jlr7351
Attack of the clones!
This is a photograph of a familiar plant doing what we all know it so well for. The scientific name for this plant is Dionaea muscipula, its common name is the Venus flytrap. If you look closely you can see there are insect husks within several open traps.
D. muscipula is endemic to Southeastern North Carolina. That means this organism originated here and only naturally exists within an estimated 100 mile range. The natural habitat for D. muscipula are pocosins which are wetland bogs with peat soil and woody shrubs throughout. Pocosins do not drain naturally and the accumulation of orgnic matter in these areas over time creates an acidic, nutrient poor soil.
To compensate for the lack of nutrients in their niche, D. muscipula have developed other means to make due. Highly modified leaves, which are believed to have only evolved once, are what comprise the insectivorous traps. With sensitive trigger hairs that can discern time, these plants can capture insects and other prey to fill their nutritional needs (mostly Nitrogen).
These may be facts that most of you are already aware of and are not in any way impressed right now. However, for those of you with a good eye you may have noticed something peculiar about this plant. Flytraps grow in rosettes, or crown-like arrangements attaching at a common point. Venus flytraps, like many other plant species, can produce clones from their rhizomes. A typical plant will have up to seven petioles and anything additional can be separated from the parent plant and grown individually. This plant has many petioles and they are all very small, most around 5mm or less. This is much smaller but in much greater numbers than normal.
How is that?
This plant is the product of tissue culture, or micropropagation. Not only was this plant grown in a test tube, it's been alive and well for nearly a decade! From one small section of tissue, a clonal mass was grown with roots, rhizomes, petioles, and even traps (which it didn't need to use in vitro). In the laboratory these plants survive in a gelatinous medium with dissolved sugars and other nutrients. For the purpose of research and education this plant has been subdivided many times and has finally endured a process known as hardening. Hardening is the acclimation of plants to outdoor conditions. This plant has successfully adapted to its new life in soil and is now thriving and doing what it does best, catching bugs and digesting them one at a time.
Resources:
on pocosins
oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/pocosin.html
recent research on D. muscipula and it's pollinators
news.ncsu.edu/2018/02/venus-flytraps-2018/
a cool video with David Attenborough
www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7eQKSf0LmY&t=108s
Attack of the clones!
This is a photograph of a familiar plant doing what we all know it so well for. The scientific name for this plant is Dionaea muscipula, its common name is the Venus flytrap. If you look closely you can see there are insect husks within several open traps.
D. muscipula is endemic to Southeastern North Carolina. That means this organism originated here and only naturally exists within an estimated 100 mile range. The natural habitat for D. muscipula are pocosins which are wetland bogs with peat soil and woody shrubs throughout. Pocosins do not drain naturally and the accumulation of orgnic matter in these areas over time creates an acidic, nutrient poor soil.
To compensate for the lack of nutrients in their niche, D. muscipula have developed other means to make due. Highly modified leaves, which are believed to have only evolved once, are what comprise the insectivorous traps. With sensitive trigger hairs that can discern time, these plants can capture insects and other prey to fill their nutritional needs (mostly Nitrogen).
These may be facts that most of you are already aware of and are not in any way impressed right now. However, for those of you with a good eye you may have noticed something peculiar about this plant. Flytraps grow in rosettes, or crown-like arrangements attaching at a common point. Venus flytraps, like many other plant species, can produce clones from their rhizomes. A typical plant will have up to seven petioles and anything additional can be separated from the parent plant and grown individually. This plant has many petioles and they are all very small, most around 5mm or less. This is much smaller but in much greater numbers than normal.
How is that?
This plant is the product of tissue culture, or micropropagation. Not only was this plant grown in a test tube, it's been alive and well for nearly a decade! From one small section of tissue, a clonal mass was grown with roots, rhizomes, petioles, and even traps (which it didn't need to use in vitro). In the laboratory these plants survive in a gelatinous medium with dissolved sugars and other nutrients. For the purpose of research and education this plant has been subdivided many times and has finally endured a process known as hardening. Hardening is the acclimation of plants to outdoor conditions. This plant has successfully adapted to its new life in soil and is now thriving and doing what it does best, catching bugs and digesting them one at a time.
Resources:
on pocosins
oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/pocosin.html
recent research on D. muscipula and it's pollinators
news.ncsu.edu/2018/02/venus-flytraps-2018/
a cool video with David Attenborough
www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7eQKSf0LmY&t=108s