Sundew Plant Image Huffington Post via Rhys Marstons Horticulture The Cape Sumdew Plant uses its Fly Paper trap to secure this Dragonfly dinner. Water collects in this cup and often provides a habitat for frogs and insects, however in this case, the cup turns into a specialised insect trap. Like most of the plants within the pineapple family, the Bromeliad Brocchinia Reducta has a tightly packed spiral of waxy leaves that form somewhat of a cup.
Once inside, the digestive enzymes and bacteria begin to break down the prey so that the plant can begin to absorb it. The inside of the pitcher plant is covered in a slippery wax, which causes the insects to fall into the pitcher. The pitcher plant uses this trapping mechanism. Pitfall Traps: generally trap their prey within a rolled leaf structure which contains a pool of digestive enzymes at the base. They are a passive trap, attracting prey with nectar secretions. Image via Science Daily Brocchinia reducta Image: University of Conneticut There are at least 583 species of carnivorous plants that trap and kill their prey, each displaying one of the 5 different trapping mechanisms The basic trapping mechanisms of carnivorous plants. Charles Darwin wrote the first literature on this plant type, ‘Insectivorous Plants’, in 1875. Carnivorous plants derive most of their nutrients from eating animals they have trapped within their plant structure, an adaptation due to the environment in which they are found. They are structurally designed to capture their prey in order to survive, and absorb the necessary nutrients from that prey, to thrive. The plants have adapted to life in areas where the soil is thin, or poor in nutrition, but where there is ample light. But in the case of plants, a carnivorous plant, simply eats insects and other anthropods. When you hear the term ‘Carnivorous’, if you are anything like me, you imagine not merely a meat eater, but perhaps even a flesh eating creature, hell, a man eater.
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