Insectivorous Plants
INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS
An insectivorous plant, also called a carnivorous plant, captures prey items, such as insects, spiders, crustaceans, mites, and protozoans, as a nitrogen source. Many insectivorous species live in freshwater bogs, where nitrogen is not present in available form, because the pH of the water is extremely acid.
The forms of entrapment by these types of plants are modified leaves.
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.[5]
Pitfall traps
Main article: Pitcher plant
Pitfall traps are thought to have evolved independently on at least four occasions. 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
An insectivorous plant, also called a carnivorous plant, captures prey items, such as insects, spiders, crustaceans, mites, and protozoans, as a nitrogen source. Many insectivorous species live in freshwater bogs, where nitrogen is not present in available form, because the pH of the water is extremely acid.
The forms of entrapment by these types of plants are modified leaves.
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.[5]
Pitfall traps
Main article: Pitcher plant
Pitfall traps are thought to have evolved independently on at least four occasions. 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