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Biology of carnivorous plants

By The Phytophactor on 1/29/2012 10:15:00 AM
People have a certain funny fondness for carnivorous plants: pitcher plants, venus fly traps, sundews (maybe my favorite), Audrey II, bladderworts, and so on.  They are among the favorites of visitors to our glasshouse.  These are all green plants, and therefore photosynthetic autotrophs, but they live in nutrient poor environments, so the prey they capture, mostly insects, provide those nutrients.  HT to AoB blog for pointing out this review of the biology of carnivorous plants.  And so we feed your curiosity.
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2 comments:

Steve said...

First, love the quote on your blog. How true. knowledge and wisdom seem to posess a need to be put in separate buckets. Knowledge does not always equal commonsense. =)

Second, I was thinking of this the other day. Why the fascination with carnivourous plants? I can't seem to answer that question for myself. Any thoughts as to why this is?

January 30, 2012 at 6:58 AM
The Phytophactor said...

Steve asked: Why the fascination with carnivourous plants?
My simple answer is that carnivorous plants are more like animals; they "eat", some of them move. Although the Phactor admits to a certain bias, among our biology students those interested in plants generally are quieter, more thoughtful, and have more patience. Others get the most excited over the more animally plants.

January 30, 2012 at 9:04 AM

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