Carnivorous plants

Predatory plants are often called the miracle of nature. Inhabited in places where nutrients in the soil are not enough, they have developed an atypical survival strategy for the plant world - the ability to catch, and then eat the prey that is alive. In total there are about 450 species of such predators. They refer to six families. You can find them all over the planet in a variety of unusual and unusual habitats. Since these plants are fed exclusively by small insects, they are sometimes called insectivorous.

Some predatory plants use trap-jugs for luring production. In some species, the inner walls and edges of the trapping leaves are colored bright red, while others are attracted by the fact that they release the saccharic substance. The plant-predator of sarracenia has rather long hairs on the neck of its pitcher, which are directed downwards and do not allow insects to escape from the trap to the outside. There are two explanations why extraction does not have time to fly out of the trap. It is either a stupefying substance that is contained in a sugary liquid and quickly lulls an insect, or an overhanging lid, strongly disorienting prey. Inside the jug, enzymes are released that significantly accelerate the dissolution of the flesh of the captured insect. However, there are also such insects, which may well exist in the middle of the jugs.

The most famous example of a slamming trap is a plant flytrap or, as it is also called, a Venus flytrap. The trap is formed at the end of the leaf, and the petiole plays the role of an improvised loop. The sheet forms two parts, fringed with teeth. At each lobe there are sensitive hairs that lead to a trap in action. This happens when the insect accidentally disturbs only one hair. When you touch the second hair comes a powerful electrical impulse, which causes the trap to slam shut. She slams instantly, in the transmissions of a fifth of a second. The prongs that overlap each other do not close tight enough, so a small insect can escape to the outside. In this case, the trap is reopened so as not to consume such valuable digestive fluid. If the flytrap is lucky, and there is a large prey, the trap will gradually close within a couple of hours, the victim will be crushed.

Carnivorous plants of the fry, sundew and rosolists use sticky substances. When the insects sit down on the leaf, they begin to stick in the sugary liquid, which is extracted from the stalk glands of these plants. The victim, trying to escape, only causes the neighboring hairs to bend toward the source of the movement, as a result is caught even more firmly.

Predatory plants of pemphigus grow in ponds. They can swim freely, but they can also take root. From their leaves hang bubbles that have holes. Special glands pump all the water out of the bubble so that the valve keeps closed tightly because of the water pressure from the outside. The sugary substance attracts prey and strengthens simultaneously the future trap. The bristles direct the prey toward the valve, which opens instantly when the victim touches the signal hairs. The valve, due to pressure, opens inward, and extraction is sucked into the vial with water. After that, it closes, water is pumped out, and slow digestion of the extracted food begins.

Quite often, next to the pemphigus, the Genlisea plant is also found. His hunting leaves are distinguished by the fact that they have a short petiole, which is divided into two tubes that go under the water. It feeds on small aquatic organisms that are guided by hairs into the trap, where they can not then escape and are gradually digested.