Scribd
Upload
18 views1 page

1-Carni̇vorous Plants

Carnivorous plants derive some or most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans. They have adapted to grow in nutrient-poor soil. True carnivory evolved independently six times and is represented by over 600 species across a dozen genera that attract, trap, and digest prey to absorb nutrients. Five basic trapping mechanisms are used - pitfall, flypaper, snap, bladder, and lobster-pot traps - which can be active or passive in capturing prey.

Uploaded by

blarozb
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
18 views1 page

1-Carni̇vorous Plants

Carnivorous plants derive some or most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans. They have adapted to grow in nutrient-poor soil. True carnivory evolved independently six times and is represented by over 600 species across a dozen genera that attract, trap, and digest prey to absorb nutrients. Five basic trapping mechanisms are used - pitfall, flypaper, snap, bladder, and lobster-pot traps - which can be active or passive in capturing prey.

Uploaded by

blarozb
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 1

CARNİVOROUS PLANTS

Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients (but not energy) from
trapping and consuming animals or protozoans, typically insects and other arthropods.
Carnivorous plants have adapted to grow in places where the soil is thin or poor in nutrients,
especially nitrogen, such as acidic bogs and rock outcroppings. Charles Darwin wrote
Insectivorous Plants, the first well-known treatise on carnivorous plants, in 1875.

True carnivory is thought to have evolved independently six times in five different orders of
flowering plants, and these are now represented by more than a dozen genera. These include
about 630 species that attract and trap prey, produce digestive enzymes, and absorb the
resulting available nutrients. Additionally, over 300 protocarnivorous plant species in several
genera show some but not all these characteristics.

Five basic trapping mechanisms are found in carnivorous plants.

1. Pitfall traps (pitcher plants) trap prey in a rolled leaf that contains a pool of digestive
enzymes or bacteria.
2. Flypaper traps use a sticky mucilage.
3. Snap traps utilize rapid leaf movements.
4. Bladder traps suck in prey with a bladder that generates an internal vacuum.
5. Lobster-pot traps force prey to move towards a digestive organ with inward-pointing
hairs.

These traps may be active or passive, depending on whether movement aids the capture of
prey. For example, Triphyophyllum is a passive flypaper that secretes mucilage, but whose
leaves do not grow or move in response to prey capture. Meanwhile, sundews are active
flypaper traps whose leaves undergo rapid acid growth, which is an expansion of individual
cells as opposed to cell division. The rapid acid growth allows the sundew tentacles to bend,
aiding in the retention and digestion of prey.

The sundew species Drosera glanduligera employs a unique trapping mechanism with
features of both flypaper and snap traps; this has been termed a catapult-flypaper trap.

Pitfall traps are thought to have evolved independently on at least four occasions. In general
they are phytotelmata, water bodies collected or secreted into specialised containers, and
ultimately held by plants for various functions such as in particular, the trapping and digestion
of prey. The simplest ones are probably those of Heliamphora, the marsh pitcher plant. In this
genus, the traps are clearly derived evolutionarily from a simple rolled leaf whose margins
have sealed together. These plants live in areas of high rainfall in South America such as
Mount Roraima and consequently have a problem ensuring their pitchers do not overflow. To
counteract this problem, natural selection has favoured the evolution of an overflow similar to
that of a bathroom sink—a small gap in the zipped-up leaf margins allows excess water to
flow out of the pitcher.

You might also like