An insect-eating flower. An amazing creation of nature

Not all plants feed only on nutrients from the air and soil. Among them, there are also carnivorous plants that eat insects, small crustaceans, and even fish fry ... it happens that a person becomes a victim of a plant. carnivorous plants that live in unusual conditions: in the desert, on raised bogs, wet rocks, swampy meadows - on poor soil, poor in nutrients. Therefore, they have developed the ability to assimilate living protein food, grabbing it literally from the air.

They have not lost the ability to feed on inorganic substances coming from the soil and air. Simply, life on soil poor in nitrogenous salts and other minerals forced them to look for additional sources of food. Many predatory plants live in swamps and swamps, and at the expense of the caught victims, they make up for the lack of nitrogen for themselves. Carnivorous plants are able to live without protein food, but this makes them very stunted.

Predatory, or carnivorous, insectivorous plants catch victims with the help of special trap leaves. All carnivorous plants beautiful flowers and brightly colored leaves. Insects fly for nectar and fall into a trap. When the insects are baited, they either stick to the leaf with sticky glandular hairs, or are trapped by the leaves in the form of special traps. The body of the victim is digested with the help of special enzymes or destroyed by organic acids secreted by plants.

Predatory plants are divided into three groups according to trapping organs. These are plants with moving trapping organs (sunflower, oilwort, flycatcher); with sticky sticky leaves (rosolist growing in the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco); with bubbles, jugs and "trapping pits" in the form of tubes (pemphigus, nepenthes, saracenia).

Insectivores are perennial herbaceous plants, there are not very many species of them, only about 500. Some soil fungi are also predators. They are found in all ecosystems in various parts light, grow on soil and in water. As a rule, these plants are inhabitants of areas with a warm, temperate and tropical climate, they love the sun. Better known to us - sundew and zhiryanka - inhabitants of peat bogs.

Giant carnivorous plants

Giant carnivorous plants can be found in the tropical jungles of Madagascar. Aborigines talk about a tree that can eat a person. The German naturalist K. Liche was an eyewitness of how "a palm tree with a thick trunk in the shape of a pineapple and a height of about 2.5 meters" ate a woman. The scientist saw the rite of sacrifice to this tree.

After the ritual dance, a young woman was brought to the tree, she climbed up the trunk and began to lick the juice from two huge leaves in the shape of open palms until she fell into a trance. Then two-meter creepers began to close around her. Gradually, the palm leaves shrank. The girl screamed. After 10 days, Lihe found only the bones of the victim under this tree.

According to scientists, a few million years ago, predator plants were larger. Their growth has decreased as a result of climate change. Since the climate has changed less in the equatorial tropical zones, it is there that one should look for the ancestors of carnivorous plants.

In the middle of the 20th century, the German scientist K. Schwimmer went on an expedition to check the rumors about a monster devouring people in Northern Rhodesia (Central Africa). The search for the monster ended with the discovery of a cannibal tree. Having come to the source of the spicy intoxicating smell, the members of the expedition saw a tree-grove, the lush crown of which was supported by thick shoots.

Schwimmer found many bones under the tree. With slaps in the face, he brought to life his companions, intoxicated by a narcotic smell. Travelers plugged their nostrils with chewing gum and conducted an experiment. They shot a vulture and threw it into a tree. Lianas immediately wrapped around the bird. As soon as the researchers moved a little away, they heard a chilling cry: the Negro porter became the prey of the tree. It was impossible to save him. Hearing from Schwimmer about what happened, the leader of the tribe ordered the terrible plant to be burned.

1970 - Naturalists in Brazil saw a palm-like tree feeding on monkeys and sloths.

In the forests of Central America, the so-called "Tree of Justice" was discovered. It got its name from the Goboro tribe. According to the leader of the tribe, those suspected of murder or theft are brought to trial by the tree: it releases the innocent, and sucks the blood of the criminals.

It was a tree with two trunks growing 1 meter apart and with long vines. According to eyewitnesses, they, in fact, wrapped around, but immediately released the girl, who decided to test the words of the leader in practice. It can be assumed that the tree reacts to substances that, out of fear, are released from the criminal, placed between the trunks of the tree.

Vampire Mushrooms

The powerful impact of radiation on nature, caused by the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, led to the appearance of monstrous mushrooms in the forests of the Kyiv, Gomel and Bryansk regions. These vampire fungi secrete a sticky substance that insects stick to. Then the fungus grows into the body of the victim with a thin tube and sucks out its contents. Other mushrooms, "rocket shooters", shoot a spore at an insect, the spore germinates in the body of the victim, kills it and gives life to a new fungus.

Sundew

Rosyanka is called so because droplets of sticky mucus glisten on it, which look like dew or droplets of honey. The sundew itself is painted in red-green colors. The leaves of this small carnivorous plant are covered with 25 cilia on the upper side of the leaf blade and along the edges where the longest of them are found. The upper end of the cilia is thickened. It is there that the piece of iron is located, which secretes sticky mucus. Insects fly to the predatory sundew, attracted by the brilliance of this droplet. But as soon as they touch the fox, they stick. Soon, after 10 or 20 minutes, the eyelash to which the victim has stuck will bend towards the center of the leaf. All neighboring cilia will also be bent.

After that, the edge of the leaf plate will be bent, and the trap will close. If on the cilia there is a substance that does not contain protein, for example, a raindrop, they will not move. Enzymes secreted by cilia break down protein (sunflower enzymes are similar to pepsin, the gastric juice of animals). After the predator has had lunch, the cilia straighten out, again become covered with “dew” and lure new flies. Sometimes the digestive process stretches for several days. The South African royal sundew - a plant of half a meter in height - is able to digest even snails and frogs.

Zhiryanka

The green leaves of the sundew are much larger than the leaves of the sundew. They are covered with mucus and this makes them look fat. If you look at a section of a leaf under a microscope, you can see two types of glands: some are like mushrooms with caps, others are just caps without legs. There are up to 25,000 glands on one square centimeter of a leaf. When an insect sticks to a leaf and irritates it, the plant immediately releases digestive juices. Zhiryanka eats an insect even faster than sundew: she has enough days.

Pemphigus

The most complex traps in terms of arrangement are those of pemphigus. These are plants without roots. They rarely occur more than 2 mm in diameter. Pemphigus, which lives in swamp water, catches and eats insect larvae, fry and crustaceans. The leaves of the predator float in the water, and a stem with large yellow flowers. Its strongly dissected leaf was transformed in the process of development, because some of its parts became hollow bubbles.

Each such bubble has its own mouth, framed by hard bristles. The inner lining of the trap is covered with hairs that absorb liquid all the time, therefore negative pressure is created in the cavity. As soon as the valve opens, water enters the bubble along with the victim. You can't get out of the bubble. Its walls inside cover the digestive glands. When a crustacean or fry dies in a trap and decomposes, the plant "digests" its remains.

It has long been known that sundews and butterworts produce a protein-digesting enzyme. A person uses this feature when cleaning clay jugs from milk residues. They are evaporated with a decoction of sundew leaves, which decomposes milk protein even in the pores of pottery.

There are flower growers who grow these carnivorous plants at home. "Predators" are dug out together with peat moss, "settle" in a terrarium, and covered with glass from above so that the plant has enough moisture. The owners of predator plants have to catch flies for feeding them, some manage to feed them with pieces of meat and cottage cheese.

Saracenia purpurea

It has wide use saracenia purpurea, in which the petiole of the leaf has turned into a tube, and the leaf blade has turned into a cap above it. Even when the Saracenia is not in bloom, its emerald-crimson or yellow-red leaves attract midges. Small Saracenia and Californian Darlingtonia have another trick for insects: the canopies over the traps are translucent, the insect takes the clearance for an exit, takes off, hits the wall and falls into the liquid.

Insects drown in the liquid, are digested, and then the remains are absorbed by the walls of the tube. The favorite food of this plant is cockroaches and flies. The Saraceniaceae family includes 10 species of Saracenia, California Darlingtonia and six species of Heliamphora. Their habitat is swamps in tropical, subtropical and temperate regions in the south. North America and northeast South America.

Venus flytrap

Near Wilmington, North Carolina, a Venus flytrap grows in peat bogs. Its leaves are a kind of trap. Each of them is divided into two parts, the lower part extracts nutrients from the air, and the upper one catches insects. The two movable lobes of the lock leaf have sharp teeth, and each of them has three long elastic bristles.

As soon as a fly or a mosquito touches the bristles, the lobules quickly slam shut and pinch the insect. Resistance will only increase the grip of the carnivorous plant. The victim breaks out, and the leaf slices squeeze it more and more. Then the small red glands begin to secrete acidic transparent juice. For 1–3 weeks, the flycatcher eats the insect, and its lobules return to their previous position. After two or three meals, the leaf dies off. Why is this Venus flytrap? They say that she was given this name because the trap leaves are shaped like sea shells, which have long been considered a symbol feminine.

An experiment with a plant showed that if you touch the bristles with a stick, the trap closes, but when it finds that there is no food in it, the plant reopens. It reacts even if the victim weighs only 0.0008 milligrams. It is curious that the trap closes only when the victim touches two or more hairs. If only one bristle is disturbed, then the trap will not work. So some lucky ones manage to carefully climb to the nectar and enjoy it.

Aldrovanda

By the same principle as the Venus flytrap, the underwater plant Aldrovanda from the sundew family catches its prey.

The favorite delicacy of orangutans is the digestive juice from large jugs of nepenthes (a genus of insectivorous plants, part of the petiole of which is turned into a jug). It is sour in taste and very refreshing in the heat.

Nepenthes - bushy vines

Under the forest canopy in the tropics of Madagascar, South Asia and Indonesia, New Guinea, in Northern Australia, in the Seychelles, in warm and humid jungles, bizarre nepenthes grow - bushy vines.

This carnivorous plant uses another plant instead of a support, developing on it. Thus, trees and shrubs growing near are entwined with petioles of Nepenthes leaves, and blue, red, green jugs hang between the branches, which are the “hunting organs” of the plant. Having evolved, the Nepenthes leaf turned into a brightly colored jug with a lid, and its middle part turned into a tendril. The length of the trap jars various types ranges from 4 to 60 cm.

These are insectivores, catching insects passively. In some of these plants, the jug holds up to one liter of liquid, so not only large insects, but even small birds can get there. In addition to its bright color, insects are attracted to Nepenthes by its fragrant nectar. It stands out along the edge of the jug and looks like a smooth wax coating. The victim sits on the jug, then gradually moves to its slippery due to the raid. inside and slides down it to the bottom, into a viscous liquid.

Hard hairs inside the jug prevent her from climbing up. These sharp hairs are directed downwards, which allows the caught prey to easily slide to the bottom, but makes it difficult to exit the jug. After 5–7 hours, the prey of the Nepenthes is digested. Pitchers-stomachs work all the time. These creepers are also called "hunting cups": you can drink from them clean water, however, only from above, because at the bottom there are undigested insects. Giant Nepenthes grow on the island of Borneo; pigeons, other birds, and small animals sometimes get into their jugs.

Giant Byblis

Australians have found good use leaves of another well-known carnivorous plant - giant biblis. The narrow leaves of this low shrub exude a substance with such a strong adhesive effect that at times frogs and small birds stick to them. Australians use this substance as a glue.

Among the diversity flora there are unusual carnivorous predatory plants, of which there are over 500 species. This feature of predator plants (pictured) is explained by habitat conditions. They grow on scarce soils devoid of nutrients, therefore, in the course of evolution, they found a way to survive by luring and absorbing insects and even small animals. To do this, the leaves and flowers turned into baits and traps, painted in a bright color and highlighting the racks, the scent that attracts the victim.

Predatory plants are present in all climatic zones, and most of all in the hot and humid tropical forests of Australia, South America and Africa.

For "hunting" plants use various ways, of which there are several. It can be shell leaves that cover their prey inside. In others, the Velcro leaves are liberally lubricated with a sticky substance so that the paws of insects stick tightly. Some plants grow special traps with a slam lid.

On the territory of Russia, carnivorous species of the sundew family (English and round-leaved sundew) and pemphigus grow.

Carnivorous plants are classified by habitat and method of attack as:

Insectivores, e.g. sundews, sarracenia, nepenthes
Aquatic, not squeamish except for insects with small crustaceans (pemphigus and aldrovanda)
Omnivores that feed on tadpoles, fry, frogs, mice and lizards

A common carnivorous plant growing in swamps is Sarracenia. Its leaves and flowers have a bright color and are covered with veins of crimson capillaries. The shape of the leaves is similar to a hooded vessel filled with sweet juice. The prey insect flies to the color and smell of nectar, sticks to the leaf and slides to the bottom, the leaf wraps up. In the case of a false closure, the leaf opens after a while and continues to “hunt”. For the processing of prey, the plant secretes a special secret. The leaf remains closed until complete digestion and absorption of nutrients. Then the cycle repeats.

AT natural environment Sarrracenia is found on the east coast of North America, in Texas, in the Great Lakes region, in southeastern Canada.

The habitat of pemphigus (Utricularia) is stagnant, fresh water or damp ground. In the wild flora, terrestrial and aquatic pemphigus, of which there are 220 species, are found on all continents, except for those covered with ice.

It does not have roots to provide nutrients, and it has to catch insects and small crustaceans.

The trap is bubbles with a semblance of an entrance that opens when it senses prey. Bubbles along with leaves are located under water. Only flowers remain on the water surface.
The signal about the opening is given by villi-probes, only an insect or tadpoles will hook them. The bubble opens and absorbs the victim along with the water in a fraction of a second. Digestion begins.

Genlisea prefers damp terrestrial or semi-aquatic environments. Distributed in the flora of Africa, South and Central America, where 21 plant species have been identified.

It's small herbaceous plant covered with yellow inflorescences. Genlisea traps are similar to crab claws, from which the hairs growing at the entrance do not allow to get out.

A feature of the plant is the presence of two types of leaves. Some of them are terrestrial with the process of photosynthesis, while others are underground. Underground leaves replace rhizomes, absorb moisture and provide anchorage. They are like hollow, spiral tubes for luring and assimilating the simplest organisms into which they are washed by the flow of water. They will not be able to get out, as they will be digested earlier.

The glandular, sticky leaves serve as a hunting tool for the oilwort (Pinguicula). There are 80 carnivorous plants of this species. They grow in Asia, on the European continent, in North and South America.

The bright green or pink color of the leaves, covered with a mucous secretion, immediately attracts insects. The leaves have two types of glands. The peduncle gland produces a mucous secret that drops on the leaves, and the sessile glands provide enzymes for processing and assimilation.

The carnivorousness of a larger number of fatworts persists throughout the year. Separate types in winter time form a dense rosette, devoid of the ability to lure and absorb. With the advent of summer, the plant blooms and throws out young, carnivorous leaves.

Nepenthes (Nepenthes) lives in the rainforest and successfully absorbs insects. Outwardly, it resembles a vine, reaching 15 m in length. In the habitat of Madagascar, Sumatra, Borneo, India, China, Indonesia and Australia, 130 species have been identified.

Liana is covered with leaves that form tendrils at the edge. Gradually, a jug flower grows from the tendril, serving as a trap. When it rains, the jug is filled with water that the monkeys drink, for which the Nepentes was nicknamed the "monkey cup" in their homeland.

The midges and bugs that have arrived on the flower quickly drown in the liquid and fall into lower part bowls where they are digested by the digestive glands.

Some plant species, such as Nepenthes Rajah and Nepenthes Rafflesiana, successfully catch and over-bait small rodents.

The Venus flytrap (Dionaea Muscipula) is one of the most famous carnivore plants. Its prey is made up of flies and spiders.

There are 5-7 leaves on a thin, small stem. Leaves-traps consist of two halves. The inner surface is painted bright red, and outer side covered with sticky pigment, which comes across an insect. The hairs on the leaf pick up the signal of the prey and the halves slam shut in just 0.1 seconds, which leaves the victim no chance of salvation. A dense row of teeth along the edge of the leaf securely holds the prey. Closed lobules form a kind of stomach, where digestion begins, lasting about 10 days.

Each leaf manages to digest 3 insects in its life.

Byblis (Byblis) - outwardly it is small plant, painted with rainbow colors. His home is in Australia.

A motley plant is covered with a special, sticky mucus secreted by glandular villi that completely cover the leaves. The adhesive becomes a trap for insects that have fallen on the leaves or tentacles of the flower.

The shape of the leaves is round, slightly elongated with a transition to a cone at the edge. Flowers are zygomorphic with 5 curved stamens.

Insectivorous plants in the house

Carnivorous plants of some species are suitable for home keeping. They become the object of interesting observations and discoveries when they feed on a mosquito or a pesky fly, sparing us from their presence.

Such plants are unpretentious in care. They are purchased at a flower shop and only adhere to simple rules:

For maintenance you need a bright place without exposure to sunlight.
Most plants are moisture-loving, so watering should be regular.
Planted in vermiculite, perlite or moss. The substrate is not fertilized and fertile soil is not added.
Plants are not transplanted. Only in case of strong growth they are transferred to a larger flowerpot.
In winter, a dormant period begins, which ends in spring with the creation of new traps.
Beautiful flowers are recommended to be removed so as not to deplete the plant.
For feeding, insects of the natural habitat are used. Suitable, for example, fruit flies.

amazing plants

Sundew was popular in ancient times. Many folk healers used it to treat the respiratory organs and relieve headaches.

Types of carnivorous flowers

Insectivores number about 630 species from 19 families, they can catch and eat small animals, but most often they feed on various beetles. Because of this, they carry out photosynthesis. And as a result, they are less dependent on soil inorganic nitrogen.

They are classified as perennial herbaceous plants. Scientists believe that real predatory flowers evolved into five different color groups.

Most often, the predatory flower has a bright color and a strong fragrance, which are used to attract beetles. Some have such a pleasant incense that it attracts more than just different beetles. For example, the Venus flytrap has a rather attractive smell. In India, this flower is considered a symbol of harmony. But, for example, from the Darlingtonia flower comes quite bad smell rot. This smell comes from its digestive activity.

Over time, their leaves changed shape, they were transformed into a quick-acting trap. Sundew leaves are covered with droplets of a sticky substance.

Many flowers have the ability to distinguish between edible and inedible. They also do not respond to false signals such as raindrops. But when a victim is caught in a trap, the leaf curls up into a cocoon and squeezes it tightly. After that, substances begin to be released from the flower, the composition resembling the digestive juice of animals. They help to dissolve the victim, and the nutrients at this moment are carried through the vessels of the flower. After some time, when the process of digestion ends, the trap opens and can start catching beetles again.

How to plant ginger at home

The fat leaf does not curl. Nitrogen in the body of the victim starts the digestive process.

In Darlingtonia and Nepenthes, the leaves turn into water lilies with digestive juice. And the victim, having fallen into a trap, slips to the bottom, where he dies.

The most active is the Venus flytrap. Its leaves are like water lilies strewn with sensitive hairs. And as soon as they are touched, the doors slam shut. She begins to eat the victim, and after eating they open again. They can digest food for 5 hours or several months.

Here are the most unusual and interesting species:

“It's poisonous, if you will; but you can’t deny that it’s perfect, and perfection is what we artists strive for ... ”I don’t know if the author of the above lines Oscar Wilde heard about predator plants, but it is his aphorism that comes to mind when it comes to this paradoxical creation of nature.

I must say right away that such plant organisms have never been found in my flower collection. True, there were two stocks (changeable and large-flowered), which I mistakenly, apparently, for their unpleasant aroma, ranked as insectivorous. But the living and happy flies that met on their life path blooming succulent, dispelled my hopes.

PLANT-PARADOX

The so-called carnivorous plants are found on all continents of our planet. Systematizing botanists include perennial herbaceous plants in this group, originating from a wide variety of families and genera, but being “colleagues” to each other in terms of satisfying the “hunger feeling”.

As you know, autotrophic metabolism predominates in plants. This means they are converting chemical compounds, found in the soil and air, into organic substances that serve as a source of nutrition for many other living organisms.

But predatory plants make up for the chemical compounds necessary for their development, which are not received from the soil, due to additional nutrition: insects and occasionally small animals. As a rule, the soils in which these perennials grow are poor in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, sodium, etc.

In nature, there are not so many insectivores, approximately 0.1% (about 500 species from 6 families) of total number all plants. But, fortunately, there are few unfavorable places that force plants to switch to such an unconventional diet. Most often, these herbs grow in the tropics, but they can also be found in temperate climates.

On the territory of the former Soviet Union, there are 18 species from 4 genera. Residents of the northwestern part of Russia in swampy areas can meet two types of sundews - round-leaved and English.

By the way, in Russia, the sundew has enjoyed good fame since ancient times, it was affectionately called God's or solar dew, royal eyes, dewdrop and favorite grass. Long before the advent of antibiotics, this herb was widely used in traditional medicine for the treatment of respiratory diseases, and also used for headaches, migraines and as a cosmetic remedy for warts.

HOW INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS FEED

As a rule, "predators" have a beautiful bright color, emit a strong smell that attracts insects. However, some amber is so pleasant that not only insects like it. For example, the Venus flytrap exudes a sweet scent. The Indians revered this flower as a symbol of the feminine, love and harmony.

Venus flytrap

It is no coincidence that the first part of the name was given to the inhabitant of the North American continent in honor of Venus, the goddess of love and fertility. In some sources, you can even find information that the perennial grass supposedly secretes love pheromones, so the extract of this plant is sometimes used in the perfume industry.

But Darlingtonia smells unpleasant - rotten. This smell is the result of her digestive activity.

In the course of evolution, the leaves of insectivorous plants underwent a metamorphosis and turned into trapping organs: sticky traps; water lilies (urns) filled with digesting fluid; as well as fast-acting traps.

So, the sundew leaf is densely dotted with a sticky substance, it is not for nothing that the Americans call the plant grass precious stones. Seduced by the shine of the “rubies”, the insect sits on a trap leaf and tightly sticks: the more the midge makes efforts to free it, the more it gets stuck in the sticky syrup.

Sundew is able to distinguish edible from inedible, so the leaf does not react to "false starts", for example, raindrops, fallen leaves from other plants. As soon as an insect sat on the trap, the villi located on the leaf clasp the “victim” from all sides, while the leaf itself folds into a small cocoon. In a collapsed state, glands similar in composition to the digestive juice of animals begin to stand out. It is they that dissolve the hard integument of the insect - its chitin, and the nutrients are absorbed and transported through the vessels of the plant. After a few days, the trap opens, it is ready for the “hunt”.

A similar principle is in the fat woman, only her leaf does not fold. The presence of nitrogen in the body of an insect stimulates the release of a digestive fluid that looks like fat, hence, apparently, the name.

Darlingtonia, Nepentas and Sarracenia hunt somewhat differently, their leaves have transformed into jugs filled with digestive juice. Caught on the inner wall of the leaf, the insects slide to the bottom of the trap, where they die.

Nepentas

Sarracenia

But the most active hunting is with our "goddess" - the Venus flytrap. The leaf, more like a shell, is covered with sensitive hairs. It is enough to touch one of them, the shutters instantly slam shut. In this fight, the plant, as a rule, wins, the insect dies without having time to realize what happened. Having “slammed shut”, the plant begins to secrete digestive glands for digesting prey; after having dinner, the “casket” opens again.

The digestive cycle of insectivorous plants varies from 5 to 40 hours.

I must admit that growing them at home is quite difficult. Here are a few of the requirements I read:

Predatory plants are most often grown in florariums.
Demanding to light. Cannot tolerate direct sunlight.
Watered with soft water. Many growers even recommend using distilled water. Most insectivores do not tolerate drying out of the soil, but excessive moisture is detrimental to them.
The substrate in which the flower grows is by no means fertilized.
Almost never transplanted. Occasionally, an overgrown plant is transferred to a larger container.
Substrate: vermiculite, perlite, sphagnum moss. fertile soils do not use.
Most carnivorous plants have a dormant period in winter. During sleep, "predators" are not fed. Spring - awakening - the formation of new traps.
Bloom. Experts recommend cutting off the ovaries of flowers, as this process depletes the plant. It is sometimes very difficult to do this because many have very beautiful flowers.
Feeding. This is the hardest part. I realized one thing that the ideal food is what the plant eats in its natural habitat. Rosyanka and zhiryanka can not be fed, they find food for themselves (unless, of course, they do not grow in a closed florarium). Do not feed insects that have a lot of calcium (meal worm). But fruit flies are suitable.
In no case do plants fertilize, they root system not adapted to the assimilation of macro- and microelements from the soil. Moreover, top dressing burns almost atrophied roots.
Rarely grown from insectivorous seeds - poor similarity. More often they acquire an adult plant.

I thank Olga Koroleva and Maria Zubova for the photos provided.

Flies are annoying creatures and not amenable to any tricks. The constant use of chemicals to kill these insects is not very beneficial to humans and is harmful environment. Sometimes a plant that eats flies can be used as a pest control. These species of flowering plants developed independently of each other, adapting to feed on living organisms due to the scarcity of soils in their places of growth. Basically, these are swampy lowlands, where there are almost no trace elements in the soil.

Types of flycatchers

In total, there are about 630 species of carnivorous plants in the world, belonging to 19 genera. In Russia, there are 18 species from 2 families: Rosyankov and Puzyrchatkov.

Vesicular predators are all, but they are of no practical interest. It is very difficult to breed them at home, as they are aquatic plants devoid of roots. They stay on the surface of the water by a large number trapping vesicles located in the leaves. An insect, getting inside the bubble, can no longer get out.

Rosyankovye are much more interesting. These are terrestrial plants that, if desired, can be bred at home. The name of the plants of the Rosyankov family comes from their method of catching insects.

On a note!
A large sundew is able to catch not only, but even a dragonfly.

What do sundews look like

it perennials with a tuberous thickened root. There are sundews on almost all types of soils:

sandstones;
swamps;
in the mountains.

The flowers of these plants are inconspicuous, and there are long thin hairs on the leaves. At the tips of the hairs, small droplets of a sweet liquid, similar to fallen dew, stand out. Hence the common name "dew".

With a sweet syrup, the plant attracts flies and male mosquitoes, which sit on the leaves to eat. As soon as a fly touches the hairs, it sticks to the leaf. The syrup is not only sweet, but also viscous. The plant begins to slowly roll the leaf around the fly. After complete folding, the leaf remains in this position until the plant has completely digested the prey.

In Russia, several types of sundews are common, including the type species.

Rosyanka rotundifolia

A perennial flower that eats flies. The type species that gave the name to the entire genus of sundews. Distributed throughout the Eurasian continent. Prefers swamps, can grow on peat bogs and damp sands.

Round-leaved sundew can safely be called a long-liver - it lives for several decades. But due to poor nutrition, sundew grows very slowly and does not grow large.

The leaves grow from a rosette and are located on the ground. On small round leaf plates there are glandular hairs 4-5 mm long. These hairs secrete droplets of a dew-like liquid.

The round-leaved sundew feeds not only on flies. When an insect touches a sensitive hair, the leaf curls up and the hairs dig into the cover of the invertebrate.

Interesting!
Eating insects occurs with the help of those very droplets of liquid that are actually a digestive enzyme.

sundew english

A perennial plant, common not only in Eurasia, but also in North America. In some regions of Russia, it is included in the Red Book.

This is another fly-eating flower. Unlike the round-leaved sundew, the English diet is based on flying invertebrates up to dragonflies. The leaves of the English sundew are directed upwards. The length of the leaf blade is 1.5-3 cm. The width is 5 cm. The leaves are covered with red glandular hairs. When a fly is caught, a leaf of the English sundew wraps around the insect. What a flower that eats a fly in the midst of the process looks like in the photo can be seen below.

Venus flytrap

This native of the North American continent is often bred at home as an ornamental plant.

Interesting!
The Latin name of the flower muscipula is translated as "mousetrap". It is believed that this was a mistake by the botanist who described the plant. But there is no confirmation of this hypothesis. The name "Venus" is given in honor of the goddess of love.

It is a herbaceous plant with 4-7 leaves that grow from a rosette. The flower stem is bulbous. The length of the leaves is 4-7 cm and depends on the season. More long leaves grow after flowering.

The leaves of the flycatcher resemble flowers. They are oval and red in color. But this is only a device for luring invertebrates.

The name "flycatcher" is also not true, as well as "mousetrap". The Venus flytrap is not a fly-catching flower. These Diptera are accidental prey, accounting for only 5% of the carnivorous plant's diet. The bulk of the diet of this plant is made up of invertebrates crawling on the ground. A third of them are ants.

Even a flycatcher leaf looks like a trap. It is almost smooth inside and has sensitive hairs around the edges. If the hairs are disturbed at least 2 times with an interval of no more than 20 seconds, the sheet will begin to close the edges.

The digestion process takes an average of 10 days. Then the leaf opens, "throws out" an empty chitinous shell and waits for the next prey. During the lifetime of one trap leaf, an average of 3 insects fall into it.

On a note!
The habitat of the Venus flytrap in its homeland is swamps. This flower can easily live on the windowsill or in the garden if it has a sufficiently moist earthen ball. Drying out is harmful for the flycatcher.

pitchers

Plants, some of whose leaves look like bright jug-shaped flowers. But even these plants cannot be said to use trap flowers. As they also act as tube leaves, at the bottom of which liquid accumulates. Flies fly to the bait and drown in it. Since it is actually a concentrated digestive enzyme.

The pitchers are painted in various bright colors, while the real flowers of the pitchers are small and inconspicuous.

Nepenthes

Inhabitant of humid tropical regions. The length of the Nepenthes, depending on their type, is 2.5-50 cm. The largest ones can catch and digest a small mammal. Or enter into a symbiosis with an animal. The large Nepenthes lowii, in addition to insects, uses the dung of the mountain tupai as a source of organic matter. And the animal regales itself with nectar.

Interesting!
For the convenience of the tupai, the entire pitcher-leaf structure is reinforced to support the extra weight.

Sarracenia

The family consists of 10 species. The fly trap is a twisted, funnel-shaped leaf growing from the root. The plant is native to North America. Sarracenia has been grown as houseplant even in pre-revolutionary Russia. It grows well in pots.

Breeders have already developed new cultivated varieties of Sarracenia that can be grown indoors. At good care you can achieve flowering sarracenia.

Stapelia

A plant that is mistakenly considered a cactus. It blooms with large dark red flowers that exude a scent. rotten meat. But it cannot be used to kill flies, except to thin out their offspring.

On a note!
Cacti that eat flies do not exist in nature.

The purpose of the slipway is to attract pollinating flies, not to catch insects. Stapelia beckons. Necrophages, arriving at the smell of carrion, try to lay their eggs in a flower. they get dirty in the pollen of the flower and carry it to the next slipway. When breeding a slipway as a houseplant, pollen is wasted, as well as, since the slipway flower lives for about a day, after which it dies. The larvae that did not have time to hatch die with it.