Incredible facts
Among all the strange plants in the world, there are even some that absorb flesh.
Well, maybe not exactly flesh, but insects, but, nevertheless, they are considered carnivorous. All carnivorous plants are found in places where the soil is poor in nutrients.
These amazing plants are carnivorous, since they catch insects and arthropods, secrete digestive juices, dissolve the prey and in the process receive some or most of the nutrients.
Here are the most famous carnivorous plants that use different types traps in order to lure your prey.
1. Sarracenia
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Sarracenia or North American carnivorous plant is a genus of carnivorous plants that are found in areas of the east coast North America, in Texas, in the Great Lakes, in southeastern Canada, but most are found only in the southeastern states.
This plant uses trapping leaves in the shape of a water lily as a trap. The plant's leaves have become a funnel with a hood-like structure that grows over the hole, preventing rainwater from entering, which could dilute the digestive juices. Insects are attracted to the color, smell and nectar-like secretions at the edge of the water lily. The slippery surface and narcotic substance lining the nectar cause insects to fall inside, where they die and are digested by protease and other enzymes.
2. Nepenthes
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Nepenthes, a tropical carnivorous plant, is another type of carnivorous trap plant that uses trapping leaves in the shape of a pitcher. There are about 130 species of these plants, which are widespread in China, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Madagascar, Seychelles, Australia, India, Borneo and Sumatra. This plant also received the nickname " monkey cup", as researchers have often observed monkeys drinking rainwater from them.
Most Nepenthes species are tall vines, about 10-15 meters, with a shallow root system. The stem often reveals leaves with a tendril that protrudes from the tip of the leaf and is often used for climbing. At the end of the tendril, the water lily forms a small vessel, which then expands and forms a cup.
The trap contains a liquid secreted by the plant, which may be watery or sticky, in which the insects that the plant eats drown. The bottom of the cup contains glands that absorb and distribute nutrients. Most plants are small and they only catch insects, but large species such as Nepenthes Rafflesiana And Nepenthes Rajah, can catch small mammals such as rats.
3. Carnivorous plant Genlisea
Genlisea consists of 21 species, usually grows in moist terrestrial and semi-aquatic environments and is distributed in Africa and Central and South America.
Genlisea is a small herb with yellow flowers that use a crab claw type trap. These traps are easy to get into, but impossible to get out of because of the small hairs that grow towards the entrance or, in this case, forward in a spiral.
These plants have two different types of leaves: photosynthetic leaves above the ground and special underground leaves that lure, catch and digest small organisms, such as protozoa. The underground leaves also serve as roots, such as absorbing water and anchoring, since the plant itself does not have any. These underground leaves form hollow tubes underground that look like a spiral. Small microbes are drawn into these tubes by the flow of water, but cannot escape from them. By the time they reach the exit, they will already be digested.
4. Californian Darlingtonia (Darlingtonia Californica)
Darlingtonia californica is the only member of the Darlingtonia genus that grows in northern California and Oregon. It grows in swamps and springs with cold running water and considered a rare plant.
Darlingtonia leaves are bulbous in shape and form a cavity with an opening underneath a balloon-like structure and two sharp leaves that hang down like fangs.
Unlike many carnivorous plants, it does not use trap leaves to trap them, but instead uses a crab claw type trap. Once the insect is inside, they are confused by the specks of light that pass through the plant. They land in thousands of thick, fine hairs that grow inward. Insects can follow the hairs deep into the digestive organs, but cannot return back.
5. Pemphigus (Utricularia)
Bladderwort is a genus of carnivorous plants consisting of 220 species. They are found in fresh water or moist soil as terrestrial or aquatic species on all continents except Antarctica.
These are the only carnivorous plants that use bubble trap. Most species have very small traps in which they can catch very small prey such as protozoa. Traps range from 0.2 mm to 1.2 cm, and larger traps catch more than big catch, such as water fleas or tadpoles.
Bubbles are under negative pressure relative to their surroundings. The trap's opening opens, sucks in the insect and surrounding water, closes the valve, and all this happens in thousandths of seconds.
6. Butterwort (Pinguicula)
Butterweed belongs to a group of carnivorous plants that use sticky, glandular leaves to lure and digest insects. Nutrients from insects supplement mineral-poor soil. There are approximately 80 species of these plants in North and South America, Europe and Asia.
The leaves of butterwort are succulent and usually have a bright green or pink color. There are two special types cells located on the upper side of the leaves. One is known as the pedicel gland and consists of secretory cells located at the top of a single stem cell. These cells produce a mucous secretion that forms visible droplets on the surface of the leaves and acts like Velcro. Other cells are called sessile glands, and they are found on the surface of the leaf, producing enzymes such as amylase, protease and esterase, which aid in the digestive process. While many butterwort species are carnivorous all year, many types form a dense winter rosette that is not carnivorous. When summer comes, it blooms and produces new carnivorous leaves.
7. Sundew (Drosera)
Sundews constitute one of the largest genera of carnivorous plants, with at least 194 species. They are found on all continents except Antarctica. Sundews can form basal or vertical rosettes from 1cm to 1m in height and can live up to 50 years.
Sundews are characterized by moving glandular tentacles, topped with sweet sticky secretions. When an insect lands on the sticky tentacles, the plant begins to move the remaining tentacles in the direction of the victim in order to further trap it. Once the insect is trapped, small sessile glands absorb it and the nutrients are used for plant growth.
8. Byblis
Byblis or rainbow plant is a small species of carnivorous plant native to Australia. The rainbow plant gets its name from the attractive slime that coats its leaves in the sun. Although these plants are similar to sundews, they are in no way related to the latter and are distinguished by zygomorphic flowers with five curved stamens.
Its leaves have a round cross-section, and most often they are elongated and conical at the end. The surface of the leaves is completely covered with glandular hairs, which secrete a sticky mucous substance that serves as a trap for small insects landing on the leaves or tentacles of the plant.
9. Aldrovanda vesiculosa
Aldrovanda vesica is a magnificent rootless, carnivorous aquatic plant. It is usually feeds on small aquatic vertebrates using a trap.
The plant consists mainly of free-floating stems that reach 6-11 cm in length. Trap leaves, 2-3 mm in size, grow in 5-9 curls in the center of the stem. The traps are attached to the petioles, which contain air that allows the plant to float. It is a fast growing plant and can reach 4-9mm per day and in some cases produce a new whorl every day. While the plant grows at one end, the other end gradually dies.
The plant trap consists of two lobes that slam shut like a trap. The trap's openings point outward and are covered with fine hairs that allow the trap to close around any prey that comes close enough. The trap slams shut in tens of milliseconds, which is one example fastest movement in the animal kingdom.
10. Venus flytrap (Dionaea Muscipula)
The Venus flytrap is perhaps the most famous carnivorous plant that feeds mainly on insects and arachnids. It is a small plant with 4-7 leaves that grow from a short underground stem.
Its leaf blade is divided into two areas: flat, long, heart-shaped petioles capable of photosynthesis and a pair of terminal lobes hanging from the main vein of the leaf, which form a trap. The inner surface of these lobes contains red pigment, and the edges secrete mucus.
The leaf lobes make a sudden movement, slamming shut when its sensory hairs are stimulated. The plant is so developed that it can distinguish a living stimulus from a nonliving one. Its leaves slam shut in 0.1 second. They are lined with thorn-like cilia that hold prey. Once the prey is caught, the inner surface of the leaves is gradually stimulated, and the edges of the lobes grow and merge, closing the trap and creating a closed stomach, where the prey is digested.
Photos from open sources
For a long time, scientists have questioned the existence of carnivorous plants. The idea that there were also killers among the representatives of the flora seemed to them, if not wild, then contrary to all the laws of botany. Nowadays, sundews, Venus flytraps, butterworts and pitcher plants no longer surprise anyone - we have become accustomed to the fact that plants can also be carnivorous. (website)
Insectivorous plants attract their victims in different ways: by smell, bright color or sweetish secretions. They can be divided into several groups according to the type of traps they use to catch prey.
Photos from open sources
Some predators secrete an adhesive substance that causes insects to stick to their tormentors, others, as soon as a fly sits on them, close deadly traps around it, some suck in their victims, some catch them with claws resembling crabs, and some with leaves , folding into a jug. Carnivorous plants deal with their prey brutally; they secrete something resembling gastric juice and digest the still living captive who has fallen into their trap.
But is it possible that there are plants in nature that can catch a person in their deadly trap and digest him completely? In the second half of the 20th century, traveler Mariano de Silva discovered a carnivorous tree in the jungles of Brazil that “preferred” to eat monkeys. The scientist claims to have been observing the creepy plant for several days, studying its mechanism for catching prey. It attracted curious animals with its sweet, fruity smell, causing the monkeys to climb to the top of the tree for a treat. The monkeys, unaware of anything, fell straight into the stomach of the monster, which grabbed them with leaves and immediately began to digest them. A few days later, the following picture appeared to the traveler’s eyes: the plant unfurled its eerie leaves, dropping monkey bones to the ground.
Photos from open sources
Agree that it sounds like a horror movie. However, much more terrible is the testimony of the 19th century German explorer Karl Lihe. The scientist claimed that he saw with his own eyes a human sacrifice to a predator tree on the island of Madagascar. Local residents forced the unfortunate victim to climb a tree, which immediately wrapped its vines around her, and then crushed the woman with huge leaves, digesting her in just a few days.
Scientists do not believe in the existence of predatory trees, but there was a time when they could not believe in the existence of the same swamp sundew. And who knows what plants unknown to us are still hiding in the impenetrable tropical jungles of the planet...
By the way, the mysterious and little-studied Venezuela is believed to keep many carnivorous plants in its impenetrable fantastic forests, including man-eating plants.
Many animals live in the forest. For most of them, the forest serves as their home.
By feeding and moving from place to place, they have a great influence on life forest plants, significantly changing the course of the forest formation process. With their help, tree seeds can be introduced into clearings or other areas devoid of woody vegetation. Sometimes, on the contrary, they lead to the death of the seeds of some tree species, preventing its regeneration.
Under the influence of insect pests, forests are dying over vast areas. All this changes the direction of the forest formation process, and sometimes only interrupts or slows down its normal course.
Animals and plants in the forest are in such close interaction that by influencing one component, you can influence the other. There are so-called biological chains. Each type of vegetation corresponds to a specific complex of animals. By changing vegetation, humans also influence animals. Thus, the cutting down of coniferous plantations and the emergence of young deciduous trees in their place in a number of areas led to the proliferation of deer, roe deer and elk. The destruction or extinction of certain animals also affects vegetation. Let us consider in more detail the influence of certain groups of fauna on the forest.
Soil fauna. Soil fauna plays an extremely important (although not always noticeable) role in the life of the forest. The role of earthworms is especially important. They crush organic residues, mix them with the mineral part of the soil and process them biochemically, passing them through the food tract. The total amount of organic matter eaten and processed by earthworms can reach 1 ton per 1 hectare. This amounts to approximately 1/4 (sometimes even up to 1/3) of the total leaf litter that annually reaches the soil surface.
Moving in the soil earthworms, according to the observations of Charles Darwin (by the way, this is his very first scientific work), pass through about 25 tons of soil per 1 hectare. This leads to an improvement in its physical properties, aeration, water and thermal conditions and structures. Their influence owes its origin to a well-defined humus horizon, in which organic matter - humus - is closely associated with the mineral part of the soil. Through the passages of earthworms they penetrate to great depths and the roots of woody plants. Tree seedlings appear on the loosening created by earthworms and other invertebrate animals. Spruce seedlings are especially often confined to such areas.
There are few invertebrates in the tundra. There they are concentrated only in the very surface layer of soil or in moss turf. There are somewhat more of them in taiga forests. But here, too, earthworms are found only in the surface layer. There are many invertebrates in coniferous-deciduous and broad-leaved forests.
With an increase in the number of earthworms, soil fertility also improves. But we should not forget that the sheer number of earthworms depends on the properties of forest soils. In the squares with the rich organic substances, fertile soils with good water and air conditions, there are up to 5-7 million annelids per 1 hectare. On poor soils their number rarely exceeds 50-100 thousand. for 1 hectare. There are almost no earthworms in swamps and very dry soils. As for other invertebrates, they play a much smaller role due to their small numbers.
Insects. Many insects play a useful role in the life of the forest. They pollinate flowers and distribute small seeds. Without insects, entomophilous (insect-pollinated) plants would not produce seeds and they would fall out of the forest stands. And the death of all insects is no longer such a fantastic thing in our time. The use of chemicals can also lead to this.
Much more often insects cause harm. By eating leaves and needles, they lead to the death of entire forests. Like mushrooms, they damage fruits and seeds, shoots, etc. These damages, if they do not lead trees directly to death, then reduce their role in the process of formation of new stands and lead to the weakening of old ones. Weakened trees are attacked by other insects (bark beetles, pine beetles) and accelerate their death. The damage caused by insects is so great that it is studied in a special specialized course in forest entomology.
There are insects that feed on other insects (ground beetles, ichneumon wasps, etc.). By destroying harmful insects, they bring great benefits to woody vegetation. Ants eat many harmful insects. There is evidence that the ants of one anthill destroy from 3 to 5 million insects per season, including up to 150-360 thousand harmful ones from an area of 0.2-0.5 hectares. They also attack caterpillars and young insects during their molting period or immediately after they emerge from cocoons. At the same time, it has been established that ants favor aphids and, along with harmful insects, destroy beneficial ones. Only certain races of red ants play a noticeably beneficial role. Arachnids destroy many harmful insects by trapping flies, butterflies, dragonflies and other flying insects in their webs.
Birds. Most birds live in deciduous and mixed forests, fewer in dark coniferous forests. On this occasion, the famous ornithologist S.A. Baturlin wrote that the taiga is lifeless and only when approaching some river valley, lake basin, or simply clearing, life is in full swing. Birds eat many insects. Small birds that feed exclusively on insects are especially useful in this regard. A smaller role is played by birds that use insects to feed their chicks.
The eastern broadmouth lies in wait for passing insects in the treetops. More often it feeds on beetles, less often it catches dragonflies, fillies, bumblebees and bees. A large number of flying insects are eaten by flycatchers. One small kinglet eats up to 4 million small insects and their larvae over the summer. The oriole and cuckoo destroy especially many insects. Up to a hundred hairy caterpillars, which are not eaten by other birds, are eaten a day by the cuckoo. The larvae lives in the upper canopy of tree stands. It exterminates beetles, flies, butterflies, larvae and caterpillars. He catches some of them right on the fly, others peck from the branches. There are many moths, most of which are forest pests, and beetles are destroyed by the nightjar.
Some birds destroy large numbers of mouse-like rodents. A large forest owl - the long-tailed owl - feeds mainly on mice, but sometimes it is not averse to feasting on a hare, squirrel and feathered game. However, the benefits from it outweigh the harm. In the Far East there lives an interesting needle-footed owl, which catches large nocturnal insects (butterflies and beetles) with its paws. She has needles on the inner sides of her fingers, with the help of which she holds insects. Sometimes it also destroys small birds. A pygmy owl catches mice. In the hollows of trees he stores mice and small birds, creating reserves for the winter. The shrike hunts butterflies, beetles, large grasshoppers and small birds, and sometimes mice. When the shrike is full, it impales dead insects and birds on dry sharp twigs, hawthorn thorns and other thorns in reserve.
Among other birds, the role of woodpeckers should be noted. There are several types of them, and almost all of them are considered forest doctors or orderlies. With their strong beaks, woodpeckers catch insects, most often large larvae hiding in the wood and inaccessible to other birds. They hollow out hollows, which then serve as homes for other birds. But woodpeckers eat more than just insects. They eat a lot of tree seeds. You can often find a woodpecker's forge in the forests - a place with a large pile of empty fir cones. Here, having strengthened the cone, he takes out the seeds from it. He stores linden seeds in the fall by stringing lionfish on branches.
In forests Far East There lives an interesting bird - the blue magpie. In summer it feeds on large insects (beetles, butterflies, caterpillars), and in autumn and winter on seeds. It pecks the fruits of currants, grapes, lemongrass, viburnum, velvet, aralia, dimorphant and other tree species. Velvet fruits are eaten by thrushes, waxwings, grosbeaks and other birds. Crossbills eat a lot of seeds.
Birds disperse the seeds of many plants to significant distances, eating fruits with juicy pulp and seeds protected by a dense shell from digestion. A significant portion of such seeds passes through the digestive tract undamaged. There are even seeds that, without passing through the intestines of birds and affecting them gastric juice do not germinate.
Black grouse feed on fruits, larvae and ants in summer, and birch and willow buds in winter. Hazel grouse eat a lot of fruits. In summer they feed on seeds and greens, sometimes tearing apart anthills, in winter they eat buds, young shoots, catkins of alder and birch. Grouse and hazel grouse cause some harm to tree regeneration, but they themselves serve as valuable hunting objects. We have already talked about the activities of the nutcracker. Let us only add that, according to special estimates, in Siberia, nutcrackers bring up to 38-43 thousand Siberian pine seeds to felling areas during the fall. The jay carries oak acorns over long distances. Other birds also bring a lot of benefits to the forest. And if at the same time they eat some of the seeds, then they also need to eat.
Mammals. Many species of mammals live in forests. These are bear, tiger, sable, cheetah, lynx, squirrel, wild boar, roe deer, deer, goral, wolf, musk deer, hare, mole and many others. Most mammals are of hunting value. Some animals only live in forests and have almost no effect on woody vegetation. Most animals feed on plants and other forest animals and play either a positive or a negative role in the life of the forest.
Perhaps the greatest damage to forests is caused by mouse-like rodents. They destroy the seeds of tree species and thereby prevent their regeneration. Many seeds, especially large ones, are eaten by mice in crops in nurseries and forestry areas. They are so good at finding cedar nuts sown in the soil that its cultivation by seeds has become impossible. In lean years, mouse-like rodents eat the bark of young trees, and these trees gradually dry out. Sometimes in this way they destroy shelterbelts in the fields.
At the same time, mouse-like rodents also bring some benefits. Thus, during the years of mass reproduction, bank voles dig up to 10-15% of the area. Along their passages, the soil is soaked to a great depth, and in places where they emerge to the surface, seedlings of woody plants appear. In pine forests, up to 35% of pine seedlings grow above rodent passages. Among other rodents, hares play some harmful role, biting the tops of undergrowth of deciduous trees and eating the bark of aspens.
Hoofed animals (deer, roe deer, musk deer, goral, sheep, elk) feed on deciduous shoots, less often coniferous trees and harm forestry. This harm is usually small and is outweighed by the benefits they provide in the form of meat products. But there are cases when ungulates destroy many small trees in winter. Recently, on many farms, moose have become a real scourge of coniferous crops. Thus, according to observations on the Kola Peninsula, one elk eats from 120 to 200 pine trees per day in the fall, and from 60 to 100 in the winter. This is a very large damage. Almost sometimes moose eat all the planted trees. But more often than not, people themselves are to blame. The number of animals (especially if they are specially bred, fed, or the predators that eat them are destroyed) must be regulated. Deer, roe deer, and hares in France severely damage white and Douglas fir, Norway spruce, ash, beech and Scots pine. As a result of these damages, tree growth slows down and rot forms.
Ungulates, eating some species and leaving others, contribute to the replacement of one type of vegetation by another. So, in Belgorod region Roe deer severely damage bird cherry, European euonymus, rosehip, Norway maple and field maple, blackthorn, warty euonymus and pear. They eat oak and ash very rarely, and only slightly damage linden. It would seem that they are helping the oak tree in its struggle for existence. But that's not true. They destroy small species that form a “coat” for the oak and worsen its growth conditions.
The benefits that wild boars bring to forests are very great. In search of food, they dig up the soil, thereby promoting the natural regeneration of tree species. But the number of such useful animals should be regulated. When it increases sharply, great damage is done agriculture. In search of food, wild boars wander into the fields and gardens of local residents and sometimes dig up the entire harvest of potatoes and other crops. And then there are angry calls to destroy the wild boars. In this case, you just need to regularly shoot excess animals and use meat, which is also a forest product.
Many tree seeds are destroyed by squirrels, chipmunks and porcupines. They all collect seeds, hide them in their storage facilities and almost never lose them. Chipmunks cause great damage to forest nurseries by digging up large seeds in the beds. Proteins behave interestingly during periods of migration. Moving from one area to another, they hide the seeds under the forest floor. Obviously, some kind of instinct is triggered. These seeds remain until spring, and then germinate.
Insectivores bring great benefits to the forest. Shrews eat many harmful insects. Moles also feed on insects, but often eat beneficial earthworms. With their movements in the forest, they improve the water and air regime of the soil, help reduce surface runoff and penetrate tree roots into deeper soil horizons. At the same time, moles spoil meadows and ridges in nurseries. The beneficial role of hedgehogs is especially great. They feed on harmful insects, their larvae, and mice. Many harmful insects are caught by bats. Badgers also feed on harmful insects and mice. The fox destroys a lot of mice, and therefore it can rather be classified as a useful animal. Other predatory animals also hunt mice: marten, sable, ermine, weasel, ferret and weasel. The sable also feeds on pine nuts. Bears and other large predatory animals play a less noticeable role in the life of the forest. This is the complex relationship that develops between the forest and animals. There are neither absolutely useful nor absolutely harmful animals in the forest - they are its integral part.
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Why do the victims of these plants voluntarily climb into deadly traps? Cunning plants share their secrets.
The Venus flytrap slams its trap shut when you touch its tiny hairs twice.
A hungry fly is looking for something to eat. Sensing a smell similar to the aroma of nectar, she sits on a fleshy red leaf - it seems to her that it is an ordinary flower. While the fly drinks the sweet liquid, it touches with its paw a tiny hair on the surface of the leaf, then another... And then walls grow around the fly. The jagged edges of the leaf close together like jaws. The fly tries to escape, but the trap is tightly closed. Now, instead of nectar, the leaf secretes enzymes that dissolve the insides of the insect, gradually turning them into a sticky pulp. The fly suffered the greatest humiliation that can befall an animal: it was killed by a plant.
Tropical nepenthes attracts insects with a sweet aroma, but as soon as the unlucky ones sit on its slippery rim, they immediately slide into its open womb.
Plants versus animals.
The swampy savannah, stretching 140 kilometers around Wilmington, North Carolina, USA, is the only place on Earth where the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) is indigenous. There are also other types of carnivorous plants here - not so famous and not so rare, but no less amazing. For example, Nepenthes with jugs that look like champagne glasses, where insects (and sometimes larger animals) find their death. Or the sundew (Drosera), which wraps its sticky hairs around its prey, and the bladderwort (Utricularia), an underwater plant that sucks up its prey like a vacuum cleaner.
Many predator plants (there are more than 675 species) use passive traps. The butterwort bristles with sticky hairs that hold the insect while the digestive fluid works.
Plants that feed on animals cause us inexplicable anxiety. Probably the fact is that this order of things contradicts our ideas about the universe. The famous naturalist Carl Linnaeus, who in the 18th century created the system of classification of living nature that we still use today, refused to believe that this was possible. After all, if the Venus flytrap actually eats insects, it violates the order of nature established by God. Linnaeus believed that plants catch insects by chance, and if the unfortunate insect stops twitching, it will be released.
The Australian sundew attracts insects with dew-like droplets and then wraps its hairs around them.
Charles Darwin, on the contrary, was fascinated by the willful behavior of green predators. In 1860, shortly after a scientist first saw one of these plants (it was a sundew) on a moorland, he wrote: “The sundew interests me more than the origin of all species in the world.”
The silhouettes of captured insects, like shadow theater figures, look through the leaf of the Philippine Nepenthes. The waxy surface of the inner wall of the jug prevents insects from getting free, and enzymes at its bottom extract nutrients from the victim.
Darwin spent more than one month on experiments. He placed flies on the leaves of carnivorous plants and watched them slowly tighten the hairs around their prey; he even tossed pieces to the voracious plants raw meat and egg yolk. And he found out: in order to cause a plant reaction, the weight of a human hair is enough.
Sensing the smell of food, the cockroach looks into the jug. Insectivores, like other plants, engage in photosynthesis, but most of them live in swamps and other places where the soil is poor in nutrients. The nitrogen they get from feeding on their victims helps them thrive in these difficult conditions.
“It seems to me that hardly anyone has ever observed a more amazing phenomenon in the plant kingdom,” the scientist wrote. At the same time, the sundews did not pay any attention to the drops of water, even if they fell from a great height. Reacting to a false alarm during rain, Darwin reasoned, would be a big mistake for the plant - so this is not an accident, but a natural adaptation.
Most plant predators eat some insects and force others to help them reproduce. In order not to catch a potential pollinator for lunch, sarracenias keep flowers away from trap jugs - on long stems.
Subsequently, Darwin studied other species of predatory plants, and in 1875 he summarized the results of his observations and experiments in the book “Insectivorous Plants.” He was especially fascinated by the extraordinary speed and strength of the Venus flytrap, which he called one of the most amazing plants in the world. Darwin discovered that when a leaf closes its edges, it temporarily turns into a “stomach” that secretes enzymes that dissolve prey.
Their buds hang down like Chinese lanterns, luring bees into intricately designed pollen chambers.
After long observations, Charles Darwin came to the conclusion that it takes more than a week for the predator's leaf to open again. Probably, he suggested, the denticles along the edges of the leaf do not meet completely, so that very small insects could escape, and thus the plant would not have to waste energy on low-nutrient food.
Some predator plants, such as sundews, can pollinate themselves if volunteer insects are not available.
Darwin compared the lightning-fast reaction of the Venus flytrap - its trap slams shut in a tenth of a second - to the contraction of the animal's muscles. However, plants have neither muscles nor nerve endings. How do they manage to react exactly like animals?
If the sticky hair does not grab the large fly tightly enough, the insect, albeit crippled, will break free. In the world of plant predators, says William McLaughlin, curator of the US Botanical Garden, it also happens that insects die, and the “hunters” remain hungry.
Plant electricity.
Today, biologists studying cells and DNA are beginning to understand how these plants hunt, eat, and digest food—and most importantly, how they “learned” to do it. Alexander Volkov, a specialist in plant physiology from Oakwood University (Alabama, USA), is convinced that after many years of research, he has finally managed to uncover the secret of the Venus flytrap. When an insect touches a hair on the surface of a flycatcher's leaf with its foot, a tiny electrical discharge is generated. The charge accumulates in the leaf tissue, but it is not enough for the slamming mechanism to work - this is insurance against a false alarm. But more often than not, the insect touches another hair, adding a second to the first, and the leaf closes.
A flower is blooming on the South African royal sundew, the largest member of the genus. The leaves of this lush plant can reach half a meter in length.
Volkov's experiments show that the discharge moves down liquid-filled tunnels that penetrate the leaf, causing pores in the cell walls to open. Water rushes from the cells located on the inner surface of the leaf to those located on its outer side, and the leaf quickly changes shape: from convex to concave. The two leaves collapse and the insect is trapped.
The tiny, thimble-sized, insectivorous plant of the genus Cephalotus from Western Australia prefers to feast on crawling insects. With guiding hairs and an alluring smell, it lures ants into its digestive bowels.
The underwater trap of bladderwort is no less ingenious. It pumps water out of the bubbles, lowering the pressure in them. When water flea or some other small creature, swimming by, touches the hairs on the outer surface of the bubble, its lid opens, and the low pressure draws the water inside, and with it the prey. In one five-hundredth of a second the lid slams shut again. The cells of the vesicle then pump out the water, restoring the vacuum in it.
The water-filled North American hybrid lures bees with the promise of nectar and a rim that looks like the perfect landing pad. Eating meat is not the most effective way for a plant to provide itself with the necessary substances, but, undoubtedly, one of the most extravagant.
Many other predatory plant species are like fly tape, using sticky hairs to capture their prey. Pitcher plants resort to a different strategy: they catch insects in long leaves - pitchers. The largest ones have deep jugs up to a third of a meter, and they can even digest some unlucky frog or rat.
The jug becomes a death trap thanks to chemicals. Nepenthes rafflesiana, for example, growing in the jungles of Kalimantan, secretes nectar, on the one hand, attracting insects, and on the other, forming a slippery film on which they cannot stay. Insects that land on the rim of the jug slide inside and fall into the viscous digestive fluid. They desperately move their legs, trying to free themselves, but the liquid pulls them to the bottom.
Many predatory plants have special glands that secrete enzymes that are strong enough to penetrate the hard chitinous shell of insects and reach the nutrients hidden underneath. But purple sarracenia, found in swamps and poor sandy soils in North America, attracts other organisms to digest food.
Sarracenia helps function a complex food web that includes mosquito larvae, midges, protozoa and bacteria; many of them can only live in this environment. Animals grind up the prey that falls into the jug, and the fruits of their labors are used by smaller organisms. The sarracenia eventually absorbs the nutrients released during this feast. “By having animals in this processing chain, all the reactions are accelerated,” says Nicholas Gotelli of the University of Vermont. “When the digestive cycle is completed, the plant pumps oxygen into the pitcher so that its inhabitants have something to breathe.”
Thousands of sarracenia grow in the swamps of the Harvard Forest, owned by the university of the same name, in central Massachusetts. Aaron Ellison, the forest's chief ecologist, is working with Gotelli to figure out what evolutionary reasons led the flora to develop a penchant for a meat diet.
Predatory plants clearly benefit from eating animals: the more flies the researchers feed them, the better they grow. But what exactly are sacrifices useful for? From them, predators obtain nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients to produce light-trapping enzymes. In other words, eating animals allows carnivorous plants to do what all flora do: grow by getting energy from the sun.
The work of green predators is not easy. They have to spend a huge amount of energy creating devices for catching animals: enzymes, pumps, sticky hairs and other things. Sarracenia or flycatcher cannot photosynthesize much because, unlike plants with regular leaves, their leaves do not have solar panels that can absorb light in large quantities. Ellison and Gotelli believe that the benefits of a carnivorous life outweigh the costs of maintaining it only under special conditions. The poor soil of swamps, for example, contains little nitrogen and phosphorus, so predator plants there have an advantage over their counterparts who obtain these substances in more conventional ways. In addition, swamps have no shortage of sun, so even photosynthetically inefficient carnivorous plants capture enough light to survive.
Nature has made such a compromise more than once. By comparing the DNA of carnivorous and “ordinary” plants, scientists discovered that different groups of predators are not evolutionarily related to each other, but appeared independently of each other in at least six cases. Some carnivorous plants, although similar in appearance, are only distantly related. Both the tropical genus Nepenthes and the North American Sarracenia have pitcher leaves and use the same strategy to catch prey, but they come from different ancestors.
Bloodthirsty, but defenseless.
Unfortunately, the very properties that allow carnivorous plants to thrive in difficult natural conditions make them extremely sensitive to changes in environmental conditions. environment. Many wetlands in North America receive excess nitrogen from fertilization of surrounding agricultural areas and emissions from power plants. Predatory plants are so perfectly adapted to low nitrogen content in the soil that they cannot cope with this unexpected “gift”. “Eventually they just die from overexertion,” Ellison says.
There is another danger emanating from people. The illegal trade in carnivorous plants is so widespread that botanists try to keep secret where some are found. rare species. Poachers are smuggling Venus flytraps out of North Carolina by the thousands and selling them from roadside stands. For some time now, the state Department of Agriculture has been marking wild specimens with a safe paint that is invisible in normal light but shimmers in ultraviolet light, so that inspectors who find these plants on sale can quickly determine whether they come from a greenhouse or a swamp.
Even if poaching can be stopped (which is also doubtful), predator plants will still suffer from many misfortunes. Their habitat is disappearing, giving way to shopping centers and residential areas. Forest fires they are not allowed to run wild, which gives other plants the opportunity to grow quickly and win competition with Venus flytraps.
The flies are probably happy about this. But for those who admire the amazing ingenuity of evolution, this is a great loss.
For assimilation. That is why, by the way, it is accessible - according to the principle “the eye sees, but the tooth hurts.” It would seem, what a problem - go into the forest, open your mouth and eat! But it's not that simple.
- Firstly, plant cells are covered with durable membranes consisting of very poorly digestible carbohydrates (for example, cellulose). To get to the cytoplasm contained inside the cell, the membrane must be somehow destroyed, and this is very difficult to do.
- But even if some security guard opens the cellulose safe, he will be greatly disappointed - there is nothing interesting inside either. In plants relatively little protein, but this is the most delicious nutrient.
- And the protein that exists poor in some amino acids. For example, plants have little lysine - an essential amino acid that cannot be made in the animal's body, you can only eat it - but where can you find it? There is little of it in plants...
One can only sympathize with the herbivores: their life is continuous hard work. But the guys somehow cope; We'll talk further about how.
Method one, stupid: straining
The most ingenuous herbivores destroy cellulose membranes mechanically - with their jaws. This is how most leaf-eating insects work - caterpillars, grasshoppers, beetles. The problem is that no matter how thoroughly they chew their food, every cell they don’t succeed, so the effectiveness of such nutrition is low - many of the eaten cells fall out in the feces intact. To scrape together at least some of the proteins necessary for growth, caterpillars/grasshoppers pass enormous amounts of plant matter through their intestines.
Similarly, aphids and scale insects pass through themselves huge amounts of sweet water. These insects penetrate with their proboscis directly into the phloem vessels of the plant, from where they obtain sweet water under pressure (you don’t even need to suck). But sugar is only a source of energy, which aphids don’t really need - they are inactive. And here squirrels for building the body (and uncontrollable reproduction) - they are very necessary. We can say that the aphid “strains” the phloem sap in search of golden grains of protein; what it finds, it greedily leaves behind, and the disgusting sugar water it throws away.
This feature of aphids is taken advantage of by ants, who happily drink the sweet liquid secreted by aphids. Some species of ants go further - they go on long journeys after aphids, bring them closer to their anthill and release them on plants. Then they protect the aphids from their natural enemies - ladybugs, and when winter comes, they hide valuable animals in their anthill so that they do not freeze. In short, they look after them like people look after cows or goats.
And then, accordingly, they milk: in the books they write that the ant approaches the aphid, lightly taps it with its antennae, and the aphid obediently releases a drop of sweet liquid - eat, father ant. The beautiful idyll is destroyed by one simple question: where Do aphids secrete a sweet liquid? - From the anus, of course! We can say that the aphids simply crap themselves from fear. This is quite normal behavior on her part: many insects, when attacking them, secrete something similar.
Method two, intermediate: changing the diet
Bees, butterflies, bumblebees and other insects that feed on nectar, as adults, it turns out, receive only energy in the form of carbohydrates, and do not receive protein food at all. That's why they don't live long (damages accumulate in the body that cannot be repaired - there are no proteins). Larvae All these insects feed on plants - butterfly caterpillars eat leaves, and bee larvae eat a mixture of honey and pollen (breadbread), i.e. There are still proteins in their diet.
For children to grow and develop, it is highly desirable to receive food rich in proteins. In herbivores mammals such complete nutrition is milk: milk protein casein contains a complete set of essential amino acids. Where the mother-cow will get this complete set from is her problem, but the baby-calf will eat the same way as lions and wolves - complete protein food (cow's milk contains about 3% casein, human milk - about 0.7%).
What should herbivorous birds do? Don’t worry - after all, the initial stages of the chick’s development took place inside the egg, where there were no problems with amino acids. And after hatching from the egg, feed the children animal food - insects. (Insects make up about 15% of the diet of an adult sparrow, and about 60% of the diet of sparrow chicks. Thus, when raising offspring, granivorous sparrows destroy a huge number of insect pests and bring more benefit to agriculture than harm.)
Method three, tricky: symbiosis
Most herbivores use bacteria that have the necessary enzyme (cellulase) to destroy the cellulose cell wall of plants. In the digestive systems of such animals there are two sections: in one, bacteria digest grass, and in the other, animals digest bacteria (what low insidiousness!)
The best way This method is implemented in ruminants: first they have a department for bacteria and protozoa ( scar), which digest grass: bacteria destroy cellulose cell membranes and eat the cytoplasm, then protozoa eat the bacteria. Net(rumen growth) divides food: the finely chopped mass goes further into book, and the unchewed grass is regurgitated back into the mouth for additional chewing (what gum is best for tooth decay?)
The food, chewed a second time, goes straight into the book without further ado. Between its leaves, the food (what it has now turned into) is finally ground and goes into abomasum, which in its work corresponds to an “ordinary” (for example, ours) stomach. In the abomasum, the cow calmly digests the protozoa (and they were enjoying life! It was so good in the rumen - warm, humid, full of food! But you have to pay for everything...)
All other herbivores have not been able to find the same simple and clear solution as ruminants, so they have to be sophisticated in every possible way. With you and me at first our digestion takes place (stomach and small intestine), and in last department (large intestine) (mainly E. coli). In the large intestine is our Digestion no longer occurs - this is a section for absorbing water, so all the grass processed by the bacteria goes to them themselves. Thus, we do not use plant foods to their full capacity, and therefore cannot eat only grass, as cows do.
Termites eat wood, so they pose a great danger to wooden buildings - if termites are infested in a wooden house, then the house will soon be finished. (The word “termite” in Greek means “end,” and the word “Terminator” comes from the same root.) In the intestines of termites, symbiosis double: there live the flagellated protozoa hypermastigines, which digest wood at the expense of their own symbionts - bacteria. This zoo in termites, like ours, is located in the last section of the intestine (in which water is absorbed and feces are formed). Termites periodically move this feces back into the midgut, where the bacteria are digested. This entire operation takes place inside the body, unnoticed by others.
It didn't work out for the hares and rabbits. Bacterial digestion of grass (and bark in winter) also occurs in them after own - in the cecum, located on the border between the small and thick. During normal digestion, food from the cecum should go into the large intestine, then into the rectum and be thrown out, and hares do this. Well, what remains is to say a warm goodbye and release the well-fed bacteria into the wild, as we do? But hares can't be so kind because they don't have stores full of sausages at hand. Therefore, like termites, they return feces to the stomach and intestines, and are very in a simple way- they eat it. Consequently, they have two types of feces - one passed through digestive system once and the other twice. Hares naturally distinguish these two species well and eat only the first.
Where do symbionts inside an animal get nitrogen?
for extra proteins
The straining problem faced by the stupid aphids from the first method is, in fact, worth before all herbivores: they have an abundance of carbohydrates (a source of energy for running wildly in circles around the field), but they have nothing to pump up their biceps and triceps. This “nothing,” as indicated at the beginning of the article, consists of two parts: firstly, plants are poor in proteins, and secondly, plant proteins are poor in some amino acids.
But what about the symbiont bacteria in the stomach of a cow/termite - aren’t they magicians? - In such cases, the French have a proverb: “to make a hare stew, you must at least have a cat.” Theoretically, bacteria can make proteins on their own, but in practice, plant foods contain too little of what is needed for this nitrogen. Therefore, the problem is where to get nitrogen.
- Sift, sift, and sift: extract proteins from food, and throw away everything else with feces.
- Most herbivores will gladly eat something animal: domestic horses catch and eat rats, reindeer - lemmings and voles (and also happily gnaw on shed antlers)... But such little things, of course, do not save.
- Our atmosphere contains 80% nitrogen gas, but it is not suitable for protein synthesis - it is too stable a substance. The atoms in a nitrogen molecule hold onto each other with as many as three strong bonds, and breaking these bonds is not an easy task. Only a few can solve it nitrogen-fixing prokaryotes (bacteria and cyanides) - they are the main source of nitrogen atoms (and, ultimately, proteins) for the cow and others like her. Nitrogen fixers, just like in the nodules of legumes, “fix” (extract) nitrogen from the air contained in the cow’s stomach. The only minor difficulty is that the cow does not have too much air in her stomach.
vegetarians?© D.V. Pozdnyakov, 2009-2019
