How do carnivorous plants work?

Normally plants can create their own food source. They take carbon dioxide from the air, groundwater, underground minerals and photosynthesis from sunlight.

How to catch prey of carnivorous plants

However, there are a few plants that specialize in taking minerals not from soil but by trapping and eating animals.

Carnivorous plants have many ways to trap animals. Pitcher plant, yellow trumpet (yellow trumpet) or sundew (sundew) share the same way of trapping insects as using substances with sweet and aromatic odor to attract insects.

The pitcher tree mainly develops a system of giant leaves, cambered meniscus, forming a vase with a lid on the mouth. The inside of the bottle is lined with long, downward-looking fibers to bring the insects deeper, and the surface is full of sticky plastic, making it difficult for the victim to crawl. The bottom of the jar is a special storage chamber that destroys prey into food to help them get more nutrients after the above processes are completed.

A close-up of the bait trap process

Even in the golden trumpet tree (carnivorous tree shaped like a trumpet), in nectar also contains anesthetic that makes the victim only need to taste a small amount enough to roll and fall unconscious deadly pit.

The mechanism of feeding on the shrimps relies mainly on sticky mucus and tentacles. Initially, they emitted a charming fragrance to entice insects to reach and lower their feet to the surface of leaves covered with sensitive tentacles.

Each tentacle has a string of colloidal liquid on the top of the head. The victim has just touched his foot and is stuck to the leaf's face, the more he struggles, the more tight the tentacles are.

Then, the sticky particles quickly find their way into the animal's respiratory system, causing it to choke in a blink of an eye. At that time, the culling substance was excreted and moments later the prey body had turned into a feast for the ' witch ' tree .

The rimmed tree catches prey

There is also a venus flytrap tree (scientific name Dionaea muscipula) living in Carolina (USA).

The leaves are shaped like two bottle caps with each other with bristling teeth, inside the leaves are two very sensitive hairs. As long as the insect lands and touches these two hairs, the leaves immediately turn away, making the insects unable to escape. Inside, the decomposing substance will erupt to kill the victim and turn them into nutrients for the plant.

Several other large carnivorous plants are known, such as Nepenthes and Amorphophallus titanum (both from Indonesia). They have the ability to trap large insects, even small animals like rats, lizards and frogs.

Sundry (sundew)

Venus flytrap tree (scientific name Dionaea muscipula)

Golden trumpet (yellow trumpet)

Tree Amorphophallus titanum

Nepenthes tree

Pitcher plant