Predator plant: types, photos. carnivorous plants

We are accustomed to the fact that only predators can be, and plants feed on sunlight, oxygen and what their roots can get. It turns out that this is not true at all. a predator that has ingenious insect traps is found in any climate - both temperate and tropical. Such plants are sometimes also called insectivorous or carnivorous.

The well-known flycatcher

How the first appeared remains a mystery. Scientists suggest that such an evolutionary adaptation that allows you to eat insects appeared due to a lack of nitrogen in the soil, which is so necessary for any plant.

Rosyanka lives even here in the Tundra

Each predator plant has its own type of insect trap, and are divided into three types: cracker plants, sticky plants and pitcher plants. The first type of plants has clapping leaves with teeth along the edges, the second type emits a sticky liquid with an attractive smell; the third type of carnivore plant has a trap in the form of a jug containing liquid.

Zhiryanka. Lures insects with sticky secretions on the leaves.

Why did carnivorous plants appear?

Botanists have established that all insectivorous plants live on soils poor in minerals (peat, sand, swamps and swamps). There are a lot of insects in these places, but there is little nitrogen in the soil. Therefore, predatory plants at the expense of insects receive the necessary nitrogen, which allows them to grow normally.

Nepestes or "hunting cup"

Predatory plants are characterized by a very bright color, which in all insects is associated with flowers and the presence of nectar. However, there is no nectar in such flowers, but there are a variety of devices that make it possible to catch insects and then digest (decompose) them with special glands, then absorbing the resulting nitrogen-containing nutrients.

The predator plant has turned its leaves into a kind of traps for insects. In order for the prey to be securely grasped, the leaves have sticky hairs that react to touch and gradually clench inward, like a fist. The second common option is a jug with a lid and a narrow passage. An attractive smell makes the insect crawl inside, but it can no longer get back.

Some observations show that even a pineapple behaves like a predator plant, since water attractive to insects and their larvae accumulates at its base, and it is quite capable of digesting them, assimilating the nutrients received.

Not all plants feed only on nutrients from the air and soil. Among them, there are also carnivorous plants that eat insects, small crustaceans, and even fish fry ... it happens that a person becomes a victim of a plant. Predatory plants live in unusual conditions: in the desert, on raised bogs, wet rocks, swampy meadows - on poor soil, poor in nutrients. Therefore, they have developed the ability to assimilate living protein food, grabbing it literally from the air.

They have not lost their ability to eat. inorganic substances coming from soil and air. Simply, life on soil poor in nitrogenous salts and other minerals forced them to look for additional sources of food. Many predatory plants live in swamps and swamps, and at the expense of the caught victims, they make up for the lack of nitrogen for themselves. Carnivorous plants are able to live without protein food, but this makes them very stunted.

Predatory, or carnivorous, insectivorous plants catch victims with the help of special trap leaves. Everyone has carnivorous plants beautiful flowers and brightly colored leaves. Insects fly for nectar and fall into a trap. When the insects are baited, they either stick to the leaf with sticky glandular hairs, or are trapped by the leaves in the form of special traps. The body of the victim is digested with the help of special enzymes or destroyed by organic acids secreted by plants.

Predatory plants are divided into three groups according to trapping organs. These are plants with moving trapping organs (sunflower, oilwort, flycatcher); with sticky sticky leaves (rosolist growing in the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco); with bubbles, jugs and "trapping pits" in the form of tubes (pemphigus, nepenthes, saracenia).

Insectivores - perennial herbaceous plants, there are not very many species of them, only about 500. Some soil fungi are also predators. They are found in all ecosystems in different parts of the world, growing on soil and in water. As a rule, these plants are inhabitants of areas with a warm, temperate and tropical climate, they love the sun. Better known to us - sundew and zhiryanka - inhabitants of peat bogs.

Giant carnivorous plants

Giant carnivorous plants can be found in the tropical jungles of Madagascar. Aborigines talk about a tree that can eat a person. The German naturalist K. Liche was an eyewitness of how "a palm tree with a thick trunk in the shape of a pineapple and a height of about 2.5 meters" ate a woman. The scientist saw the rite of sacrifice to this tree.

After the ritual dance, a young woman was brought to the tree, she climbed up the trunk and began to lick the juice from two huge leaves in the form of open palms until she fell into a trance. Then two-meter creepers began to close around her. Gradually, the palm leaves shrank. The girl screamed. After 10 days, Lihe found only the bones of the victim under this tree.

According to scientists, a few million years ago, predator plants were larger. Their growth has decreased as a result of climate change. Since the climate has changed less in the equatorial tropical zones, it is there that one should look for the ancestors of carnivorous plants.

In the middle of the 20th century, the German scientist K. Schwimmer went on an expedition to check the rumors about a monster devouring people in Northern Rhodesia (Central Africa). The search for the monster ended with the discovery of a cannibal tree. Having come to the source of the spicy intoxicating smell, the members of the expedition saw a tree-grove, the lush crown of which was supported by thick shoots.

Schwimmer found many bones under the tree. With slaps in the face, he brought to life his companions, intoxicated by a narcotic smell. Travelers plugged their nostrils with chewing gum and conducted an experiment. They shot a vulture and threw it into a tree. Lianas immediately wrapped around the bird. As soon as the researchers moved a little away, they heard a chilling cry: the Negro porter became the prey of the tree. It was impossible to save him. Hearing from Schwimmer about what happened, the leader of the tribe ordered the terrible plant to be burned.

1970 - Naturalists in Brazil saw a palm-like tree feeding on monkeys and sloths.

In the forests of Central America, the so-called "Tree of Justice" was discovered. It got its name from the Goboro tribe. According to the leader of the tribe, those suspected of murder or theft are brought to trial by the tree: it releases the innocent, and sucks the blood of the criminals.

It was a tree with two trunks growing 1 meter apart and with long vines. According to eyewitnesses, they, in fact, wrapped around, but immediately released the girl, who decided to test the words of the leader in practice. It can be assumed that the tree reacts to substances that, out of fear, are released from the criminal, placed between the trunks of the tree.

Vampire Mushrooms

The powerful impact of radiation on nature, caused by the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, led to the appearance of monstrous mushrooms in the forests of the Kyiv, Gomel and Bryansk regions. These vampire fungi secrete a sticky substance that insects stick to. Then the fungus grows into the body of the victim with a thin tube and sucks out its contents. Other mushrooms, "rocket shooters", shoot a spore at an insect, the spore germinates in the body of the victim, kills it and gives life to a new fungus.

Sundew

Rosyanka is called so because droplets of sticky mucus glisten on it, which look like dew or droplets of honey. The sundew itself is painted in red-green colors. The leaves of this small carnivorous plant are covered with 25 cilia on the upper side of the leaf blade and along the edges where the longest of them are found. The upper end of the cilia is thickened. It is there that the piece of iron is located, which secretes sticky mucus. Insects fly to the predatory sundew, attracted by the brilliance of this droplet. But as soon as they touch the fox, they stick. Soon, after 10 or 20 minutes, the eyelash to which the victim has stuck will bend towards the center of the leaf. All neighboring cilia will also be bent.

After that, the edge of the leaf plate will be bent, and the trap will close. If on the cilia there is a substance that does not contain protein, for example, a raindrop, they will not move. Enzymes secreted by cilia break down protein (sunflower enzymes are similar to pepsin, the gastric juice of animals). After the predator has had lunch, the cilia straighten out, again become covered with “dew” and lure new flies. Sometimes the digestive process stretches for several days. The South African royal sundew - a plant of half a meter in height - is able to digest even snails and frogs.

Zhiryanka

The green leaves of the sundew are much larger than the leaves of the sundew. They are covered with mucus and this makes them look fat. If you look at a section of a leaf under a microscope, you can see two types of glands: some are like mushrooms with caps, others are just caps without legs. There are up to 25,000 glands on one square centimeter of a leaf. When an insect sticks to a leaf and irritates it, the plant immediately releases digestive juices. Zhiryanka eats an insect even faster than sundew: she has enough days.

Pemphigus

The most complex traps in terms of arrangement are those of pemphigus. These are plants without roots. They rarely occur more than 2 mm in diameter. Pemphigus, which lives in swamp water, catches and eats insect larvae, fry and crustaceans. The leaves of the predator float in the water, and a stem with large yellow flowers. Its strongly dissected leaf was transformed in the process of development, because some of its parts became hollow bubbles.

Each such bubble has its own mouth, framed by hard bristles. The inner lining of the trap is covered with hairs that absorb liquid all the time, therefore negative pressure is created in the cavity. As soon as the valve opens, water enters the bubble along with the victim. You can't get out of the bubble. Its walls inside cover the digestive glands. When a crustacean or fry dies in a trap and decomposes, the plant "digests" its remains.

It has long been known that sundews and butterworts produce a protein-digesting enzyme. A person uses this feature when cleaning clay jugs from milk residues. They are evaporated with a decoction of sundew leaves, which decomposes milk protein even in the pores of pottery.

There are flower growers who grow these carnivorous plants at home. "Predators" are dug out together with peat moss, "settle" in a terrarium, and covered with glass from above so that the plant has enough moisture. The owners of predator plants have to catch flies for feeding them, some manage to feed them with pieces of meat and cottage cheese.

Saracenia purpurea

Saracenia purpurea is widespread, in which the petiole of the leaf has turned into a tube, and the leaf blade has turned into a cap above it. Even when the Saracenia is not in bloom, its emerald-crimson or yellow-red leaves attract midges. Small Saracenia and Californian Darlingtonia have another snag for insects: the canopies over the traps are translucent, the insect takes the gap for an exit, takes off, hits the wall and falls into the liquid.

Insects drown in the liquid, are digested, and then the remains are absorbed by the walls of the tube. The favorite food of this plant is cockroaches and flies. The Saraceniaceae family includes 10 species of Saracenia, California Darlingtonia and six species of Heliamphora. Their habitat is swamps in tropical, subtropical and temperate regions in the south. North America and northeastern South America.

Venus flytrap

Near Wilmington, North Carolina, a Venus flytrap grows in peat bogs. Its leaves are a kind of trap. Each of them is divided into two parts, the lower part extracts nutrients from the air, and the upper one catches insects. The two movable lobes of the lock leaf have sharp teeth, and each of them has three long elastic bristles.

As soon as a fly or a mosquito touches the bristles, the lobules quickly slam shut and pinch the insect. Resistance will only increase the grip of the carnivorous plant. The victim breaks out, and the leaf slices squeeze it more and more. Then the small red glands begin to secrete acidic transparent juice. For 1–3 weeks, the flycatcher eats the insect, and its lobules return to their previous position. After two or three meals, the leaf dies off. Why is this Venus flytrap? They say that she was given this name because the trap leaves are shaped like sea shells, which have long been considered a symbol of the feminine.

An experiment with a plant showed that if you touch the bristles with a stick, the trap closes, but when it finds that there is no food in it, the plant reopens. It reacts even if the victim weighs only 0.0008 milligrams. It is curious that the trap closes only when the victim touches two or more hairs. If only one bristle is disturbed, then the trap will not work. So some lucky ones manage to carefully climb to the nectar and enjoy it.

Aldrovanda

By the same principle as the Venus flytrap, the underwater plant Aldrovanda from the sundew family catches its prey.

The favorite delicacy of orangutans is the digestive juice from large jugs of nepenthes (a genus of insectivorous plants, part of the petiole of which is turned into a jug). It is sour in taste and very refreshing in the heat.

Nepenthes - bushy vines

Under the forest canopy in the tropics of Madagascar, South Asia and Indonesia, New Guinea, in Northern Australia, in the Seychelles, in warm and humid jungles, bizarre nepenthes grow - bushy vines.

This carnivorous plant uses another plant instead of a support, developing on it. Thus, trees and shrubs growing near are entwined with petioles of Nepenthes leaves, and blue, red, green jugs hang between the branches, which are the “hunting organs” of the plant. Having evolved, the Nepenthes leaf turned into a brightly colored jug with a lid, and its middle part turned into a tendril. The length of the trap jars various types ranges from 4 to 60 cm.

These are insectivores, catching insects passively. In some of these plants, the jug holds up to one liter of liquid, so not only large insects, but even small birds can get there. In addition to its bright color, insects are attracted to Nepenthes by its fragrant nectar. It stands out along the edge of the jug and looks like a smooth wax coating. The victim sits on the jug, then gradually moves to its slippery inner side due to plaque and slides down it to the bottom, into a viscous liquid.

Hard hairs inside the jug prevent her from climbing up. These sharp hairs are directed downwards, which allows the caught prey to easily slide to the bottom, but makes it difficult to exit the jug. After 5–7 hours, the prey of the Nepenthes is digested. Pitchers-stomachs work all the time. These creepers are also called "hunting cups": you can drink clean water from them, however, only from above, because there are undigested insects at the bottom. Giant Nepenthes grow on the island of Borneo; pigeons, other birds, and small animals sometimes get into their jugs.

Giant Byblis

Australians have found good use leaves of another well-known carnivorous plant - giant biblis. The narrow leaves of this low shrub exude a substance with such a strong adhesive effect that at times frogs and small birds stick to them. Australians use this substance as a glue.

Nature never ceases to amaze us with its mysteries and surprises. It would seem that a stalk with leaves, but also carnivorous! It turns out that there is a fairly significant category of plants that live someone else's death. These are the so-called "Plutonians" - named after the mysterious lord of death and rebirth - Pluto. More common names are "carnivorous plants" and "carnivorous plants".

These plants are further proof of the mystery of evolution. For example, in order to survive in shady damp places, the so-called epiphytes move to live on a higher and more powerful neighbor, however, without harm to him; Predatory plants, according to scientists, evolved due to the extreme lack of nitrogen in the soil.

In total, about 500 species of predator plants are known. In the most famous "predators" - sundews, nepenthes and sarracenia - insects make up the bulk of the prey (hence the other name for these plants - insectivorous). Others - water bladderworts and aldrovands - most often catch planktonic crustaceans. There are also such "predatory" plants that feed on fry, tadpoles, or even toads and lizards. There are three groups of such insectivorous plants - these are plants with trap leaves, in which the halves of the leaves with teeth along the edge close tightly, plants with sticky leaves, in which the hairs on the leaves secrete a sticky liquid that attracts insects, and plants in which the leaves are shaped jug with a lid filled with water.

Why do plants "predation"?
The fact is that all carnivorous plants grow on poor soils, such as peat or sand. In such conditions, there is less competition among plants (few people are able to survive here), and the ability to catch live prey, break down and assimilate animal protein makes up for the deficiency. mineral nutrition. Carnivorous plants are especially numerous on moist soils, swamps and swamps, where they compensate for the lack of nitrogen at the expense of caught animals. As a rule, they are brightly colored, and this attracts insects that are used to associating bright colors with the presence of nectar.

What is characteristic of carnivorous plants?

They possess various devices to catch small animals, mainly insects and arachnids, they digest their victims with the “digestive juice” secreted by special glands and suck in the resulting nutritious gruel, thus supplementing the nitrogen they need, obtained from the soil, with nitrogen from animal tissues. Leaves are usually turned into insect trapping organs. They are covered with glue, carry sticky hairs, can be bent inward, closing like a palm gathered into a fist. The leaf can be turned into a jar with a lid, from which an insect that has entered it cannot escape.

There are reasons to believe that some cultivated plants not averse to feast on "meat" So, rainwater accumulates in the bases of pineapple leaves, and small aquatic organisms multiply there - ciliates, rotifers, worms, insect larvae. There are suspicions that pineapple is able to digest and assimilate them.

Zhiryanka

It acts almost the same as the sundew, luring insects with sticky secretions of its long, tapering leaves, collected in a rosette. Sometimes the edges of the leaves are bent inward, and the prey in such a tray is locked. Other leaf cells then secrete digestive enzymes. After the "dish" is consumed, the leaf unfolds and is ready to act again.

Venus flytrap

The genus Dionaea includes only one species, Dioneae muscipulata, better known as the Venus flytrap. This is the only plant in which the capture of insects by the rapid movement of the trap can be observed even with the naked eye. In nature, the flycatcher is found in the swamps of North and South Carolina.
In an adult plant, the maximum size of the trap is 3 cm. Depending on the season, the type of trap changes markedly. In summer, when there is a lot of prey, the trap is brightly colored (usually dark red) and reaches maximum dimensions. In winter, when there is little prey, the traps decrease in size. Along the edges of the leaf are thick spines, similar to teeth, each leaf ("jaw") is equipped with 15-20 teeth, and in the middle of the leaf there are three sentinel hairs. Insect or other creature attracted bright leaf, can not hurt these hairs. The collapse of the trap occurs only after a double irritation of the hairs in the range from 2 to 20 seconds. This prevents the traps from triggering when it rains.
It is no longer possible to open the trap. If the leaf misses or something inedible gets into it, it will reopen in half an hour. Otherwise, it will remain closed until it has digested the prey, which can take up to several weeks. As a rule, the leaves, before dying off and being replaced by new ones, work in this way only two or three times.

Nepenthes

The genus includes about 80 plant species from tropical rainforests. Most of them are vines reaching several meters, but there are also low shrubs. Nepenthes traps are adapted to capture very large prey. The largest Nepenthes can also catch small rodents, toads and even birds. However, their usual prey is insects.
Nepenthes catch prey in a completely different way than all other predatory plants. In their tubular leaves, shaped like pitchers, rainwater accumulates. In some, the tip of the leaf is folded like a funnel, through which water flows inward; in others, it is folded over and covers the opening, limiting the amount of incoming moisture to prevent overflow in heavy rains. By outside From top to bottom of the pitcher there are two toothed wings that serve both to support the pitcher and to guide crawling insects. Along the inner edge of the jug are cells that secrete sweet nectar. Beneath them are many hard hairs, turned downwards, a bristly palisade that does not allow the victim to get out of the jug. The wax secreted by the cells of the smooth leaf surface of most Nepenthes makes this surface so slippery that no claws, hooks or suckers can help the victim. Once in such a jar-trap, the insect is doomed, it sinks deeper and deeper into the water - and drowns. At the bottom of the jug, the insect decomposes, and its soft parts are absorbed by the plant.
Nepenthes (pitchers) are sometimes called "hunting cups", since the liquid contained in them can be drunk: on top in a jug pure water. Of course, somewhere below are the undigested solid remains of the "dinners" of the plant. But with a certain caution, they cannot be reached, and almost every jug contains a sip or two, or even a lot. more water.

Sarracenia

The genus includes 9 species from the Sarraceniaceae family. All members of the family are marsh plants. The flowers are very bright. And even non-flowering sarracenia attract attention: emerald, with a dense network of raspberry veins, trap leaves flowing with sweet juice resemble fabulous flowers. Attracted by a bright trap, insects sit on the trap and die.

Darlingtonia (Darlingtonia)- a swamp plant in North America, one of the strangest in the world: it amazes with its jugs in the form of a cobra hood, preparing for an attack (hence the other name - Cobra Plant). Insects are caught by the smell, and the hairs on the walls of the leaves provide only downward movement.

In Australia you can find Byblis Giant (Byblis gigantea), completely covered with leaves with sticky hairs and glands with a very sticky substance. It is about him that rumors still circulate as a man-eating plant. According to legends, the remains of people have been found near these plants more than once. The local natives used its leaves as super glue.

domestic predators

There is an opinion that predator plants cannot be kept at home. Indeed, they most often die after a while, however, there are types of predator plants that are most suitable for indoor conditions. This is a Venus flytrap, various sundews, medium-sized species of Nepenthes, tropical species fatwort and most types of sarracenia.

Venus flytrap is grown in coarse fibrous peat. The plant requires maximum sunlight throughout the year, and in winter, when there is not enough sunlight, the plants have to be highlighted. It is watered abundantly in the summer, it is even better to keep pots with plants a third submerged in water, using boiled or rain water for irrigation. In winter, watering is reduced, but the soil is not allowed to dry out completely. Requires high humidity.

Growing individual hybrid species nepenthes is not difficult, with the only caveat that for the formation of jugs they require constant high humidity. Nepenthes are grown on soil consisting of fibrous peat and sphagnum moss or on pure sphagnum moss. The main thing is that the soil is always loose and well aerated. Water these plants should be plentiful and soft water, avoiding the slightest drying.

Many representatives of sundews are very difficult to keep in room conditions. However, some tropical species of sundews are very unpretentious and can grow in aquariums with high air humidity, as their leaves are very delicate and dry out easily in a dry room atmosphere. The most suitable for growing indoors are the South African sundew Drosera alicia and the American sundew Drosera capillaris (this is the most hardy sundew).

Sarracenia grow well in a room without special care. The soil mixture should be loose and not nutritious: washed quartz sand, chopped sphagnum and high-moor peat (1:2:3) with the addition of pieces of charcoal. Sarracenia often suffer from waterlogging, so they need good drainage. Watering - distilled or clean snow (rain) water. The best place for them in the apartment is a window sill, best of all under a constantly ajar window, wintering at t 10-15 ° C.

The Venus flytrap is very fond of children and adults, they put their fingers in it and watch how the small soft mouth closes. The surprising fact is that the reaction rate is only one-thirtieth of a second! This plant also knows how to play the game "edible-inedible", and if the food is suitable, then the leaf will open again only after 6-10 days. But if the leaf slammed shut in vain, then after 1-2 days the flycatcher will again go hunting.

It is the Venus flytrap that is most often bred at home and begin to feed. Caught flies are also suitable, and even small pieces of ordinary meat. Therefore, if such an exotic has settled in your house, setting the meat table, do not forget to invite your green friend to him.

Insectivorous plants - popular species, care

Plants that are able to catch and eat insects and small animals are of extreme interest and surprise. And lovers of indoor flowers are sure to try to purchase these flowers in their collections.

In nature, predatory plants are found on almost all continents. They belong to 19 different families. Currently, about 630 species of these amazing creatures have been described. Most of them come from tropical regions, but there are species that feel quite comfortable in cooler regions.

So, even in the swamps near Moscow you can find round-leaved sundew (Drosera rotundifolia), a American purple sarracenia (Sarracenia purpurea) has long settled in England and Ireland.

The first descriptions of plants capable of feeding themselves by hunting appeared in the 18th century. They were compiled by the English naturalist John Ellis. The discovery was so unexpected that even many scientists of that time took the information with a grain of salt.

Cunning traps

In the 19th century, green predators attracted the attention of Charles Darwin. He spent 15 years studying and experimenting with these plants in detail. The result of his labors was the book "Insectivorous Plants".

So how is it that plants—the last creatures you would expect to behave like this—have learned to eat?

This ability has developed in them in the process of evolution, in response to adverse living conditions.

All of them are united by one common feature- they are forced to grow on waterlogged soils, extremely poor in nutrients. It is extremely difficult to survive in such conditions, but these species were able to. Their leaves have become clever traps that lure "game" with scent, sweet nectar, or bright colors. The trap leaves are very different in shape and method of catching prey, but the result is almost always the same - a frivolous victim, sitting down to feast on nectar on a "flower", becomes dinner itself.

So, sundews (Drosera) catch small insects for sticky baits. Tropical beauties Nepenthes (Nepenthes) grow jugs filled with digestive juices. Outwardly, they resemble bright exotic flowers, and in some species they can reach a length of 50 cm and hold up to 2 liters of liquid. Such a “flower” is capable of digesting not only insects, but even small animals that accidentally got inside.

green jaws

But the collapsing green “jaws” look especially impressive. Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula). Her traps are equipped with sensitive hairs located on inside. If they are touched, a special “closing” mechanism is triggered. Moreover, the Venus flytrap is able to distinguish between its prey. If something inedible (for example, a blade of grass) gets on her “tooth”, the trap opens again and waits for its happy hour.

This trinity: sundew (Drosera), Nepenthes (Nepenthes) and Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - now easy to find for sale. Growing them is not so easy, they will not live long in inappropriate conditions, so before buying, you should thoroughly prepare and evaluate your capabilities.

Terrarium

Small species such as sundew or Venus flytrap, it is better to place in a terrarium. For large plants such as nepenthes, it will not be superfluous to purchase a humidifier or place a tray of pebbles filled with water next to them. At the same time, heat combined with constant high humidity can cause fungal infections.

All green predators are photophilous, but they must be shaded from direct sunlight. Insectivorous plants need very high humidity. If kept too dry, they are easily affected by aphids and mealybugs.

To reduce the risk of disease, plants need to provide an influx fresh air. Cold drafts should be avoided, especially in autumn and winter. It is also necessary to remove wilted leaves and flowers in a timely manner.

Watering and fertilizing regimen

It is very important to observe the correct mode of watering and fertilizing. root system of these plants is very sensitive to flooding and lack of moisture. The soil in the pot should be constantly moist, but stagnant water should be avoided.

For irrigation use only soft water that does not contain calcium salts. Ordinary houseplant fertilizers are not suitable for these plants. They receive additional nutrition with live food, and the rule applies here: it is better to underfeed than to overfeed.

Don't give your little predators bits of food from your table. Everything you need, they will catch themselves. Traps that catch prey beyond their strength cannot digest it, they turn black and rot. Such leaves must be removed.

Do not often touch the trap leaves sundew and venus flytrap. Of course, watching their reaction is incredibly interesting, but inadvertently they can be damaged. Such a leaf will dry out, which will also not add attractiveness to the plant.

Transfer

Carnivorous plants are transplanted every two years. To do this, use a substrate consisting of a mixture of peat or coconut, sphagnum and perlite. The pot should not be too big. Temperature requirements are different different types. So, non-penthes need to be kept warm throughout the year. Temperatures below +15°C are detrimental to them. Rosyanka and venus flytraps in winter, a dormant period at low temperatures is needed. Optimal mode for their wintering +10... 12°C.

A flower that eats flies, until recently, was considered a figment of fantasy, juggling of facts and errors of scientists. For describing a plant that eats flies, Charles Darwin, already famous for his theory of evolution, was heavily criticized.

And for some reason, Darwin's opponents believed that insectivorous plants refute his theory of the origin of species. However, time put everything in its place, and the theory turned out to be correct, and the existence of predatory plants was not only confirmed, but fit well into the theory of the origin of species.

Why do plants eat animals?

The image of the plant is associated with green leaves, in which, under the influence of photons of light, carbon dioxide and water form a glucose molecule - the simplest and most energetically saturated organic compound.

This description of the process of photosynthesis is actually too simplistic.

So complex multi-stage reactions occur in a green leaf that the appearance of organic molecules from water and carbon dioxide seems like a miracle.

Predatory flowers are entire chemical laboratories

However, this miracle feeds a huge number of organisms from bacteria to elephants and, of course, humans. Why, then, should plants, which have created a whole laboratory for the production of their own food, become like animals that eat each other.

Another question logically arises - if the plant has switched to the animal mode of nutrition, then why shouldn't animals acquire the ability to photosynthesis.

However, today photosynthetic animals eat only in the world of single-celled organisms. Among multicellular animals there is not a single species that has passed at least partially to the process of photosynthesis. green wool sloths don't count - that's not photosynthesis. Algae simply grow there - after all, a large animal prefers a stationary lifestyle, and the air in the jungle is always humid.

It's all about lifestyle. Evolution is the opposite of revolution. Radical mutations usually lead to the death of the individual. The new kind appears from a set of micromutations that improve the position of individuals in the battle for vital resources. Plants are immobile - this is their main evolutionary sign or trap, depending on which side it is considered from. Animals can move around, some do it very well. And this is also an advantage, a sign and an evolutionary cage from which they cannot get out. For more information about predatory flowers, see this video:

The animal can migrate, move in search of food, fight for a place under the sun. For this reason, evolution works to ensure that animals acquire the ability to run, hide, cheat, steal, kill rivals, change biotope, and so on.

Plants do not have this option. They have to realize themselves where the seed has sprouted.

For this reason, the selection of micromutations for compliance with the living conditions of the species has a slightly different direction. A plant that can realize itself only within the narrow limits of its biotope is forced to adapt only to the conditions of this biotope. However, competition is almost everywhere, except in very extreme conditions. In conditions where plants that eat animals live, there are also many competitors. And most importantly - there is little nitrogen. This element is the basis for the formation of complex organic molecules, including proteins.

Predatory plants found convenient way compete with other plants for nutrients

Evolution has given some species of plants stuck in conditions of nitrogen deficiency, the way out is to consume it from the bodies of other organisms. This solution to the problem is not so original.

Who are they, green predators

Any carnivorous plant is called insectivorous. The reason for this name is not a gastronomic predilection, but the size of organisms.

Maybe green predators would eat bigger game, but their small size does not allow them.

Carnivorous or carnivorous plants is a collective name rather than a taxonomic one. There are about 630 species with such specificity. They are representatives of nineteen families, which include not only predators, but quite normal plants.

Surprisingly, carnivorous plants are found all over the world and in various natural conditions. They are united by only one thing - the lack of nitrogen in the soil or the inability to take it due to great competition.

Usually any fly-eater plant is a herbaceous perennial. On the territory of Russia and the CIS, 18 species of animals, included in 4 genera and 2 families, feed on animals. These are the sundew and pemphigus families.

The sundew family unites a small number of species that have signs of dicotyledonous and carnation plants. This family includes three genera, all of which are carnivorous plants.

These are perennial rhizomatous plants growing in swamps. Oddly enough, but in the swamps temperate zone, where so much dead organic matter has been accumulated, there is a nitrogen deficiency, because in cold water the decomposition of organic matter to nitrates is extremely slow. In addition, plants submerged in swamp water do not grow well, because cold water cannot be digested properly. Accordingly, without water there is no influx of minerals. For more information about pemphigus, see this video:

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Pemphigus, which gave its name to the family, has an extensive range. It is not found only in Antarctica. These are aquatic predatory plants without roots, but with a large number of trapping bubbles. Each of them has holes with a valve. This is a typical trap that small animals can enter, but they can no longer get out of. There is only one thing left for them - to become food for the plant.

Most carnivorous plants are perennial herbs, but there are several species that are shrubs and even shrubs. They are classified as species with a narrow adaptation to environmental conditions. Usually such species are distinguished by unusual and bizarre adaptive reactions.

Biblis giant

Variety of traps

All predatory plants according to the method of catching are divided into those who catch actively and passively. Active catchers have special baits that move and thus attract the attention of insects. This group includes sundew and flycatcher.

Passive catchers form traps in the form of sticky and mucous secretions on leaves, jugs, bubbles.

Whose strategy is better to understand is difficult, but since these devices are there, then it is profitable this species. Flycatcher and sundew spend energy on movement, but they also catch more. Passive plants wait patiently like a spider in a web for someone to crawl towards them. But they don't have extra costs energy - caught an insect and again calmly wait.

Bladderwort catching a fish fry

All the variety of species of carnivorous plants uses not so many types of traps. This is due to the fact that mainly leaves evolve into the trap. So there's reason to create too great variety there were no traps in nature. There are five main types of traps:

• leaves rolled into a jug;
• two-leaf traps;
• Velcro on leaf blades;
• traps with the effect of suction into the liquid;
• like a crab claw.

A distinctive feature of these adaptations is the complete absence of any connection between the type of trap and the taxonomic affiliation of the species.

Plants are the antipodes of predators

In addition to plants that eat insects, there are plants that repel flies.

This property is associated with a large number of phytoncides that plants secrete.

However, not all phytoncides are directed specifically against insects; some substances are used to combat competing species. Plants leading chemical warfare with insects, and are called - repellents.

Plants that repel insects

These include:

• tansy;
• Walnut;
• all kinds of geraniums;
• sagebrush;
• lavender;
• various types of mint;
• nasturtium;
• thyme;
• coriander;
• horseradish;
• marigold;
• garlic;
• chives;
• mustard;
• fennel.

It is very simple to single out from the whole variety of species of cultivated and wild plants those who are able to scare away not only flies, but also other insects. They are usually not affected by common pests of our gardens and orchards - whiteflies, thrips, aphids and other lovers of juice and green mass. For more information about these plants, see this video:

This is especially noticeable on indoor plants. If you plant a geranium in the contaminated land and a tangerine, a rose or a chrysanthemum nearby, then soon the last three species will be entwined with a mite's web, strewn with thrips and aphids. At the same time, it will not be possible to detect any booger on geraniums. It will scare away all insects, including clothes moth.

What is better to breed indoors

Dealers in unusual flowers got to carnivorous plants.

In supermarkets, you can see dozens of pots with flycatchers, sundews and other small carnivorous plants.

They usually look very sad. These plants do not tolerate such treatment. Their roots are short, the earth in transport pots is usually not fertile, since peat is poured there to reduce the weight of the pots. Plants with a good root system cannot live only on peat, and small green predators die on such a substrate very quickly, especially since no one feeds them meat in stores.

Carnivorous plants are very delicate and do not tolerate transplanting.

If you decide to have exotic predators with green leaves, you should remember that this is not so easy. Most often, sundew is bred at home. It has long been introduced into culture. However, we must not forget the fact that this plant is not only rare in nature, but also endangered, so you need to bring this predator from a flower shop, and not from a wild swamp.

Those plants that were extracted from nature long ago, many decades ago, roam the shops and window sills. If you dug up a sundew in wild nature and planted in a pot on your windowsill, you broke the law and reduced biodiversity in the ecosystem of swamps and waterlogged forests.

Sundew, like many predators, loves moisture, because often it was life in a humid environment that was a factor in the evolutionary transition to an unusual way of life.

Almost all types of carnivorous plants kept in room conditions need a meat diet. So you will have to periodically witness a rather cruel spectacle - the slow digestion of a living insect. To avoid this, living insect can be replaced with a small piece, for example, beef. It needs to be lightly rubbed with your fingers to make it softer and warmer, and offer the green predator food on tweezers. In nature, the meat of mammals, of course, they do not eat. However, it is still meat, only very saturated with energy, proteins and other nitrogenous compounds.

With such a diet, your predator will begin to grow well. However, it still won’t succeed in growing to the size of a monster from horror films - you can’t deceive genetic information with meat. For more information on how to grow a Venus flytrap at home, see this video:

Of course, keeping a predator plant on your windowsill is fun, but growing plants that repel flies is very useful. So choose what exactly will look best on your windowsill.