Plants always give the impression of being gentle, sunny, and indisputable, and they are the food of many animals. But there are alternative plants in nature that in order to survive, they insidiously use animals or simply eat animals to provide nutrients for their own growth. Today we take a look at the intrigues and tricks of those incredible plants.
Thatched vegetables ——
Strong attacker
The thatched vegetable, which has sparkling dew drops in the sun, is a beautiful ornamental plant, and its petiole ends are attached to small sticky droplets, so some people call it dewdrops.
At the same time, thatched vegetables are also a deadly plant, they attract insects through the "dew drops" at the tip of the tentacles, and once the prey is close to the glands on the leaf surface, the plants will secrete chemicals to dissolve and digest the insects. Insects usually die within 15 minutes after being caught and dissolve into a "nutrient solution", while thatched vegetables, which eventually absorb these nutrients through their leaves, are as carnivorous as animals and are straight forward attackers.
Insect trap trees -
Perfect interpretation of "killing with a knife"
The surface of the insectfishing tree is also covered with sticky resin, which also uses mucus to catch insects, but they are more sticky than the mucus of thatched vegetables, and can stick to larger, stronger insects. However, instead of secreting digestive enzymes to break down their prey, trap trees obtain nutrients through a symbiotic relationship with a carnivorous insect called a stinging bug.
The stinging bug has lived on a trap tree all its life, and its body surface is coated with an anti-stick wax coating, allowing it to travel freely through the superglue-like forest. With a sharp beak, the stinging bug is inserted into the dying insect and sucks the juice. When the bugs are full, they leave the excrement on the leaves, and the insect trap tree only needs to absorb the ready-made fertilizer converted by the stinging bugs.
The insect-catching tree and the stinging bug have evolved a close symbiotic relationship, dividing labor and cooperating, jointly defeating the enemy, each taking what is needed. This process perfectly deduces the botanical version of the knife-borrowing killing plan.
Flycatchers --
Advanced equipment and accurate strikes
catch
fly
Due to its peculiar shape and fast hunting speed, the flycatcher is also known as the "mousetrap". Its leaves form two lobes that can bite from the central vein, and the long, short-spined blades open outwards and are shaped a bit like shells.
These short spines are very sensitive, and as soon as any object touches them, the blades bite immediately, a process that takes less than a second. Flycatchers have a judgment mechanism: leaf closure behavior is triggered only when one hard thorn is touched more than twice, or when two hard thorns must be touched successively within twenty seconds. Insects react quickly, but flycatchers are more rapid. Moreover, the leaves are not completely closed at first, they will maintain a gap for a few seconds, in order to allow small insects to escape, because insects that are too small are not a meal for flytraps and cannot fill their stomachs.
The flytrap attacks as fast as lightning, but once it has collected its prey, it will use it for several hours to tighten the trap and release chemicals from the inner cells to kill the insect, and then slowly digest and enjoy it.
Bottle grass
- Cold Killer
In the swamps of remote pine forests in the southeastern United States, the most delicate trap is the bottle grass. These bottle grasses are colorful, like beautiful flowers that transcend the world, and have eye-catching patterns that promote their sweet nectar.
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This bottle grass has a dazzling star-like pattern like purple mist, attracting countless insects to these swamps and becoming its potential prey. The "bottles" of catching insects are either reclined in the grass or upright, and these bottle-shaped leaves are the "traps" for catching insects. A drop of sweet and seductive nectar is attached to the underside of its lid, and long, downward-facing fine hairs cover the entire lid, making it difficult for insects to stand up once they enter.
Insects that are busy eating nectar often do not notice that it is becoming more and more difficult to maintain their balance, and when they find themselves in danger, they can no longer escape from the smooth inner wall of the bottle. At this time, the bottle grass will secrete digestive enzymes and slowly dissolve the prey.
The Bottle Grass family also has members who are good at PUBLIC RELATIONS collaboration. Such is the case with purple bottle grass. Its lid also produces nectar, covered with fine hairs facing downwards. Like its relatives, it has highly effective lethal weapons. But it doesn't make enzymes to digest its prey, and with the help of two other animals, it processes it into nutrients it can absorb.
One of them is the mid-footed shaker mosquito larvae that is specifically responsible for chewing up the insect carcass, once the trapped insect drowns and sinks to the bottom of the bottle, the midfoot shake mosquito larvae waiting there chews the insect and spits out small particles in the water.
The other is the bottle grass mosquito, which specializes in sucking on small particles spit out by the larvae of the mid-footed shaker mosquito. Both species of mosquitoes emit feces into the water, and this nutrient-rich feces is the delicacy of purple bottle grass. Purple bottle grass is also only responsible for hunting, not cooking.
Nepenthes -
The Big Mac among carnivorous plants
" Nepenthes " grows like grapes , usually tens of meters long , hanging from trees. The most spectacular of the N. is Nepenthes dinoflora, whose fangs produce nectar to attract insects, which slip from the tip of the tooth and fall into the digestive juices of Nepenthes.
Sometimes , the tallest of the N. nepenthes , welcomes special visitors – the mountain tree shrew or the Baruch rat – to eat nectar. They straddle the bottle to eat and excrete the feces into the bottle. These bottles are very large, the Baloo rats are very small, once they slip, they will be trapped at the bottom of the bottle, they can not climb out, can only drown in the bottle, become the next meal of Nepenthes...
What a silent-looking plant, how adept at using the tricks of seduction! And it is definitely a calculation, and those who come will not refuse!
A natural legend
The Trick of the Plants
Air time: May 25, 19:55
For details, please see: http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/neozhhh0gind_ynnjrq9ca