Carnivorous Plants



Heyyyyyy guys it's Thebestscienceblog12 and today I will be talking about carnivorous plants. I know what you are thinking, carnivorous plants are impossible but they exist. Today I will be talking about these mutant plants bwhahahahaahahbwhahahahabwwbhahahah. :)

To be a carnivorous plant you have to attract, catch, and eat insects. Carnivorous plants eat meat because they don't get enough nutrients from the soil for them to survive.  Most carnivorous plants are found in swampy wetland areas. The soil in this environment does not provide enough nutrition especially nitrogen.The lobster pot trap, dewy pine, sundew, Venus flytrap, pitcher plant,  and bladderwort trap are only some of these fantastic plants but these are the ones I will be talking about today.

First I will be talking about one of my more favorite carnivorous plants, the sundew trap plant. :)

 




There are 100 species of sundew. Half of the sundews are found in Australia, but they are found in every continent around the world except Antarctica. It's just a tad to cold there for them in Antarctica. A sundew catches ants and other bugs in sticky drops on their leaf.   The tips you see wrapped around the bug have sticky ends which attract and catch the  insects.The scientific  name for a sundew is  Drosera .      






Next I will be talking about the commonly known Venus flytrap. The Venus flytrap only grows naturally in North Carolina. This carnivorous plant catches flies and other small insects when they  brush against little hairs on the edges of the leaf. When this happens the fly trap goes CHOMP
trapping the fly inside. One of the cool and unique things about this plant is that you can see it digest its food if you put  it under the light. The digestion process takes 8-10 days.



       

Next I will be talking about one of the lesser known carnivorous plants, the bladderwort . The bladderwort plant  is found underwater in places all over the world. They catch small insects, usually water fleas by first attracting them with their smell. When the fly gets close enough a trap opens carrying water and the prey inside. Once inside the fly is doomed for all eternity to die in the stomach of a plant. This process all happens in about 1/30 of a second.  




 Now comes the pitcher plant. The pitcher plants are found in Southeast Asia and they eat bugs, frogs, and once in a while birds and rodents. These plants have thin tubes to catch prey and some have lids to ensure success in catching an animal. The prey slides down the slippery inside of the tube  and falls into pond of digestive juice. Yummmy!!!

 

Lastly comes another one of the least know carnivorous plants. The dewy pine plant is basically a wanna- be  sundew plant. The dewy pine plant first attracts insects with sweet honey smell then  catches any insects that lands on it's leaves. It acts as a living fly paper.

 

                                                    
Carnivorous plants like all other plants start out as seeds. They then germinate and grow and sprout flowers. The flowers then spread their seeds and the process starts all over. This is how carnivorous plants reproduce.



                                                                          Fast Facts

• There are over 600 different types of meat-eating plants

• Pitcher Plants are sometimes called monkey cups

• Bladderworts have about 220 different species

• The scientific name for a Venus fly trap is Dionaea Muscipula

                                                                    Links


http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0932475.html

http://www.gardenguides.com/86984-carnivorous-plants-reproduce.html

http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq5280.html