Fangs. Dionaea muscipula, Venus Fly Trap, and its Flower, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
A couple of days ago I posted a photo of Sundew, with its characteristic insect-catching 'glues'. Here's another way Carnivorous Plants catch their prey; more movement to this one! The end the leaves of Venus Fly Trap are two-lobed Bandersnatchy, fanged traps. Insects are lured by nectar-like secretions on the inside surface of those traps, smooth but for some very small trigger-hairs. When an insect touches two of these hairs within a few seconds, the trap snaps shut, thus capturing it. The more an insect struggles, the more digestive dissolvers are released by our plant. In its struggles, an insect is likely to secrete uric acid (a bit like humans pissing their pants out of fear or shock), and that only quickens the plant's process of digestion (something discovered by that fabulously versatile naturalist Charles Darwin in the mid-1870s). After a week or so, the trap will open to let the wind blow away the insect's now dry-sucked remains... Meanwhile, the plant will have gleaned essential nutrients such as phosphorous and nitrogen, absent from the soil of its habitat but necessary for Fly Trap's life.
The right inset shows a Venus Fly Trap Flower, the left some traps with an insect - at least partly digested - in one of them. The stalks in the middle are the flower stems which tower high above the lowly fangs.
The English name is a direct translation of the Latin scientific moniker.
Fangs. Dionaea muscipula, Venus Fly Trap, and its Flower, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
A couple of days ago I posted a photo of Sundew, with its characteristic insect-catching 'glues'. Here's another way Carnivorous Plants catch their prey; more movement to this one! The end the leaves of Venus Fly Trap are two-lobed Bandersnatchy, fanged traps. Insects are lured by nectar-like secretions on the inside surface of those traps, smooth but for some very small trigger-hairs. When an insect touches two of these hairs within a few seconds, the trap snaps shut, thus capturing it. The more an insect struggles, the more digestive dissolvers are released by our plant. In its struggles, an insect is likely to secrete uric acid (a bit like humans pissing their pants out of fear or shock), and that only quickens the plant's process of digestion (something discovered by that fabulously versatile naturalist Charles Darwin in the mid-1870s). After a week or so, the trap will open to let the wind blow away the insect's now dry-sucked remains... Meanwhile, the plant will have gleaned essential nutrients such as phosphorous and nitrogen, absent from the soil of its habitat but necessary for Fly Trap's life.
The right inset shows a Venus Fly Trap Flower, the left some traps with an insect - at least partly digested - in one of them. The stalks in the middle are the flower stems which tower high above the lowly fangs.
The English name is a direct translation of the Latin scientific moniker.