Of all the strange plants in the world, there are even some that eat flesh. Well, maybe not flesh exactly, but insects, but they are considered carnivorous nonetheless. All carnivorous plants are found in places where the soil is poor in nutrients. These amazing plants are considered carnivorous because they catch insects and arthropods, secrete digestive juices, dissolve the prey, and in the process obtain some or most of the nutrients.
Why do plants become predators?
Almost all plants feed on the juices of the earth. To obtain them, they have a root system, often quite branched. It is through it that useful substances from the soil enter the stem, are absorbed and transformed into fiber, leaves, wood, and beautiful inflorescences that please the eye. The more fertile the soil, the more opportunities the plant has. This principle applies to all representatives of the flora. But, unfortunately, soils are not fertile everywhere. A carnivorous plant that feeds on insects is forced to obtain substances that are necessary for its vital functions, for one simple reason - there is nowhere else to get them, because predators live on very poor soils. And yet they develop perfectly. Moreover, many gardeners grow carnivorous plants at home.
How do carnivorous plants feed?
During the course of evolution, the leaves of carnivorous plants have undergone serious changes: they have turned into special trapping organs: sticky traps, instantly triggered traps, water lilies filled with digestive fluid. For example, the leaf of the sundew is covered with droplets of sticky substance. For this shiny scattering, the Americans call the plant the herb of precious stones.
1. Nepenthes
Most varieties of Nepenthes grow in tropical Asia. They especially prefer the island of Kalimantan. Nepenthes are widespread from the Seychelles and Madagascar to New Guinea, Northern Australia and New Caledonia. The plant trap contains a watery or sticky liquid in which insects that decide to sit on the plant drown. There are large species of Nepenthes that are capable of catching not only insects, but also small mammals, such as rats.
By the way, people keep some carnivorous plants at home as houseplants.
2. Venus flytrap
In nature, the Venus flytrap is found mainly in the humid temperate climate on the Atlantic coast of the United States. The plant hunts insects using traps that can slam shut very quickly, in about 0.1 seconds. Along the edge of the leaves are dense cilia that prevent the victim from getting out. After which the lobes close tightly, thereby forming a stomach in which the digestive process takes place. The Venus flytrap is able to distinguish live prey from just garbage that has fallen into the trap. Thus, the trap slams shut only when an insect sits on it.
3. Darlingtonia californica
The plant grows in northern California and Oregon. Insectivorous plants amaze with the variety of methods of misleading their victims. Thus, the Californian darlingtonia, which hunts near rivers, lakes and springs with cool water, has the shape of an onion. In the center of this miracle of nature there is a hole with two fang-like leaves, quite sharp. Darlingtonia itself lives under water. Its difference is that it does not use leaves for catching, insects get inside it through a “crab claw”, an asymmetrical petal. But the main catch is in the color disorientation of the victim, achieved by a multitude of light-shadow transitions, into which the insect plunges, finding itself inside. These insectivorous plants simply drive their victims crazy with the help of specks on the light-conducting shell, and they can no longer understand where is up and where is down. In addition, the hairs give them the right direction. As a result, the victim of the Californian darlingtonia descends into the depths, where the digestion process takes place.
4. Aldrovanda vesiculosus
Aldrovanda vesiculosa grows in Western Europe; Eastern, Central and South-Eastern Asia; the Far East; the Caucasus; Africa. The plant lives in water. The diet of Aldrovanda vesiculosa consists mainly of small aquatic vertebrates.
Aldrovanda vesiculosus is a magnificent rootless, carnivorous aquatic plant. It typically feeds on small aquatic vertebrates using a trap-like structure.
The plant consists mainly of free-floating stems that reach 6-11 cm in length. The trap leaves, 2-3 mm in size, grow in 5-9 whorls down the center of the stem. The trap leaves are attached to petioles that contain air, allowing the plant to float. It is a fast-growing plant and can reach 4-9 mm per day and in some cases produce a new whorl every day. While the plant grows at one end, the other end gradually dies.
The plant's trap consists of two lobes that snap shut like a trap. The trap's openings face outward and are covered in fine hairs that allow the trap to close around any prey that gets close enough. The trap snaps shut in tens of milliseconds, making it one of the fastest movements in the animal kingdom.
5. Sundew
This plant can be found on any continent except Antarctica. Sundew can form basal or vertical rosettes from 1 cm to 1 m in height and can live up to 50 years. The glandular tentacles of the sundew have sticky and sweet secretions. When an insect lands on the sticky tentacles, the plant begins to move the remaining tentacles in the direction of the victim in order to further drive it into a trap. As soon as the insect is trapped, small sessile glands absorb it and the nutrients go to the growth of the plant.
6. Biblis
Byblis or Rainbow Plant is a small species of carnivorous plant native to Australia. Rainbow Plant gets its name from the attractive slime that coats the leaves in the sun. Although these plants resemble sundews, they are not related to the latter and have zygomorphic flowers with five curved stamens.
Its leaves have a round cross-section, and are most often elongated and conical at the end. The surface of the leaves is completely covered with glandular hairs that secrete a sticky mucous substance that serves as a trap for small insects that land on the leaves or tentacles of the plant.
7. Sarracenia
Sarracenia or North American pitcher plant is a genus of carnivorous plants that are found in areas of the east coast of North America, Texas, the Great Lakes, southeastern Canada, but most are found only in the southeastern states.
This plant uses lily pad-shaped trap leaves as a trap. The plant's leaves have evolved into a funnel with a hood-like structure growing over the opening, preventing rainwater from entering and diluting the digestive juices. Insects are attracted to the color, smell, and nectar-like secretions at the edge of the pad. The slippery surface and the narcotic substance that rims the nectar cause insects to fall in, where they are killed and digested by protease and other enzymes.
8. Butterwort
Butterworts are a group of carnivorous plants that use sticky, glandular leaves to lure and digest insects. The nutrients they get from the insects supplement mineral-poor soil. There are about 80 species of these plants in North and South America, Europe, and Asia.
The leaves of the butterwort are succulent and usually bright green or pink in color. There are two specialized types of cells found on the upper side of the leaves. One is known as a peduncle gland and consists of secretory cells found on top of a single stem cell. These cells produce a mucilaginous secretion that forms visible droplets on the surface of the leaves and acts like Velcro. The other cells are called sessile glands and they sit on the surface of the leaf, producing enzymes such as amylase, protease, and esterase that aid in the digestive process. While many types of butterwort are carnivorous all year round, many types form a dense winter rosette that is not carnivorous. When summer comes, it flowers and produces new carnivorous leaves.
9. Pemphigus
A unique bubble trap is typical for a plant with the sonorous name Utricularia. It is small, the largest of the bubbles reach a centimeter or a little more. Accordingly, the prey is modest, the bladderwort feeds on tadpoles and water fleas. But the diversity and habitat are impressive. There are more than two hundred species, and you can meet this predator almost everywhere, except perhaps the tundra or Antarctica. The technique used in hunting is also unusual. A small vacuum is generated inside the bubbles, and the flower, like a small vacuum cleaner, sucks in insects floating by along with water. This happens very quickly, the entire process from opening the trap hole to sealing it takes some microseconds.
10. Genlisea
Genlisea consists of 21 species, usually growing in moist terrestrial and semi-aquatic environments and distributed in Africa and Central and South America.
Genlisea are small, yellow-flowered herbs that use a crab-claw type trap. These traps are easy to get into but impossible to get out of because of the small hairs that grow toward the entrance or, in this case, forward in a spiral.
These plants have two different types of leaves: photosynthetic leaves above ground and specialized underground leaves that trap, entrap, and digest small organisms such as protozoa. The underground leaves also perform the role of roots, such as water absorption and anchorage, since the plant itself does not have these. These underground leaves form hollow tubes underground that look like a spiral. Small microbes are drawn into these tubes by the flow of water, but cannot escape. By the time they reach the exit, they have already been digested.
How to grow carnivorous plants at home?
Even experienced gardeners admit that it is not easy to grow such plants. However, all the difficulties in growing and caring for them are more than compensated by the opportunity to observe these unique plants, feed them with annoying midges and mosquitoes. Carnivorous indoor plants need special attention and proper care. Carnivorous plants act as "orderlies", destroying insects in the apartment. Of the more than 600 species of carnivorous plants, only two dozen are cultivated as houseplants. The following are grown most often: sundew (round-leaved, English, royal); nepenthes (some species); purple sarracenia; butterwort; heliamphora; Venus flytrap; aldrovanda (aquatic plant). For them, it is necessary to create certain conditions in the apartment.
Lighting
All carnivorous plants need good lighting, preferably diffused light. Some species are not even afraid of direct sunlight. With insufficient lighting, plants with leaves colored orange, red, crimson, burgundy change it to green, losing their brightness and decorativeness. The same can be said about modified leaves that are intended for hunting: pitchers, funnels, traps. Tropical predators are especially sensitive to lack of lighting - darlingtonia, nepenthes. In winter, they need additional lighting.
Temperature
In the room where such an unusual plant grows, it is necessary to maintain the temperature usual for a certain species. In other words, it should be close to natural. Carnivorous indoor plants from a moderate climate: butterworts, sundews, sarracenia, Venus flytrap - feel great at a temperature of +18 ... 22 ° C. However, they do not suffer if the temperature drops to +10 ° C. It is interesting that butterworts, sundews and frost-resistant varieties of sarracenia can be successfully grown in open ground, near artificial reservoirs. A representative of the tropics - nepenthes - requires a higher temperature - from 22 to 25 ° C. Substrate Carnivorous plants at home are planted in soil similar to the natural composition of the soil. It should be acidic, with a pH of 5.0 to 6.2, not containing a large number of mineral and organic components. For example, you can use a mixture of peat and sphagnum sand in a ratio of 3:1. Sometimes peat is replaced by coconut fiber, and sand is replaced by perlite.
Humidity and watering
Carnivorous houseplants are watered with warm (19-22°C) soft water. In summer, water three times a week, and once a week in winter. Often, novice gardeners face the main problem when growing carnivorous houseplants - providing the necessary air humidity. For the plant to grow normally and actively develop, most species need high air humidity - more than 60%. Tropical species (nepenthes, darlingtonia) require humidity of about 85%. Otherwise, the plants will lose their decorative effect: the tips of the leaves, on which the traps and pitchers are located, dry out, and do not appear on new leaves. To maintain the necessary air humidity, regular spraying of the plant is not enough. Many use a tray with expanded clay or pebbles poured into it. Pour water into it so that it does not touch the bottom of the flower pot. It is best to grow carnivorous plants in florariums or winter gardens. If this is not possible, use special air humidifiers.
Feeding
In indoor floriculture, green predators, as in natural conditions, need additional nutrition. Predators are fed, as expected, with protein food. Horseflies, flies, cockroaches, spiders, small slugs are suitable for this. Active predators (Venus flytrap) are fed using tweezers: carefully bring the insect to the open trap and release it into the trap. As soon as the sensitive hairs feel the touch of the prey, the trap will instantly slam shut.
