#my poor little drosera...

[precious-and-petulant]

It's n❀t fair that my plants always gr❀w t❀❀ big f❀r their p❀ts. My c❀w❀rkers used t❀ make fun ❀f me, but n❀w theirs are, t❀❀. I guess that makes me feel a bit better, but I still hate the feeling ❀f planting my little fly trap ❀utside s❀ he can gr❀w freely...

[hes-a-plant]

the Venus flytrap. Its global distribution looks something like this:

The Venus flytrap is only found within a 75-mile radius of Wilmington, North Carolina (that’s about 120km). Its range has also shrunk over time, since it needs such a specific set of bog conditions to survive. Not too weird on its own, right?

Also, something that comes as a surprise to a lot of people: there is only one species of Venus flytrap, or Dionaea muscipula. This means that the genus Dionaea is known as a monotypic genus.

Okay, now onto why I think that those facts are absolutely mind-boggling.

So many people know what a Venus flytrap is. If you mention carnivorous plants, I've found that most people will immediately think of a Venus flytrap. Hell, I've even talked to people who have used "Venus Flytrap" as a term meaning all carnivorous plants. There is a weirdly big cultural awareness of this one tiny bog plant. I mean, sure, it does some really cool stuff and is basically a perfect mix of physics* and biology working together (in my very biased opinion) but there are plenty of equally incredible plants out there that don't have nearly as tiny of ranges. This thing lives only in a tiny, localized area, and yet everyone seems to know about it (I can't speak globally, but this has been what I've seen as someone who lives nowhere near North Carolina).

This difference becomes even weirder when you look at other carnivorous plants.

Example: the sundews, the genus Drosera. These guys also move when prey gets stuck to them, and do so in a way that looks even cooler IMO, since you can see what's going on.

This is the range of the genus Drosera. Compared to the Venus flytrap, these things are everywhere.

There are a lot of different species of sundew (at least 194), but they generally look something like this:

and curl up and digest bugs like this:

There are also pitcher plants, of which there are many different types, and nearly all of them also have many kinds of species per respective genus. There is a lot more variety than in Venus flytraps, but Venus flytraps are still the ones that people seem to know of.

Finally, humans really seem to like Venus flytraps. There's only one species of venus flytrap, but there are many different cultivars (cultivated varieties, usually developed by greenhouses that breed plants for certain traits). There are incredibly mutated flytraps like the fused tooth cultivar (poor little guy can't even close), giant flytraps with gorgeous colors like the B-52 cultivar, and many many others.

We really saw this one plant that is the sole living species of its genus, and has a tiny natural range, and decided to make it the most important little guy ever.

*if you're curious about the physics part, check out "Snapping mechanics of the Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula)" by Sachse et al. 2020

plant or animal with the weirdest geographic distribution: go

[nihiltism]

there is nothing better than just being absolutely unabashed in ur art. if u question the logistics of adding something to an art add it anyway but also add an in character reason why it's there. I showed an oc sketch to my mom like a couple months ago and her first reaction was (i. is that a crown of thorns) and with the biggest smile on my face I said YEP because its badass and thematic and said oc has nothing if not a flair for the dramatic

[tfenvs3000]

Plants that Eat Insects

One part of the plant world that has always amazed me is carnivorous plants. Their very existence seems to me to be such a violation of nature’s laws! They are PLANTS that consume INSECTS, something which differentiates them from the other 99.9% of the plants on earth (which undergo the typical photosynthesis energy acquisition pathway). In this blog post, I’ve decided to go over a few common carnivorous plant species and share some knowledge about what they do and why!

The “flagship” carnivorous plant is, of course, the wonderful Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula). The venus flytrap is different from other carnivorous plants because it is the only one that physically moves to properly capture its prey! Interestingly, it is not known exactly how this happens - but it may be that electrical currents flowing through the plant’s cellular structure are activated after an insect comes into contact with the plant’s “trigger hairs”, which allows it to close up (Eden Project, n.d.).

(A venus flytrap. Thank goodness there aren’t human-sized ones like there are in Mario! Image from: Tom’s Carnivores)

Another well-known carnivorous plant is the tropical pitcher plant (Nepenthes). This plant is essentially our equivalent to a bottomless pit with litres upon litres of chocolate milkshake at the bottom. It contains a sweet liquid that attracts the insects, who then fall into the pit of doom and drown after being unable to escape. The prey is then digested, and the plant consumes the nutrients that come from it (The Eden Project, n.d.). Freaky!

(A tropical pitcher plant. As you can see, they hang suspended from vines - so groundborne insects are far less at risk for falling into this tasty trap. Image from: The Eden Project)

Finally, the “living flypaper” of the natural world, Sundew (Drosera). This plant has tentacle-like leaves that are covered in sticky spines. These spines give off a sweet scent that attracts insects, which are then slowly broken down and digested by the plant after they become stuck. (Palomar, n.d.)

(The Sundew plant, and its tentacle-like leaves. They look almost like tiny hairbrushes! Image from: W.P. Armstrong)

There are so many weird and wacky carnivorous plants out there, each with a different method of attracting and consuming insects, that I could spend multiple days going over every one (and honestly I wouldn’t mind doing so - they’re so interesting!). However, to wrap up today’s post, I think it would be interesting to look at the evolutionary basis of carnivorous plants. Why are they the way that they are?

Well, plants like this often evolved in nutrient-poor environments, so they evolved this method of capturing enough nutrients to sustain their biological processes (Smithsonian Insider, 2015). In these areas, there was very little competition because of the poor growing conditions - so it was an optimal scenario for adaptation to occur and for these very unique plant species to evolve!

This is just one example of the unbelievable diversity of different plant and animal species within our environments. One might not think much about the “why” behind why different species are the way that they are in nature - but I think it’s important to do so, so that we can develop a better appreciation for what we are observing and more fully understand the mechanisms by which they survive. As George Harzog put it: “Interpreters seek to add the essential elements of heightened appreciation, deeper understanding, and new ways of seeing the world” (Beck et al., 2018). Hopefully, I was able to do that for you today with regards to carnivorous plants!

All the best,

Ty

References:

Barrat, J. (2018, January 18). How Carnivorous Plants avoid eating their pollinating insect friends. Smithsonian Insider. https://insider.si.edu/2015/06/how-carnivorous-plants-avoid-eating-their-pollinating-insect-friends/

Bennet, T. (2017, April 26). FAQ: What should I feed my Venus flytrap? Tom’s Carnivores. https://www.carnivorousplants.co.uk/blog/what-should-i-feed-my-venus-flytrap/

Carnivorous Plants. (n.d.). Palomar. https://www2.palomar.edu/users/warmstrong/carnivor.htm#sundew

Carnivorous plants facts. (2020, April 3). Eden Project. https://www.edenproject.com/learn/for-everyone/carnivorous-plants-facts

Beck, L., Cable, T., & Knudson, D. (2018). Interpreting cultural and natural heritage for a better world. Sagamore-Venture Publishing.

[cynfamonster]

I’ve been wanting a purpurea for awhile now, very pleased to find them in stock at the nursery! Plus a new ping cross and drosera filiformis “red.”

I also managed to save my poor little pinguicula ehlersiae - it got uprooted and mangled by a squirrel several months ago and I didn’t think it was going to make it. I got a leaf to root though and the main plant turned around, so I’m pretty happy about that! The lower left pic is right after it was attacked (it actually looked much worse in person and later lost most of its leaves), and the right pic is today with its new clone. It’s going into its winter “succulent” phase so the leaves are changing :)

[ocpdzim]

my drosera capensis ‘alba’ and my drosera pulchella are both doing super well but my poor little drosera tokaiensis got burned bc SOMEBODY knocked the grow lamp down on top of it and it’s still alive and still the unburnt bits appear very healthy but it just makes me feel so sad that about a third of the poor little thing has burn damage

[precious-and-petulant]

Ne rkijs'e.

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