What and how do plants feed? Plants that feed on insects

What have you heard about predator plants? Yes, it's about those who do not get food out of the soil. Do not know how to eat plants differently? And imagine that there are those whose menu consists of different insects, small crustaceans and even fish fry.

Predatory plants - amazing reality

Do not think this is the fruit of the imagination that has been played out. Such plants exist, although they can be attributed to the category of natural wonders. But in fact, she herself forced them to work out a strategy for survival. After all, the habitats of predatory plants are sands, ponds and peat bogs, in which there are no nutrient minerals that are so rich in fertile soils. So they adapted to eat live prey, having various adaptations for her catching.

They are called insectivorous, because they feed mainly on insects. Distributed by such plants around the globe and there are about 450 species.

By the method of catching insects, they can be divided into several groups. These are plants :

• With special bodies, which, actively moving, catch prey;
• With leaves covered with sticky substance;
• With "trapping pits", which are small tubes;
• With bubbles;
• With jugs.

Some species also grow in Russia. Although they are not so exotic in appearance as their foreign counterparts, they are very interesting and very dangerous for gullible insects.

Sundew

This plant, which feeds on insects, grows on peat bogs and looks rather modest. The leaves, which have a reddish green color, are spread out on a bed covered with moss. It is the leaves that use the plant to catch the prey. Their edges and upper part are equipped with cilia, which at the ends have thickening-heads.

How to eat plants sundew, answer is simple. It's all about the heads that look like drops of dew, because they contain glands that secrete sticky liquid. Insects attracted by the glitter of drops, sit down on the leaves and immediately stick to them. Cilia from this touch receive momentum and begin to crouch down, covering the insect. The sheet plate also starts to move. Its edge bends and slams the trap. Interesting is the fact that such actions in the plant are caused only by substances containing protein. If there are any grains of sand on the cilia and plates, they do not move.

In addition to the sticky liquid, they separate enzymes, which help to break down the protein, as well as the acid that ensures its digestion. The plants feed on organic substances obtained as a result of these processes. After sucking food, cilia again give off mucous drops, and the plants are ready to catch new insects.

Friary

This plant slightly resembles sundew, as its leaves are also located on the moss cover. But they are much larger and completely covered with sticky slime, allocated by numerous glands.

As soon as the insect gets on the leaf, they throw out digestive juices, while the plate of the leaf bends and covers the prey. If we compare how the plants of these two species feed, then the process of the Lymean is much faster than that of the sundew. The number of insects caught in a season at the first reaches several hundred.

Pemphigus

This insectivorous plant is found in standing ponds and swamps. Its leaves are immersed in water, and on the surface you can see only a stalk with large flowers. Traps are the leaves of the plant. Their lobules are bubbles with holes covered by a valve, and their inner walls are covered with numerous digestive glands. Insects, various larvae and even fry, touching the valve of the vial, get inside, from which they can no longer escape. Having perished, they begin to decompose, and these plants feed on substances formed during the decay.

Neptunes

Predatory plants that inhabit the tropics catch prey with the help of so-called pitchers. A bright representative of them is the epiphytic plant nepentes, spread on the island of Madagascar. Its leaves consist of three sections. The lower plate part provides the plant with air intake, the middle plays the role of a barbel, and the upper one is a trap-pitcher with a lid. It is this part that has a bright color that attracts insects.

In addition, an additional bait is the nectar, which stands out at the edges of the jug. How to eat plants, you can understand, having examined in detail the "design" of the jug. The insect that has sat down on its edge can not stay there and slides along the slippery walls inside. There it sinks in the liquid that has accumulated on the bottom, and the glands located on the walls of the pitcher begin to excrete the juices for digestion. For the absorption of digested food there are special cells located also in the cavity of the jug.

Dioney Flycatcher

This plant is more commonly known as the Venus flytrap. It is considered the most voracious predator inhabiting the marshes of North America. Its trap, consisting of two valves, slightly resembles the slightly opened shell of the mollusk. The edges of the valves are covered with small denticles along which the glands are located. Nectar, produced by them, attracts insects well. In addition, three rigid bristles are attached to each leaflet. As soon as the insect touches them, they transmit the signal to the flaps, and they tightly squeeze, capturing the victim. In this case, the glands immediately begin to secrete acidic juice, with the help of which the protein is digested. As a result, the plants feed on ready-made organic substances. As soon as the food is digested, the flaps diverge and wait for a new victim.

Sarracenia and Darlingtonia

These two North American women are very much alike, because the petioles of their leaves are hollow tubes. The difference is that in the case of sarracenia, the plate of the leaf acts as a lid over the tube, and in Darlingtonia a special outgrowth resembling a fish tail. Around the holes of the tubes there are sharp hairs directed downwards. They do not let insects get there, get out. There are no chances with the victims, as there is still a stupefying liquid inside the tubes.

After the process of decay of insects is completed, the plants suck its products through the walls of the tubes.

Interesting Facts

We are not surprised by organisms that feed on plants, but the reverse process really causes bewilderment. But as you can see, plants that eat living organisms eat, yes, and in sufficient quantities. Not surprisingly, they are the subject of study of biology scientists, who discover all the new unusual facts associated with this natural wonder. Here are some of them:

• The trapping tubes of sarracenia can reach 1 m in length;
• On 1 square. Cm of the leaf of the poultry is located 25 thousand of glands;
• Swamp predator sundew can eat about 2 thousand insects during the summer;
• Some specimens of nepentes have such a size of pitchers that mice, rats and small birds enter there;
• Nepentes secretes a special enzyme that decomposes the proteins of the victims into amino acids, and they in turn saturate the plant with nitrogen;
• Most plants that feed on insects themselves generate electrical impulses that activate the valves of the traps.

The world of plants is as amazing as the animal world. A lot of unexplored and interesting can be found in it, it is only necessary to show interest in it. In this article we have touched upon only a small part of the world around us.