Do Carnivorous Plants Have Weapons Potential? Video

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online 

Many predators in the animal kingdom depend on a quick-strike ability to capture their prey, but a few species in the plant kingdom also have this impressive capability. 

A handful of German biologists have decided to investigate the mechanisms behind the quick strikes of one plant in particular, Drosera glanduligera, a small sundew from southern Australia. 

This sundew relies on its touch-sensitive tentacles to snap prey into its sticky, spoon-shaped leaf trap where the carnivorous plant digests it. Sundews often grow in soil that is poor in nutrient content and this carnivorous behavior allows them to supplement their sparse diet. 

The study was published in the latest edition of the online science journal PLOS ONE and led by Thomas Speck, a plant biologist with the University of Freiburg. 

“Such plants are of particular interest to plant biologists because of their sophisticated and complex structural and mechanical adaptations to carnivory,” explained Speck.  read more here