Carnivorous Plants (Pitcher Plants)
Carnivorous Plants (Pitcher Plants or Insectivorous Plants) are carnivorous because they live in nutrient poor soils like bogs. These plants get the food they need by digesting prey. It is estimated that there are over 600 species of carnivorous plants. It can eat spiders, bees, snails, small frogs, and other small animals.
Trapping mechanisms:
Trapping mechanisms:
- Pitfall trap : It trap prey in a rolled leaf that contains a pool of digestive enzymes or bacteria
- Flypaper trap : It use a sticky mucilage
- Snap trap : It utilize rapid leaf movements
- Bladder trap : It suck the prey with a bladder that generates an internal vacuum
- Lobster-pot trap : It force the prey to move towards a digestive organ with inward-pointing hairs
Venus Flytraps:
The leaves of Venus' Flytrap open wide and on them are short, stiff hairs called trigger or sensitive hairs. When anything touches these hairs enough to bend them, the two lobes of the leaves snap shut trapping whatever is inside. In a few minutes the trap will shut tightly and secretes digestive juices. It dissolves the soft, inner parts of the insect, but not the tough, outer part called the exoskeleton. At the end of the digestive process, which takes from five to twelve days, the trap reabsorbs the digestive fluid and then reopens. The leftover parts of the insect, the exoskeleton, blow away in the wind or are washed away by rain. The time it takes for the trap to reopen depends on the size of the insect, temperature, the age of the trap, and the number of times it has gone through this process.
Nepenthes Mirabilis:
Nepenthes mirabilis is a tropical carnivorous plant species of the pitfall trap variety. It is a plant growing about 3 feet high which carries at the end of its leaves, which are 7 inches long, a hollow flower or fruit resembling a small vase, with its own lid.
Drosera Capensis (Sundew):
The has a panel-like development, therefore it tends to widen very much. These plants are perennial herbs. The elongate leaf of a sundew plant covered with dense, gland-tipped hairs and the flies will be slowly, enzymatically digested and absorbed by the plant.
Sarracenia flava:
This plant's leaves have evolved into a funnel in order to trap insects, digesting their prey with proteases and other enzymes. The insects are attracted by a nectar-like secretion on the lip of pitchers, as well as a combination of color and scent. Slippery footing at the pitchers' rim, causes insects to fall inside, where they die and are digested by the plant as a nutrient source.
