Monday, June 29, 2009
Carnivorous plants (sometimes called insectivorous 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.
There are five basic trapping mechanisms 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.
Nepenthes pitchers hang from tendrils
N. rajah, also occasionally take small mammals and reptiles.
Cobra lilies (Darlingtonia californica) use window-like aeriolae to lure insects into their hollow leaves
The Albany Pitcher Plant is the only member of the Australian genus Cephalotus
Heliamphora chimantensis
Sarracenia (the pitcher plant genus most commonly encountered in cultivation, because it is relatively hardy and easy to grow.)
Butterwort with prey
A sundew with a leaf bent around a fly trapped by mucilage.
The leaf of a Drosera capensis bending in response to the trapping of an insect
Cephalotus
The snap traps of Dionaea muscipula close rapidly when triggered to trap prey between two lobes.
Sarracenia psittacina, also known as the Parrot pitcher plant, is a carnivorous plant in the genus Sarracenia. Like all the Sarracenia, it is native to North America.
Sarraceniaceae
