Carnivorous Plants and Their Prey

More documents

Recommendations

Info

“Desperate for a drink, the famous naturalist Alfred Wallace drank the liquid from a group of pitcher plants while exploring Malaysia. Although the fluid was full of dead insects and looked ‘uninviting’, he wrote in 1890 that he and his friends ‘found it very palatable, though rather warm, and we all quenched our thirst from these natural jugs.’ They must have been almost delirious with dehydration to have quaffed a few pitchers, as one local name for these plants translates to ‘the place where rats pee’….” THE PLANTS Introduction Simon D. Pollard (2) Predation. It conjures up those images of a big, toothy animal stalking another and bloodily disposing of its victim, such as the classic version of Tyranosaurus rex assaulting a Triceratops. A female lion (Panthera leo) with jaws locked around the throat of an African buffalo (Synceros caffer) while others from her pride latch onto the prey’s back. The great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) rocketing from beneath into its ‘second-favorite’ victim – seal- shaped surfers (Homo sapiens subspecies californiadudeus). Many organisms in nature actively 4
capture prey; many others passively wait for the prey to come to them. The animal kingdom is filled with examples of stationary or immobile predators. Alligator snapping turtles (Macroclemys temminckii), for example, ‘hunt’ by lying in wait on the bottom of rivers and lakes. Their mouths are held open and a worm-like lure in the mouth attracts unsuspecting prey (3). Trap-door spiders of the family Ctenizidae build underground tunnels and wait below the burrow’s lid until prey is within easy reach (4). Goose barnacles (Lepas anatifera) are sessile invertebrates that extend feathery leg-like appendages to capture small fish and cnidarians (5). And countless other examples of ambush predators could be listed from Kingdom Animalia. Some fungi, about 150 species, are sessile and predatory (6). Species such as Arthrobotrys dactyloides and A. oligosperma produce ring-shaped hyphae that ensnare microscopic nematodes. These fungi also apparently attract nematodes with pheromones and use toxins to immobilize their prey (7, 8). Predatory fungi, protists, bacteria, and especially animals do not seem to be contrary to our understanding of predator-prey relationships (3, 5, 7, 9). Plants, however, are commonly thought of as the ‘nice guys’ of the natural world, passively serving as fodder for any number of other organisms. At their ‘worst’, plants may produce noxious toxins or painful structural defenses to protect themselves while still remaining at the mercy of herbivores– an erroneous but common view. Plants that have the ability to ‘seek out’ animal prey are conundrums and are usually seen as “turning the tables on animals” (1, 10). Yet, such plants – the carnivorous plants – can be found scattered across the plant kingdom and the planet. These plants are generally very well-equipped to attract and incapacitate their victims and so quietly go about the business of successful predation (1, 11). Numbers and General Distribution of the Carnivorous Plants Francis Ernest Lloyd’s watershed work The Carnivorous Plants (1942) identified about 450 species of carnivorous plants (1). In the more than fifty years since that time, another 150 have been added and more may follow (12, 13, 14). The approximately 600 currently identified species of carnivorous plants come from seventeen genera in about ten families of angiosperms 5
Page 1 and 2: Carnivorous Plants and Their Prey,
Page 3: Carnivorous Plant Floral Design…
Page 7 and 8: absorption of prey tissues near the
Page 9 and 10: order to obtain the nutrients (20).
Page 11 and 12: succession leads to woody plant gro
Page 13 and 14: Sticky leaf Rosette Drosera rotundi
Page 15 and 16: expense of carnivorous traps. A stu
Page 17 and 18: prey capture are generally recogniz
Page 19 and 20: The eminent end to the pitfall path
Page 21 and 22: Utricularia, and Polypompholyx (1).
Page 23 and 24: Pinguicula (35) - + + flypaper Trip
Page 25 and 26: such as butterflies, moths, flies,
Page 27 and 28: standing erect. Mature pitchers of
Page 29 and 30: 67). Production of blooms when clim
Page 31 and 32: hindered in their approach by direc
Page 33 and 34: ultraviolet patterns to attract pol
Page 35 and 36: plants (26, 41, 44, 45). Some carni
Page 37 and 38: plants, the loss of potential polli
Page 39 and 40: Table 3 - Examples of plant-animal
Page 41 and 42: While proteolytic bacteria may be c
Page 43 and 44: larvae within pitchers (38, 77). Al
Page 45 and 46: elease of nitrogen to the carnivoro
Page 47 and 48: S. darlingtoniae robs the carnivoro
Page 49 and 50: amounts of time traversing the leav
Page 51 and 52: insect prey (2, 10). Some ants are
Page 53 and 54: pitchers. Upon discovering a pitche
Page 55 and 56:
Although carnivorous plants stand t
Page 57 and 58:
3. Conant, R. and J.T. Collins. 199
Page 59 and 60:
40. Thoren, L.M., J. Tuomi, et al.
Page 61 and 62:
72. Anderson, B. J.J.Midgley, and B
show all

Carnivorous Plants and Their Prey

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?