Carnivorous plants have been of interest to people for a very long time. Although these flowers exist in real world, in literature, filmography, video games, their abilities are greatly exaggerated. What are carnivorous plants, the main types and their features, we read in this article.
What do predator plants eat?
Basic hallmark predatory plants is the presence of special leaves that can catch their victims. As soon as the plate catches an insect, with the help of the secreted juice, it is instantly digested. Such nutrition helps the plant to receive all the necessary substances.
Flower enzymes quickly dissolve the body of the insect, but the skeletons remain undigested. In this regard, the remains of the victims are often observed inside the opened buds.
Carnivorous plants grow on poor soils. Because of this, they are found in different countries.
Depending on the mechanism of catching prey, predator plants are divided into five subspecies:
- Flowers that catch insects with sticky leaves.
- Representatives with containers in the form of a jug. The capture of the victim is done with the help of a folded sheet. In some species, its surface is covered with bacteria. There are also plants with the presence of digestive enzymes.
- Catching prey is done by sucking into a vacuum bubble.
- Plants that catch prey with flapping leaves.
- Flowers with traps in the shape of a crab claw. The principle of their work is aimed at ensuring that the victim is gradually directed to the area with digestive enzymes.
Carnivorous plants can not only digest insects, but also extract nutrients from them.
All plant traps are divided into passive and active. You can recognize it by the shape of the flowers.
The main varieties of carnivorous plants
Among the large number of species of carnivorous plants, only a few specimens attracted the attention of flower growers.
Carnivorous plant Genlisea (Genlisea)
This variety includes more than 20 varieties. Genlisea develops well in wet soil and with high humidity air. The homeland of such a plant is the southern and central parts of America, Africa.
The flower belongs to the group of undersized plants. Genlisea has colorful buds in a rich yellow hue. In this species, the trap is presented in the form of a crab claw. Thanks to this structure, the flower very easily captures the victim, who, with all their desire, will not be able to get out.
Basically, the habitat of carnivorous plants is Australia, Southeast Asia, North America.
From other carnivorous plants, genlisea differs in leaves. This flower has two varieties. The first is the standard plates responsible for photosynthesis. The second type is predatory, which are in the soil. They are engaged in catching insects and protozoa. It is worth noting that in this plant, predatory leaves are responsible for the functions of the rhizome. They absorb moisture, useful components, and also perform the function of fastening.
Predatory leaves that are in the soil form the so-called hollow spiral tubes. Insects and protozoa get into them along with the water flow, and they can’t get back.
Byblis also belongs to carnivorous plants. Its homeland is the lands of Australia. Byblis is often referred to by the locals as the rainbow plant. All this thanks to the colorful slime on the leafy plates. Under the sun's rays, it is able to shimmer in various shades.
This view looks like. However, biblis is not a relative, even their flowers are different. The leaves of this plant are long and cone-shaped. On their surface, villi grow, releasing a sticky composition. It is these villi that catch insects that land on the surface.
This plant also has no root and belongs to predators. It chooses small aquatic animals as victims. The plant has a trap that serves as a trap.
Aldrovanda feels good in the water. Its stems swim calmly, looking for prey. The length of the shoots, on average, is 10 cm. The leaves are a so-called rosette. They are small, only 1.5-4 mm. The plant catches its prey thanks to the plates on which there are hairs.
The ability to swim appeared in the plant due to the presence of air in the petioles. The plant grows and reproduces very quickly. During the day, it can increase by 5-8 mm. Every day there is a new curl.
The growth of the plant occurs on one side of the stem, and the second part gradually dies off.
The trap leaves have two parts. They close over the victim from two sides. The trap can grab anyone that swims close to the plant due to the villi located outside. It only takes a few milliseconds for a flower to fully close.
Sarracenia or North American insectivorous plant:
- It also belongs to the group of predators.
- The flower grows in the southeast of America and in Canada.
- The trap of the plant is the leaves, creating something similar to a water lily. On top of each such container there is a "hood". It protects the trap from rain falling into it.
- To catch an insect, the plant emits a special smell, and also has an attractive color.
Along the edge of the water lily is a special substance that acts on animals like a drug. Having sank to the edge of the water lily, they can no longer get out, gradually dying. Further digestion occurs with the help of enzymes.
Water can negatively affect the digestive juice that is in the water lily.
General characteristics of Nepenthes
It is also a predator. Like Sarracenia, Nepenthes uses a water lily to lure insects.
This plant includes more than 100 varieties. In the natural environment, they can be found in India, Indonesia, China, Madagascar, the Philippines, Australia and many other countries.
The plant has another name - "monkey cup". It received such a name due to the fact that earlier animals used this flower as a container for drinking water. Outwardly, the plant resembles large creepers, the roots of which are quite small. In length, the plant grows up to 16 meters.
A trap for a nepenthes is a leaf with a tendril, at the tip of which a water lily forms. Plant nutrition process:
- The container opens at the top, forming a trap.
- Inside it, a sticky aqueous liquid is secreted, which attracts insects.
- Once in it, they sink and are digested by the plant.
- At the bottom of the water lily are glands that serve to distribute nutrients.
Small species of Nepenthys are engaged in catching insects, and their larger representatives feed on small animals, such as rats.
Predatory plants are outwardly quite unique and recognizable. Therefore, they are easy to find among other representatives of the fauna. Knowing the features of such colors, their external characteristics and basic care activities, you can choose exactly the look that fits into your room and your lifestyle.
Five types of carnivorous plants - video
Basically, all carnivorous plants grow in areas where the soil contains very little nutrients. By digesting their prey, they obtain nutrients that this soil cannot provide. Below is a list of ten amazing carnivorous plants.
Sarracenia is a genus of carnivorous plants, which gradually moved into the category of indoor plants. Currently, science knows about 10 types of sarracenia. The natural habitat of this plant is the marshy places of North and South America. Careless insects fall into a trap, which is a twisted leaf growing from the root system.
Nepenthes or pitcher
Nepenthes or pitcher - most of these plants grow in the tropical forests of Asia, mainly on the island of Kalimantan, are also found on Seychelles, Madagascar, eastern New Guinea, Northern Australia and New Caledonia. Most water lilies are small and can usually only "lure" insects into their trap, but there are larger species in nature that can easily devour small mammals such as rats.
Genlisey
Genlisea is another type of carnivorous plant that “hunts” with a trap. Science knows 21 species of Genlisei growing throughout Africa, Central and South America. These plants have two various types leaves - photosynthetic, which are above the ground, and specialized underground leaves that serve to trap and digest the smallest organisms. The underground leaves also function as roots, which can burrow into the soil up to a depth of 25 cm.
Darlingtonia Californian is the only member of its genus to grow in swamps in northern California and Oregon. At the top of a fairly long stem, there is a light green trap jar (60 cm in diameter), emitting a pungent odor that attracts insects. They fall into the trap and can no longer get out there. Insects are digested in the digestive juices of the plant, which thus receives additional nutrients.
Pemphigus
Representatives of the genus pemphigus are composed of about 220 species, they are found in fresh water and moist soil on all continents, absent only in Antarctica and a number of oceanic islands. In 2011, scientists from France and Germany recognized pemphigus as the fastest carnivorous plant in the world. The prey is pulled into the predator's trap in less than a millisecond.
The genus of fatwort has approximately 35 species, they can be found in North and South America, Europe and Asia (about 7 species are found in Russia). One of the upper sides of the leaf secretes sugary mucus, which is a trap for small insects, and the rest of the leaves of this carnivorous plant produce an enzyme that helps digest the caught insects. Unlike other genera of the pemphigus family, butterflies have real roots.
To date, about 150 species of sundews are known. These plants are found on almost all types of soil and on all continents except Antarctica. The leaves of this perennial produce a sticky substance containing the alkaloid coniine, which has a paralytic effect on insects. After the victim is trapped, the leaf rolls up. Having absorbed everything useful material, sundew leaf opens again. These plants can live up to 50 years.
Third place in the list of amazing carnivorous plants is Biblis - a small genus of carnivorous plants, which are low shrubs up to 50 cm tall. Found in swampy, moist soils of Northern Australia and New Guinea, as well as in small areas in Western Australia. The surface of the leaves of the plant is completely covered with glandular hairs that secrete a sticky mucous substance that is a trap for small insects. The Byblis plant looks very similar to the sundew genus (4th place), but they are not closely related.
Aldrovanda vesicularis is a perennial aquatic carnivorous plant that feeds on small aquatic vertebrates. This carnivorous plant can be found in Central and Southern Europe, East Asia, India, Africa, Australia. Aldrovanda vesicularis a floating stem (6–11 cm long) without roots, with leaves covered with hairs, when irritated, the leaf halves snap into place (in just 10 milliseconds) and pinch the prey.
The Venus flytrap is the most famous carnivorous plant, as well as one of the most cold-blooded sadistic killers in the animal world. It feeds mainly on insects and arachnids. It grows in a humid temperate climate on the Atlantic coast of the United States. It is a small plant that has 4-7 leaves growing from a short underground stem. Can be grown as indoor plant. A member of a small group of plants capable of rapid movement.
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Once people believed in the existence of amazing creatures: griffins, dragons, unicorns and monsters with human heads. But the most amazing thing was carnivorous plants devouring people. In the 19th century, travelers talked about a tree from Madagascar. They said that he had tentacles like green snakes, tenaciously grabbing prey. Of course, this is just a Victorian tale, but like any fiction, it contained some truth.
The dark side of plants - murder and chaos
Exploring the slopes of Mount Kinabalu in Borneo, Victorian naturalists found something no less amazing - a representative of the fauna with leaves in the form of jars, one of which contained a half-digested rat carcass. This discovery has become sensation.
It attracted the attention of the greatest naturalist of the time - Charles Darwin. Through painstaking experiments, he found that many plants trap and kill insects to feed on them. For this purpose, they used methods no less terrible than any creation of the Victorian fantasy.
Sundew - a flower that eats flies
Over a century later, Charles Darwin proved him wrong. He grew many carnivorous plants for his experiments, but he was most interested in a culture called sundew, or drossera.
Darwin is famous for the theory of the origin of new species, but this unusual flower so impressed him that he wrote: "I am more interested in drossera than the origin of all other species on Earth." Sundew uses leaves for hunting. Insects stick to slime, but at first naturalists thought this was an accident.
Darwin proved that reality is more sinister. The results of the experiment startled and frightened him. He placed various substances on the leaves:
- milk,
- meat,
- paper,
- a rock,
- and even urine.
And he recorded how the plants reacted. Milk made the leaf curl, meat and urine did the same, but the plant did not react to stone and paper. Darwin found that the reaction is provoked by substances containing nitrogen. He also discovered that the plant absorbs nutrients through the leaves. A real predator, like animals.
But why did plants become insectivorous?
Mostly carnivorous plants live in places such as swamps and swamps where the soil is poor. nutrients such as nitrogen. Nitrogen is still there - it walks on six legs. The plant only needs to catch the beetle to get fertilizer.
As in Darwin's experiments, sundew leaves are activated when the insect is stuck. Within half an hour, the nearest hairs lean towards the insect, gluing it stronger. The leaf then wraps around the prey, glands on the surface of the leaf secrete chemicals that dissolve and digest the insect.
Seeing this, Darwin wrote: "Sometimes it seems to me that the drossera is an animal in disguise." In a sense, he was right. In the swamps of Florida, the sundew competes with other predators from the animal world. In some places the ground is completely covered with pink sundew. Most often, there is no shortage of prey, and the sundew eats well.
But the plant has rivals - wolf spiders. The spider weaves a dense web above the ground. If someone steps on the web, then the vibration is transmitted to the spider hiding in its center, and it attacks with lightning speed. When there is not enough prey, the spider increases the size of the web to catch more insects and sundew is deprived of food.
Carnivorous plants also have other competitors. Sundew takes time to kill and digest the victim, and insect throwing attracts attention baby toads. They are found in these humid forests and often steal sundew prey. Sticky sundew traps take different forms: from flat carpets to plants growing up to 2-3 meters in height.
Roridula
Sticky traps are so effective that other plants have developed similar methods. This roridula growing in only a few regions South Africa. Like sundew, it is covered with a sticky substance, although unlike sundew, it is more like resin. Droplets are stickier than sundew slime and catch larger and stronger insects. Roridula does not have digestive glands on its leaves. How does she deal with prey?
A tiny bug helps her - blind bug. The blind man spends his whole life on the roredula. It has a non-stick wax finish and can safely walk through this forest of superglue. The blind bug is a predator. There are hundreds of them on a large plant - more than enough to process all the insects caught by the rodredula. Beetles are careful. Indeed, too large and dangerous prey can attack the trap. So, for the first 10 minutes, the horsefly only assesses the situation and waits until the fly weakens.
Then young growth appears from the wild forest, anticipating a feast. At first, the bugs are outraged by the company - fights break out here and there. But now the prey is almost dead and everyone is not up to pampering. The horsefly has a hard proboscis, no worse than a medical needle, and he sticks it into a fly to suck out the juices.
Even barely born beetles join the meal. After eating, the beetles leave their droppings on the leaves of the Roredula - ready digested fertilizer which is taken up by the plant. Roredula and horseflies are in a symbiotic relationship: without bedbugs, Roridula would not be a predator, and horseflies are found in these sticky branches.
Sticky leaves provide carnivorous plants with all the nutrients they need to survive in humid forests and swamps, but one plant goes even further. In nature, it grows only on small area wet pine forest in North Carolina - Venus flytrap. It evolved from the sticky sundew trap. The slow folding of the leaf turned into a sensitive trap capable of grabbing an insect.
Samples of the plant were sent to Darwin and he grew them in a greenhouse to study. On closer examination, he found that in addition to the spines along the edges of the leaves, there were three fine hairs on the surface of each lobe. It is reasonable to assume that this trigger mechanism. To test, Darwin touched one hair, but the trap did not always work. But when you touched two hairs, the trap immediately slammed shut. There are reasons for this: it takes energy to slam shut.
In nature, the flycatcher lives where it often rains heavily and they absolutely do not need the trap to react to every raindrop. Touching two hairs at the same time is more difficult, and the trap will not work by accident.
To close the trap, you need to touch two hairs with an interval of no more than 20 seconds. The beetle stimulates the first hair by setting off a time bomb. Another touch and the trap slammed shut.
Insects have a fast reaction, but the predator plant is even faster - the trap closes in a third of a second. The thorns along the edges of the leaves intersect like prison bars, but not yet closely. There are reasons for this too: the hairs are so sensitive that they even work on tiny insects, too small for a full meal, and the gaps between the bars of the prison allow small insects to get out.
After a few days, if nothing touches the hairs, the trap opens again. More worthy prey remains inside, continuing to stimulate the hairs. Within a few hours, the walls of the trap close and the cells inner surface secrete substances that kill and digest insects. It is easy to understand why Darwin called the flycatcher the most amazing plant in the world.
Aldrovanda vesicularis
The flycatcher has lesser known relatives that grow in water - Aldrovanda vesicularis. Due to the arrangement of the branches, it looks like water wheel, but its blades are death traps. Each trap is framed by sensitive hairs.
The traps are only a few millimeters long and work like a flycatcher. Aldrovanda hunts barnacles and copepods. It is worth touching the hairs and the trap works almost as quickly as a flycatcher. What startlingly- after all, these traps are in water, which is much denser than air. The caught crustacean is slowly digested.
Darwin investigated sticky traps and traps and proved that these plants are real predators. But there is a third type of trap that Darwin wasn't so sure about: plant pit traps with trapping leaves. He suggested that they were insectivorous and now we know that such traps are the most complex and ingenious of all.
Trapping leaves arose independently of each other in
- both Americas
- in Australia,
- and in Southeast Asia.
They are beautiful, but the beauty of these flowers is deadly. Beneath it lie traps that attract and kill the unwary. This design struck Darwin, he doubted the natural origin so complex systems. And in vain.
Bromeliad
The answer lies in the marshy forests of tropical America. The trees here are hung bromeliads- plants-predators, relatives of pineapples. Many grow as epiphytes, clinging to the branches and trunks of trees to rise above the ground closer to the sun.
But roots hanging in the air cannot absorb water and nutrients from the soil. Instead, the leaves form a well in the center of the plant where water is poured when it rains. There are also leaves falling from trees. So the plants get the water and food they need from a personal source. Or not so personal?
To many creatures, bromeliad funnel flowers look like miniature ponds. In South America, poison dart frogs move from plant to plant in search of an unoccupied well, that is, a place to breed. But some bromeliads are not so hospitable.
Like many bromeliads, bromeliads brochinia in the very center of the plant is a funnel, but inside it is acid and digestive enzymes. Its leaves are waxy and slippery like ice. An ant that has climbed onto such a leaf slips and slides down to the death well, where it will be digested and turned into food.
Sarracenia
Starting with the simplest, nature through natural selection has created more complex traps. One of the most elegant is hidden at the far end of a swampy pine forest in the southeastern United States. This carnivorous plant sarracenia.
They grow long funnel flowers and attract insects. sweet nectar. Trying to get it, insects slide down. The prey falls to the bottom of the trap and cannot get out - it is impossible to climb the inner surface of the funnel. The victim dies, and the plant secretes enzymes and acid, splitting the caught insects.
Droplets of inviting sweet nectar protrude from the underside of the leaf, which is covered with fine hairs that are difficult for the insect to hold on to. Tall conspicuous funnels and attract insects with the promise of nectar just as well bright colors. Insects are so busy eating nectar that they do not notice how it becomes more and more difficult to hold on.
The walls of the funnel are slippery and there is no escape, and the plant secretes digestive enzymes, slowly dissolving the victim. Such a meal makes up for all the costs of producing sweet nectar, but sometimes the work is wasted. The sweet droplets are eaten by a swallowtail butterfly too big to fall into the trap. And in many jugs lives green lynx spider, waiting for an opportunity to intercept prey from a plant.
Conclusion
Today, our interest in these amazing carnivorous plants is as great as after their discovery, and scientists are probably still waiting. new surprises. About a dozen new species of carnivorous plants have been discovered in the last few years, but there are still hundreds of unexplored regions where dozens of new species are waiting to be discovered.
We are just beginning to explore the incredibly complex relationships that predator plants have with animals and other organisms. The Victorian stories about man-eating plants were just myths. But discoveries recent years showed that in the world of insectivorous plants, truth is much more surprising than fiction.
There are many strange plants in the world, but the most strange, perhaps, are predator plants. Most of them feed on arthropods and insects, but there are those who do not refuse a piece of meat. They, like animals, secrete a special juice that helps to break down and digest the victim, receiving the necessary nutrients from it.
Some of these carnivorous plants can be grown at home. Which ones and what they are, we will tell further.
Sarracenia (Sarracenia)
The natural habitat of this plant is East Coast North America, but today it is also found in Texas and southeastern Canada. Sarracenia catches its victims with leaves in a flower, which has the shape of a jug with a deep funnel and a small hood over the hole. This appendage protects the funnel from rainwater, which can dilute the digestive juices inside. It contains various enzymes, including protease. Along the edge of a bright red water lily, juice is released, which resembles nectar in aroma. This trap plant attracts insects. Sitting on its slippery edges, they do not hold on, fall into the funnel and are digested.
Important! Today, there are more than 500 species of similar plants in different parts of the world. Most of them grow in South America, Australia, Africa. But all of them, regardless of species, use one of five methods of catching prey: a flower in the form of a jug, leaves closing like a trap, sucking traps, sticky traps, a crab claw trap.
Nepenthes (Nepenthes)
Tropical plant that feeds on insects. It grows in the form of a creeper, growing up to 15 meters in length. Leaves form on the vine, at the ends of which one tendril grows. At the end of the tendril, a jug-shaped flower eventually forms, which is used as a trap. By the way, this natural bowl collects water that monkeys drink in their natural habitat. For this, it received another name - "monkey cup"
The liquid inside a natural cup is a little sticky, sometimes just liquid. Insects simply drown in it, and then are digested by the plant. This process takes place in the lower part of the bowl, where special glands are located for the absorption and redistribution of nutrients.
Did you know? 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.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.
This insectivorous plant has about 130 species that grow mainly in the Seychelles, Madagascar, the Philippines, as well as in Sumatra, Borneo, India, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and China. Basically, plants form small traps and feed only on insects. But varieties such as Nepenthes Rajah and Nepenthes Rafflesiana do not disdain small mammals. This meat-eating flower quite successfully digests mice, hamsters and medium-sized rats.
Carnivorous plant Genlisea (Genlisea)
This delicate, at first glance, herb grows mainly in South and Central America, as well as in Africa, Brazil and Madagascar. The leaves of many species of the plant, of which there are more than 20, secrete a thick gel to attract and hold prey. But the trap itself is in the soil, where the plant lures insects with attractive scents. 
The trap is a hollow spiral tube that releases the fermented liquid. They are covered with villi on the inside, directed downward from the exit, which does not allow the victim to get out. The tubes also act as the roots of the plant. From above, the plant has neat photosynthetic leaves, as well as a flower on a stem about 20 cm. Depending on the species, the flower may have a different color, but yellow shades predominate. Although genlisea refers to insectivorous plants It feeds mainly on microorganisms.
Darlingtonia Californian (Darlingtonia Californica)
Only one plant is assigned to the genus Darlingtonia - California Darlingtonia. You can find it in the springs and swamps of California and Oregon. Although it is believed that this rare plant prefers running water. The trap is the red-orange leaves of the plant. They have the shape of a cobra's hood, and on top of it is a light green jug, from the end of which two leaves hang. The jug, where insects are lured by a specific aroma, has a diameter of 60 cm. Villi grow inside it towards the digestive organs. Thus, the insect that got inside has only one way - into the depths of the plant. It cannot return to the surface. 
Pemphigus (Utricularia)
The genus of these plants, which includes 220 species, got its name from the huge number of bubbles from 0.2 mm to 1.2 cm, which are used as a trap. The bubbles have negative pressure and a small valve that opens inward and easily sucks insects into the middle along with water, but does not let them out. The plant feeds on both tadpoles and water fleas, as well as the simplest unicellular organisms. The plant has no roots because it lives in water. Above the water releases a peduncle with a small flower. Considered the world's fastest carnivorous plant. It grows on moist soil or in water everywhere except Antarctica. 
Zhiryanka (Pinguicula)
The plant has bright green or pink leaves covered with a sticky liquid that lures and digests insects. The main habitat is Asia, Europe, North and South America.
Important! Today, the popularity of carnivorous houseplants has increased so much that botanists keep secret the places where such plants were found. Otherwise, they are immediately ruined by poachers who are engaged in illegal mining and trade in insectivorous plants.
The surface of the leaves of the oilwort has two types of cells. Some produce a slimy and sticky secretion that appears on the surface in the form of drops. The task of other cells is the production of special enzymes for digestion: esterases, proteases, amylase. Among the 73 plant species, there are those that are active all year round. And there are those who “fall asleep” for the winter, forming a dense, non-carnivorous rosette. When the temperature rises environment the plant produces carnivorous leaves. 
Sundew (Drosera)
One of the most beautiful house plants-predators. In addition, it is one of the largest genera of carnivorous plants. It includes at least 194 species that can be found in almost every corner of the world, except for Antarctica. 
Most species form basal rosettes, but some species produce vertical rosettes up to a meter in height. All of them are strewn with glandular tentacles, at the ends of which are droplets of sticky secretions. The insects attracted by them sit on them, stick, and the socket begins to roll up, closing the victims in a trap. Glands located on the surface of the leaf secrete digestive juice and absorb nutrients.
Byblis (Byblis)
Byblis, despite its carnivorous nature, is also called the rainbow plant. It comes from Northern and Western Australia, and is also found in New Guinea on swampy moist soils. It grows as a small shrub, but sometimes can reach 70 cm in height. Gives beautiful flowers purple hues, but there are also pure white petals. Inside the inflorescence there are five curved stamens. But a trap for insects are leaves with a round section, dotted with glandular hairs. Like sundews, they have a slimy sticky substance at the ends to lure victims. Similarly, there are two types of glands on leaves: those that secrete bait and those that digest food. But, unlike sundew, biblis does not secrete enzymes for this process. Botanists are still arguing and researching about the digestion of food by a plant. 
Aldrovanda vesiculosa (Aldrovanda vesiculosa)
When amateur flower growers are interested in the name of a flower that eats insects, they rarely find out about Aldrovanda vesicularis. The fact is that the plant lives in water, has no roots, and therefore is little used in home breeding. Feeds mainly on crustaceans and small aquatic larvae. 
As traps, it uses filiform leaves up to 3 mm in length, which grow in 5-9 pieces along the circumference of the stem along its entire length. Wedge-shaped petioles filled with air grow on the leaves, which allows the plant to stay close to the surface. At their ends are cilia and a bivalve plate in the form of a shell, covered with sensitive hairs. As soon as they are irritated by the victim, the leaf closes along, grabbing it and digesting it.
The stems themselves reach a length of up to 11 cm. Aldrovand grows rapidly, adding up to 9 mm per day in height, forming a new curl every day. However, as it grows at one end, the plant dies at the other. The plant produces solitary small white flowers.
: Plants get their nutrients from sunlight, animals feed on plants, and carnivores feed on other animals. However, even in this case, there are exceptions to the rule: there are predatory plants that attract animals into the trap and then eat them (mostly insects, but snails, lizards, or even small mammals can also become victims). In this article, you'll learn about 10 carnivorous plants, ranging from the well-known Venus flytrap to the lesser-known Darlingtonia.
Nepenthes
The main difference between tropical pitchers of the genus Nepenthes and other carnivorous plants is the size: the "jug" of this plant can reach a length of more than 30 cm, it is ideal for capturing and digesting not only insects, but also small lizards, amphibians and even mammals. (The doomed animals are attracted to the plant's sweet smell, and once they're in the jar, the Nepenthes begin to digest them, a process that can take up to two months!) There are about 150 species of Nepenthes scattered around the eastern hemisphere; jugs of some plants are used by monkeys as drinking cups (after all, these animals are too big to be in the wrong place in the food chain).
darlingtonia
Darlingtonia is a rare carnivorous plant that grows in the cold waters of the swamps of Oregon and northern California. This is a truly diabolical plant: it not only lures insects into its jar thanks to its sweet aroma, but it has numerous false "exits" in it, because of which its doomed victims commit unsuccessful attempts get out to freedom.
Ironically, naturalists have yet to identify the natural pollinators of Darlingtonia; it is known that certain kind insects collects the pollen of this flower and remains unharmed, but it is not yet known which one.
stylidium
It is still unclear whether the plants of the genus Stylidium are truly carnivorous, or simply trying to protect themselves from pesky insects. Some species are equipped with sticky hairs that capture small insects that have nothing to do with the pollination process, and their leaves secrete digestive enzymes that can slowly dissolve unfortunate victims. Further research is needed to elucidate the significance of consumed insects for the life of the stylidium.
Rosolist
Rosolith grows in nutrient-poor soils along the coasts of Spain, Portugal and Morocco, so it supplements its diet with rare insects. Like many of the other carnivorous plants on this list, roseweed attracts insects with its sweet scent; its leaves contain a sticky slimy substance that does not allow the victim to move, and then with the help of digestive enzymes, the unfortunate insects slowly dissolve and the plant receives the necessary nutrients.
Roridula
Native to South Africa, the roridula is a carnivorous plant, although it cannot actually digest insects captured by its sticky hairs. The plant leaves this task to the blind bugs of the species Pameridea roridulae with which it has a symbiotic relationship. What does Roridula get in return? Bed bug waste is an excellent fertilizer.
By the way, in the Baltic region of Europe, fossils of the roridula, 40 million years old, were discovered, which is evidence of a wider distribution of this species during the Cenozoic era, relative to the current range.
Zhiryanka
The plant got its name because of the wide leaves with an oily coating. This carnivorous plant is native to Eurasia and North, South, and Central America. Victims of fatworm sink into sticky mucus and are slowly dissolved by digestive enzymes. If the insects try to move, the leaves begin to slowly curl up, while the sticky mucus dissolves the proteins of the prey.
Genlisey
Unlike other carnivorous plants on this list, the genlisea's diet likely consists of protozoa and other microscopic organisms, which it attracts and eats using specialized leaves that grow underground. These underground leaves are long, light, and root-like in appearance, but the plant also has regular green leaves that are above ground and are involved in the process. Genlisea is distributed in the regions of Africa, Central and South America.
Venus flytrap
Is another carnivorous plant: maybe not the largest, but certainly the most famous in the family Droseraceae. It is quite small (no more than 15 cm long) and its sticky "trap" is the size of a matchbox.
Interesting! The Venus flytrap, in order to reduce false slams due to falling leaves and pieces of debris, has developed a unique trap mechanism: it only slams when two different inner hairs touch for 20 seconds.
Aldrovanda vesicularis
Aldrovanda vesiculosus is an aquatic version of the flycatcher, has no roots, floats on the surface of lakes and lures animals into its little traps. The trap of this plant-predator is capable of slamming shut in 1/100 of a second. Aldrovanda and the Venus flytrap have a common ancestor - a carnivorous plant that lives during the Cenozoic era.
Cephalot
The cephalot attracts insects with its sweet scent and then lures them into a jug where the unfortunate prey is slowly digested. To further confuse the prey, the lids of these jars look like translucent cages that give the prey hope to get out of them.
Unusually, the cephaloth is related to flowering plants(for example, apple trees and oaks), which is not typical for other carnivorous plants.
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