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Nepenthes, a carnivorous plant, is usually brightly colored and attracts passing insects. When they try to stop near the pitcher plant to get a closer look, they are likely to slip on their feet and accidentally fall into the pitcher plant's slime-covered trap.
这只蜜蜂请小心!|Flickr
There is some liquid in the trap of the pitcher plant, which may contain some bacteria that have been washed in by the rainfall, or digestive enzymes secreted by the pitcher plant itself. Insects that struggle to escape are flooded with liquid and slowly digested by digestive enzymes into food for pitcher plants.
Nepenthes converts its prey into nutrients such as minerals, amino acids, phosphates, etc., so that it does not need to obtain nutrients from its roots alone, as other plants do, and thus can survive in areas with harsh environments, such as nutrient-poor soils formed by sandstone, granite, or limestone bedrock.
To be able to grow so energetically in a nourished-poor area, there must be some extraordinary ability!|Wiki
It is widely believed that Nepenthes are "carnivorous" because of an evolutionary strategy so that they can compete with other plants in nutrient-starved areas and win the battle for food in a strange way.
In 2009, scientists discovered for the first time that Nepenthes in Borneo had evolved a new skill and entered into a partnership with a local mountain tree shrew: the mountain tree shrew would discharge excrement into the Nepenthes' insect traps to feed the Nepenthes.
Tree Shrew: Yay!
To find out, the researchers used cameras to observe this behavior, observing hundreds of toilet visits, including 65 visits by mountain tree shrews and 42 visits by Balu family rats. On average, each pitcher plant "eats" a large meal of feces every 3.4 days.
This behavior is also somewhat beneficial for tree shrews and rats. When researchers analyzed the mucus secreted by Nepenthes, they found more than 40 aromatic chemicals, some of which these small animals often eat in fruits. Therefore, tree shrews often come to the pitcher plant to eat the nectar on the lid of the insect trap, and by the way, they can go to the toilet?
Tree Shrew: Is this something to watch??? |
Researchers believe that this evolutionary direction may be due to the fact that in the high altitude tropical mountains, the number of insects is small, and Nepenthes has to find alternative sources of nutrients in order to survive.
Later, in addition to tree shrews and rats, other animals were found to also turn pitcher plants into public toilets, such as a local species of embroidery-eyed bird. It has also been found that bats also leave urine and feces in them.
In order to give the animals a better experience when going to the toilet (?) the morphology of the pitcher plant has also undergone some changes, such as the wider edge of the insect trap and the larger opening, which makes it easier for the tree shrew to sit comfortably on it and eat the lid secretions. It can be said that it is a luxury toilet that provides good service!
Tree Shrew: Paid!Or Deluxe Edition!|Jonathan A Moran
The study also found that pitcher plant "poop eating" is actually a useful strategy to improve their diet, providing them with higher levels of nitrogen, (when the "toilet" pitcher plant has more than 2 times more nitrogen than the insect-trapping pitcher plant) to have an important competitive advantage in surviving in extremely nitrogen-deficient soils.
After all, most species in Nepenthes are already classified as critically endangered, endangered, or threatened. Its survival is not only dependent on its own efforts to evolve, but also requires us to learn more about Nepenthes, study them, and then protect them.
Protecting pitcher plants is also protecting the animals' freedom to!
Resources:
[1]https://academic.oup.com/aob/article/130/7/927/6779531?login=false
[2]https://www.uni-bayreuth.de/press-releases/Nepenthes