwards, a bristly palisade that does not allow the victim to get out of the jug. Wax secreted by cells smooth surface leaves in most Nepenthes, makes this surface so slippery that no claws, hooks or suckers can help the victim. Once in such a jar-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", since the liquid contained in them can be drunk: pure water is in the top of the jug. Of course, somewhere below are the undigested solid remains of the "dinners" of the plant. But with some care, they cannot be reached, and almost every jug contains a sip or two, or even a lot more water.
Sarracenia
The genus includes 9 species from the Sarraceniaceae family. All members of the family are marsh plants. The flowers are very bright. And even non-flowering sarracenia attract attention: emerald, with a dense network of raspberry veins, trap leaves flowing with sweet juice resemble fabulous flowers. Attracted by a bright trap, insects sit on the trap and die.
Darlingtonia (Darlingtonia)- a swamp plant in North America, one of the strangest in the world: it amazes with its jugs in the form of a cobra hood, preparing for an 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 Byblis Giant (Byblis gigantea), completely covered with leaves with sticky hairs and glands with a very sticky substance. It is about him that rumors still circulate as a man-eating plant. According to legends, the remains of people have been found near these plants more than once. The local natives used its leaves as super glue.
domestic predators
There is an opinion that predator plants cannot be kept at home. Indeed, they most often die after a while, however, there are types of predator plants that are most suitable for indoor conditions. These are the Venus flytrap, various sundews, medium-sized Nepenthes species, tropical butterflies and most Sarracenia species.
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 highlighted. It is watered abundantly in the summer, it is even better to keep pots with plants a third submerged in water, using boiled or boiled water for watering. rain water. In winter, watering is reduced, but the soil is not allowed to dry out completely. Requires high humidity air.
Growing individual hybrid types of non-penthes is not difficult, with the only caveat that they require constant high humidity to form jugs. 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. Water these plants should be plentiful and soft water, avoiding the slightest drying.
Many representatives of sundews are very difficult to keep in room conditions. However, some tropical species of sundews are very unpretentious and can grow in aquariums with high humidity, as their leaves are very delicate and dry out easily in a dry room atmosphere. The most suitable for growing indoors are the South African sundew Drosera alicia and the American sundew Drosera capillaris (this is the most hardy sundew).
Sarracenia grow well in a room without special care. The soil mixture should be loose and not nutritious: washed quartz sand, chopped sphagnum and high peat (1:2:3) with the addition of pieces of charcoal. Sarracenia often suffer from waterlogging, so they need good drainage. Watering - distilled or clean snow (rain) water. Optimal location for them in the apartment - a window sill, best of all under a constantly ajar window, wintering at t 10-15 ° C.
The Venus flytrap is very fond of children and adults, they put their fingers in it and watch how the small soft mouth closes. The surprising fact is that the reaction rate is only one-thirtieth of a second! This plant also knows how to play the game "edible-inedible", and if the food is suitable, then 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 again go hunting.
It is the Venus flytrap that is most often bred at home and begin to feed. Caught flies are also suitable, and even small pieces of ordinary meat. Therefore, if such an exotic has settled in your house, setting the meat table, do not forget to invite your green friend to him.
Why do the victims of these plants voluntarily climb into deadly traps? Cunning plants share their secrets.
The Venus flytrap closes the trap if you touch its tiny hairs twice.
A hungry fly is looking for something to profit from. Smelling a smell similar to the aroma of nectar, she sits down on a fleshy red leaf - it seems to her that this 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 one ... And then walls grow around the fly. The jagged edges of the leaf close 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 slurry. The fly suffered the greatest humiliation that can befall an animal: it was killed by a plant.
Tropical Nepenthes attracts insects with a sweet aroma, but as soon as the unlucky ones sit on its slippery rim, they immediately slip into its open maw.
Plants versus animals.
The swampy savanna, stretching for 140 kilometers around Wilmington (North Carolina, USA), is the only place on Earth where the Venus flytrap ( Dionaea muscipula) is native. Other species of carnivorous plants are also found here - not so famous and not so rare, but no less amazing. For example, Nepenthes (Nepenthes) with jugs similar to champagne glasses, where insects (and sometimes larger animals) find their death. Or sundew (Drosera), clasping the victim with sticky hairs, and pemphigus (Utricularia), under aquatic plant sucking up prey like a vacuum cleaner.
Many predator plants (and there are more than 675 species) use passive traps. Zhiryanka bristles with sticky hairs that hold the insect while the digestive fluid works.
Plants that feed on animals cause us inexplicable anxiety. Probably, the fact is that such an 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 wildlife that we still use today, refused to believe that such a thing was possible. After all, if the Venus flytrap really devours insects, it violates the order of nature, instituted by God. Linnaeus believed that plants catch insects by chance, and if the unfortunate insect stops twitching, it will be released.
The Australian sundew attracts insects with dew-like droplets, and then clasps them with hairs.
Charles Darwin, on the contrary, was fascinated by the willful behavior of green predators. In 1860, shortly after the 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."
The silhouettes of the caught insects, like shadow theater figures, look through the leaf of the Philippine nepenthes. The wax surface of the inner wall of the jar prevents insects from escaping, and the enzymes at its bottom extract nutrients from the victim.
Darwin spent more than one month experimenting. He planted flies on the leaves of carnivorous plants and watched them slowly compress the hairs around their prey; he even tossed pieces of gluttonous plants raw meat and egg yolk. And he found out: in order to cause a plant reaction, the weight of a human hair is enough.
Smelling the smell of food, the cockroach looks into the jug. Insectivores, like other plants, are engaged in photosynthesis, but most of them live in swamps and other places where the soil is poor in nutrients. The nitrogen they get from feeding on their prey helps them thrive in these difficult conditions.
“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, sundews paid absolutely no attention to drops of water, even if they fell from high altitude. Responding to a false alarm in the rain, Darwin reasoned, would be a big mistake for a plant - so this is not an accident, but a natural adaptation.
Most predatory plants eat some insects, while others are forced to help them in reproduction. In order not to catch a potential pollinator for dinner, the sarracenia keep the flowers away from the trapping jars - on long stems.
Subsequently, Darwin studied other types of predatory plants, and in 1875 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 found that when a leaf closes its edges, it temporarily turns into a "stomach" that secretes enzymes that dissolve the prey.
Their buds hang like Chinese lanterns, luring bees into intricately constructed pollen chambers.
In the course of long observations, Charles Darwin came to the conclusion that it takes more than a week for a predatory leaf to open again. Probably, he suggested, the teeth along the edges of the leaf do not converge completely, so that very small insects can escape, and the plant, thus, would not have to spend energy on low-nutrient food.
Some predatory plants, such as sundew, can pollinate themselves if volunteer insects are not found.
The lightning-fast reaction of the Venus flytrap - its trap slams shut in a tenth of a second - Darwin compared with the contraction of the animal's muscles. However, plants have neither muscles nor nerve endings. How do they manage to react exactly like animals?
If the sticky hair does not grab the big fly firmly enough, the insect, however crippled, will break free. In the world of carnivorous plants, says William McLaughlin, caretaker botanical garden USA, it also happens that insects die, and the "hunters" remain hungry.
Plant electricity.
Today, cell and DNA biologists 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 finally managed to uncover the secret of the Venus flytrap. When an insect touches a hair on the surface of a flycatcher leaf with its paw, a tiny electrical discharge is generated. The charge accumulates in the tissue of the sheet, but it is not enough for the slamming mechanism to work - this is insurance against false alarm. But more often than not, the insect touches another hair, adding a second to the first category, and the leaf closes.
On the South African royal sundew, the largest representative of the genus, a flower blooms. The leaves of this lush plant can reach half a meter in length.
Volkov's experiments show that the discharge travels down the fluid-filled tunnels that pierce the leaf, and this causes the 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. Two leaves collapse and the insect is trapped.
Tiny, thimble-sized, insectivorous plant of the genus Cephalotus from Western Australia prefers to feast on crawling insects. With guide hairs and an alluring smell, it lures ants into its digestive bowels.
The underwater pemphigus trap 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 outer surface bubble, its lid opens, and low pressure draws water inside, and with it the prey. In one five hundredth of a second, the lid closes again. The vesicle cells then pump out the water, restoring the vacuum in it.
The water-filled North American hybrid tempts bees with the promise of nectar and a headband that looks like the perfect landing pad. Eating meat is not the most efficient way for a plant to provide itself with the necessary substances, but, undoubtedly, one of the most extravagant.
Many other types of carnivorous plants resemble adhesive tape from flies: they grab prey with sticky hairs. Pitchers resort to a different strategy: they catch insects in long leaves - jugs. In the largest, the depth of the jugs reaches a third of a meter, and they can even digest some unlucky frog or rat.
The pitcher 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 hold on. Insects that land on the rim of the jar slide in and fall into the viscous digestive fluid. They desperately move their paws, trying to free themselves, but the liquid pulls them to the bottom.
Many carnivorous plants have special glands that secrete enzymes strong enough to penetrate the hard chitinous shell of insects and get to the nutrients hiding underneath. But the purple sarracenia, found in swamps and poor sandy soils in North America, attracts other organisms to digest food.
Sarracenia helps to function a complex food web that includes mosquito larvae, small midges, protozoa and bacteria; many of them can only live in this environment. Animals crush prey falling into a jug, and smaller organisms use the fruits of their labors. Eventually, the Sarracenia absorb the nutrients released during this feast. “Thanks to the animals in this processing chain, all reactions are accelerated,” says Nicholas Gotelli of the University of Vermont. “When the digestive cycle is over, the plant pumps oxygen into the jar so that its inhabitants have something to breathe.”
Thousands of sarracenia grow in the swamps of Harvard Forest, owned by the university of the same name, in central Massachusetts. Aaron Ellison, chief forest ecologist, is working with Gotelli to find out what evolutionary reasons led flora to develop a meat-based diet.
Predatory plants clearly benefit from eating animals: the more flies researchers feed them, the better they grow. But how exactly are sacrifices useful? From them, predators obtain nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients in order to produce enzymes that capture light. In other words, eating animals allows predator plants to do what all members of the flora do: grow, receiving energy from the sun.
The work of green predators is not easy. They have to spend great amount energy to create devices for catching animals: enzymes, pumps, sticky hairs and other things. Sarracenia or flycatcher cannot photosynthesize much because, unlike plants with ordinary leaves, their leaves do not solar panels capable of absorbing light in large quantities. Allison and Gotelli believe that the benefits of a carnivorous life outweigh the costs of living it only if special conditions. The poor soil of swamps, for example, contains little nitrogen and phosphorus, so there predator plants have an advantage over their counterparts who extract these substances in more familiar ways. In addition, there is no lack of sun in the swamps, so even photosynthesisally inefficient predator plants capture enough light to survive.
Nature has more than once made such a compromise. Comparing the DNA of carnivorous and "ordinary" plants, scientists found that different groups of predators are not evolutionarily related to each other, but appeared independently of each other in at least six cases. Some predatory plants, outwardly similar, 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 come from different ancestors.
Bloodthirsty, but defenseless.
Unfortunately, the very properties that allow predator plants to thrive in difficult natural conditions make them extremely sensitive to environmental changes. Many swamps in North America end up with excess nitrogen from nearby agricultural land fertilization and emissions from power plants. Predatory plants are so perfectly adapted to the low nitrogen content in the soil that they cannot cope with this unexpected "gift". “In the end, they just die from overexertion,” Allison says.
Another danger comes from people. The illegal trade in predator plants is so widespread that botanists try to keep secret the places where some rare species are found. Poachers are smuggling Venus flytraps out of North Carolina by the thousands and selling them from roadside stalls. The State Department of Agriculture has for some time been marking wild specimens with safe paint, invisible in normal light but shimmering in ultraviolet light, so that when inspectors find these plants for sale, they 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 malls and residential areas. Forest fires are not allowed to run wild, which gives other plants the opportunity to grow quickly and win the rivalry with venus flytraps.
Flies, perhaps, are happy about this. But for those who admire the astonishing ingenuity of evolution, this is a great loss.
Everyone knows that plants feed on substances removed from the soil (or other plants), they need water, light and - most of them - heat. Many people also know about a flower that eats flies, and for some reason the majority are afraid of it, considering it almost a monster. Meanwhile, predatory plants are simply living organisms, placed by nature in such conditions that they had to survive in a non-standard way. Rather, they deserve respect for their vitality and perseverance in evolution. Strictly speaking, flowers that eat flies are on the same level, for example, with tigers, which are also by no means vegetarians. And besides, most of the plant predators are amazingly beautiful.
Why did predatory plants appear?
In order to become, we had to work hard and grow additional organs and glands in the course of evolution to produce the necessary enzymes. Without such a set, not a single plant could catch, hold and digest an insect. To maintain the functionality of this complex system a flower that eats flies spends a huge amount of energy. Scientists believe that carnivory becomes justified only when the plant lives in a completely certain conditions, because some insectivorous flowers even lost the ability to photosynthesis for the sake of their trapping organs. Such circumstances are soils poor in phosphorus and nitrogen. In other words, swamps. No wonder everyone comes from such areas. The loss of "solar panels" in this case is quite understandable: the plants do not shade, and they have enough of the light that meager leaves produce.
Vulnerability of plant predators
The life of a flower that eats flies is not so simple in itself. An insect, not too successfully and firmly grasped, is quite able to escape from the trap. And even if it dies afterwards, the plant predator will remain hungry. Plus the realities of civilization: in modern world it is precisely those qualities that have been developed over millennia that can destroy flowers that eat flies. Washed from the fields nitrogen fertilizers and discharges from power plants are oversaturated with nitrogen, which kills plant predators. The second threat they cannot defend against is poaching. The increased demand in recent years has encouraged adventurers to seek out wild Venus flytraps and sell them almost on the side of the road. Those copies that remained "in the hands" of sellers are indifferently thrown away. In addition to all these troubles, the result of land development is the disappearance of the habitat of predatory flowers. So, it is quite possible that in the next half century they will remain only in greenhouses and home collections.
Sundew's trappings
In the vastness of our country, almost everyone knows only one flower that eats flies. It bears the name "dew". It is amazing beautiful plant, pubescent with fine hairs that end in droplets of sticky secretions. Insects mistake them for water; an additional incentive to their approach is the aroma of sundew. When the midge is firmly stuck, the leaf begins to slowly curl up. Already in a folded state, he digests his prey.
How does a fat lady hunt?
Another flower that eats flies and is found in the Russian expanses is zhiryanka. She received a not very euphonious name for the mucus with which the leaves are covered. Thanks to it, the surface gleams, as if greased. The mechanism of attracting insects is by smell, the method of use is similar to how the sundew assimilates the victim. Only the leaf does not fold: it is covered with digestive glands. So as soon as the mosquito sticks, it immediately begins to be absorbed.
Venus flytrap (Dionea)
It is because of its method of hunting that this flower, which eats flies, is a tasty prey for a poacher. No other predatory plant closes the trap, and moreover, so effectively. Considering that the leaves are equipped with cloves along the edge, the hunt looks like a trap slammed shut or wolf teeth snapped. Again, the process of digestion is hidden, in contrast to the same butterwort, so that nervous observers are spared from observing the "torment" of the insect and the need to sympathize with it. All these features have made the flycatcher a desirable pet for many indoor growers. There is a very large number of those who want to boast that a flower that eats flies lives on their windowsill. The price stops some, but it cannot be said that it is so excessive. On average, in specialized stores for a Venus flytrap, they ask for 600 rubles; however, small copies can be bought for three times cheaper.
By the way, you can buy not only Dionea from predator plants. Nepenthes, and sarracenia, and sundews, and other carnivorous flowers are on sale - in the same price range.
These amazing plants They are carnivorous because they catch insects and arthropods, secrete digestive juice, dissolve the prey, and in the process receive some or most of the nutrients. Almost all carnivorous plants grow in places where the soil is poor in nutrients.
Here are the most famous predatory plants that use different types of traps in order to lure their prey.
1. Sarracenia
Sarracenia or North American insectivorous plant is a genus of carnivorous plants that are found in areas of the east coast of North America, in Texas, in the Great Lakes, in southeastern Canada, but most are found only in the southeastern states.
This plant uses water lily-shaped traps as a trap. The leaves of the plant have developed into a funnel with a hood-like formation that grows over the opening, preventing rainwater from entering, which can dilute the digestive juices. Insects are attracted to color, smell, and secretions like nectar at the edge of a water lily. The slippery surface and the drug that surrounds the nectar encourage insects to fall inward, where they die and are digested by protease and other enzymes.
2. Nepenthes
Nepenthes, a tropical insectivorous plant, is another species of carnivorous plant with a trap that uses water lily-shaped trapping leaves. There are about 130 species of these plants, which are widely distributed in China, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Madagascar, Seychelles, Australia, India, Borneo and Sumatra. This plant has also earned the nickname "monkey cup" as researchers often observed monkeys drinking rainwater from them.
Most types of Nepenthes are tall vines, about 10-15 meters, with a shallow root system. Leaves are often visible from the stem, 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 to form a cup.
The trap contains a liquid secreted by the plant, which may have a watery or sticky texture, and in which the insects eaten by the plant drown. The bottom of the bowl contains glands that absorb and distribute nutrients. Most of the plants are small and only catch insects, but large species such as Nepenthes Rafflesiana and Nepenthes Rajah can catch small mammals such as rats.
3. Carnivorous plant Genlisea (Genlisea)
Genlisea consists of 21 species, usually grows in humid 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. Such traps are easy to get into, but impossible to get out of because of the small hairs that grow towards the entrance or, as in this case, forward in a spiral.
These plants have two distinct types of leaves: photosynthetic leaves above ground and special underground leaves that lure, trap and digest small organisms such as protozoa. The underground leaves also perform the role of roots, such as water absorption and attachment, since the plant itself does not have them. These underground leaves underground form hollow tubes that look like a spiral. Small microbes get into these tubes with the help of a stream of water, but cannot get out of them. By the time they get to the exit, they will already be overcooked.
4. Darlingtonia California (Darlingtonia Californica)
darlingtonia california is the only member of the genus Darlingtonia that grows in northern California and Oregon. It grows in swamps and cold springs. running water and is considered a rare plant.
Darlingtonia leaves are bulbous in shape and form a cavity with a hole under a balloon-like structure and two sharp leaves that hang down like fangs.
Unlike many carnivorous plants, it does not use trapping leaves to trap, but 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 dense, fine hairs that grow inwards. Insects can follow the hairs deep into the digestive organs, but cannot go back.
5. Pemphigus (Utricularia)
Bladderwort is a genus of carnivorous plants with 220 species. They meet in fresh water or wet soil as terrestrial or aquatic species on all continents except Antarctica.
They are the only carnivorous plants that use the bubble trap. Most species have very small traps in which they can catch very small prey such as protozoa. Traps range from 0.2 mm to 1.2 cm, and larger prey, such as water fleas or tadpoles, fall into large traps.
The bubbles are under negative pressure with respect to the surrounding stop. The opening of the trap opens, sucks in the insect and surrounding water, closes the valve, and all this happens in thousandths of a second.
6. Zhiryanka (Pinguicula)
Oilwort belongs to a group of carnivorous plants that use sticky, glandular leaves to lure and digest insects. Nutrients obtained from insects supplement the soil, which is poor in minerals. There are approximately 80 species of these plants in North and South America, Europe and Asia.
The leaves are succulent and usually bright green or pink in color. There are two special kind cells located on the upper side of the leaves. One is known as the peduncle and is made up of secretory cells at the top of a single stem cell. These cells produce a slimy 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 that aid the digestive process. While many species of butterwort are carnivorous all year round, many types form a dense winter rosette that is not carnivorous. When summer comes, it blooms and has new carnivorous leaves.
7. Sundew (Drosera)
The sundew is one of the largest genera of carnivorous plants, with at least 194 species. They are found on every continent except Antarctica. Sundew can form basal or vertical rosettes from 1 cm to 1 m 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 rest of the tentacles in the direction of the victim in order to further drive it into a trap. Once the insect is trapped, small sessile glands absorb it and the nutrients go to plant growth.
8. Byblis
Byblis or rainbow plant This small view carnivorous plant native to Australia. The rainbow plant gets its name from the attractive slime that coats the leaves in the sun. Despite the fact that these plants are similar to sundews, they are not related to the latter in any way and are distinguished by zygomorphic flowers with five curved stamens.
Its leaves have round section, and most often they are elongated and tapered 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 that land on the leaves or tentacles of the plant.
9. Aldrovanda vesiculosa (Aldrovanda vesiculosa)
Aldrovanda vesicularis is a magnificent rootless, carnivorous aquatic plant. It usually feeds on small aquatic vertebrates using a trap trap.
The plant consists mainly of free-floating stems that reach 6-11 cm in length. Leaves-traps, 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 curl every day. While the plant grows at one end, the other end gradually dies.
The plant trap consists of two lobes that close like a trap. The holes of the trap point outward and are covered with fine hairs that allow the trap to close around any prey that comes close enough. The trap closes in tens of milliseconds, which is one of the fastest movements in the animal kingdom.
10. Venus flytrap (Dionaea Muscipula)
Venus flytrap, perhaps the best-known 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.
The leaf blade is divided into two regions: 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 a red pigment, and the edges secrete mucus.
Dionaea muscipula vs Caterpillar
The leaf lobes make a snapping motion, slamming shut when its sensory hairs are stimulated. The plant is so developed that it can distinguish a living stimulus from a non-living stimulus. Its leaves slam shut in 0.1 second. They are lined with cilia that are as hard as spikes and hold their prey. Once the victim is caught inner surface leaves are gradually stimulated, and the edges of the lobes grow and merge, closing the trap and creating a closed stomach, where the prey is digested.