Carnivorous Plants

We’ve got a collection of alluring, killing, and insect eating plants in the Botanical Garden.

Carnivorous plants have evolved to lure, capture, dissolve, and digest insects to obtain the nutrients they need to grow due to environmental stressors. These meat-eating plants grow in areas that have little to no nutrients in the soil such as bogs, fens, and rainforests. These soils are often acidic and low in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium – the major nutrients needed for plant life. Therefore, they adapted to get their nutrients in other ways – trapping and eating bugs!

There are more than 600 species of carnivorous plants around the world that have adapted to supplement their diet with insects, microbes, event small frogs or mice. Botanists believe that this carnivorous trait evolved separately at least 6 different times! This suggests that it is a major benefit for plants, but there are many ways it can be done. Learn more about the variety of sneaky trapping mechanisms they use to capture their prey.

Venus Flytraps

(Dionaea)
Venus flytraps are probably the most well-known carnivorous plant. While many people think these plants are so strange they must come from worlds away, they are native to North and South Carolina! The brightly colored snare traps snap shut when insects touch tiny trigger hairs on the size of the mouth-shaped leaf. To avoid closing because of wind or debris and wasting valuable energy, multiple trigger hairs must be activated before it shuts.

Sundews

(Drosera)
Sundews, just like the name implies, use drops of sweet sticky ‘dew’ on their tentacle-like leaves to attract and ensnare insects. Once the insect is stuck on the sticky ‘dew’, the plant curls up the leaf to trap and digest the insect. Sundews are one of the largest genus of carnivorous plants with over 190 different species and are native to every continent except Antarctica!

Pitcher Plants

(Nepenthes & Sarracenia)
Pitcher plants have rolled or funnel-shaped leaves that form a reservoir at the base. Color, scent, and sweet-smelling nectar entice insects into death traps. Once inside the narrow tunnel shape, sticky nectar, and downward facing hairs prevent them from escaping. Digestive enzymes at the bottom of the pitchers then dissolve and break down the prey for nutrient absorption. There are two main genera of pitcher plants. The Sarracenias, are a temperate genus native to North America, while the Nepenthes genus consists of 300+ tropical species. The largest carnivorous plant in the world is Nepenthes rajah, a tropical pitcher plant that can grow up to 4 feet tall and eats snails, frogs, lizards, or even rats!

Come to Trick or Trees on Oct 26 between 9 and 4 to learn more about these plants and see them up close! More info about the event HERE.