Q: Exactly how do these plants capture prey?
Drosera × hybrida
Pinguicula macroceras
Sarracenia × moorei
Utricularia intermedia
A: Sounds like you are interested in the gory details, eh?
Each kind of carnivorous plant
has its own tricks to attract and capture prey. Some
have brightly
colored nectar-like orbs or patches of pigmentation on their traps to beguile prey. Some duplicitous and
hungry carnivores are sweetly scented. Some bear parts which are
sticky and gummy, slippery and wet, or fashioned in a way so insidious that captured
prey are unable to escape. Downward-pointing hairs, or slippery chambers complete with a gravitational field complicate the
possibility of escape for many foolish prey.
Vile tricks abound, such as snapping jaws, sucking bladders, and woefully
efficient narcotic compounds. The beasts drawn to the plants are doomed.
But if you want details about each genus (and who doesn't?) then
you may wish to look at the
descriptions I have for each plant genus. I usually use the
Latin names for plants, so in your search remember
that the name of Venus flytraps is Dionaea, sundews are called
Drosera, tropical pitcher plants are Nepenthes, and the pitcher plants of the
United States are Sarracenia.
Now what a surprise I have for you!
The next set of FAQ links are VERY scarey. They show gif animations I made in, oh, about 1990, and which are really
sleazy. But I have a fondness for them, so I just can't bear to remove them from the FAQ.
Strap yourself in and go ahead to the next FAQ entry...
Page citations: Juniper, B.E. et al. 1989; Lloyd, F.E. 1942;
Rice, B.A. 2006a; Schnell, D.E. 1976; Taylor, P. 1989.
