Amazing Insectivore Plants

Plants live and grow depending on their habitat. Some plants live in places where they can’t get enough nutrition from the soil. Instead of dying, there are several plants that develop unique ability to catch insect so they can fulfill their needs. Amongst them, there are…

Nephentes
(Pitcher Plant/Monkey Cup)

There are over 90 listed species of the genus Nephentes. The pitcher plant can be found in tropical habitats in Australia, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.

Nephentes is a native to Southeast Asia and Australia

How do Pitcher Plant catches its food?

          As we can guess from the name, it forms pitchers (cups) that hang from trees. This kind of trap is called pitfall trap. Mostly, it attracts insect with the odor of nectar and sometimes a red coloration.

          The interior surface of the pitcher is slippery; it is covered by a flaxy wax. It may struggles to climb, but there is no way out. Eventually, it falls into the water and struggles to escape. The motion stimulates digestive glands to release a digestive acid.

… and that is the end of the poor insect.

* The digetive acid is so strong that a midge will dissapear within hours

* If the pitcher is big enough, it is able to digest mice or frogs.

Dionaea muscipula

(Venus Flytrap)

Venus flytrap is one of the most popular and amazing carnivorous plant. And no wonder, because its ability to catch its prey is indeed amazing. It is also one of the easiest carnivorous plants to grow.

This plant’s growth in the wild is restricted to southeastern United States of America.

How do Venus Flytrap catches its food?

It has series of tiny hair near the crease where the 2 leaf ‘jaws’ join. If an insect walk across these hairs, the leaf will close quickly enough to prevent the insect escaping. Glands on the leaf surface then secrete several digestive enzymes.

This kind of trap is called snap trap.





Want to grow your own carnivorous plant?

Nephentes: http://nepenthesaroundthehouse.com/

Venus flytrap: http://www.flytrapcare.com/

Drosera

(The Sundew)

Currently, there are 152 listed species occupying temperate and tropical habitats throughout the world. The sundew can be found in every continent except Antarctica. The sundews, so named because their glandular leaf hairs glisten like dew in the sun.

How do Sundew catches its food?

Drosera (sundew), is a slow trap compared to the one in Venus Flytrap. However, the sundew relies on first trapping its prey with its sticky, glandular hairs (figure 1). Then, it slowly rolls up the edges of the leaf.

Byblis

(Rainbow Plant)

The genus Byblis is currently thought to contain five species (B. aquatica, B. filifolia, B. gigantea, B. liniflora and B. rorida). Byblis is native to Australia and typically is a desert plant.

How do Sundew catches its food?

Byblis resembles our sundew, Drosera. It has sticky hairs that trap insects when they are fooled into thinking that the glandular secretions are drops of nectar. But Byblis differs from the sundew because its hairs do not curl around the captured prey.

Byblis’s trap is called flypaper.

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