Carnivorous Plants

Carnivorous Plants

PIRANHA PLANT OH GOSH NOOOOOOO

Hey guys DA SCIENTIFIC WAFFLE here. Up there /\ is my "friend" the piranha plant. He's carnivorous, which means that he attracts, captures, and eats insects or other small animals. YEAH THAT'S RIGHT HE DOESN'T JUST EAT INSECTS. =O

Now we'll be talking about some of the other carnivorous plants out there, such as the bladderwort, which uses bladder traps to catch prey. Bladders? Gross! =/

A bladder trap is a trap where little closed tubes sit underwater. The tubes open when a bug gets near, sucking in the water and the bug with it. The bug then goes down the tube into the bladder, where it is digested.

Then there is the sundew. The sundew is this plant with sticky water droplets on its leaves. Get it, Sundew, dew meaning water droplets? Well, anyways, the bugs are attracted to the drops' smell and they get stuck in them. The leaf then curls up and emits digestive fluid to dissolve them. There are 100 different types of sundews, and half of them can be found in Australia. Sundews can also be found on every continent besides Antarctica.

Next up is the pitcher plant. The pitcher plant, which looks like a pitcher, like, for drinks, attracts insects with their sweet-smelling, sweet-tasting nectar. If the insect goes of the rim of the plant into it, it will fall into a pool of water at the bottom where it drowns. The bug will not be able to climb back up because of microscopic downward-facing spines the cover the inside of the plant.

There is also a type of trap called the flypaper trap, which traps bugs on its sticky leaves. The bugs decompose and the nutrients are absorbed.
Last but not least, and everyone's favorite, the VENUS FLYTRAP! =D

SNAPPA SNAPPA SNAPPA SNAPPA

The Venus flytrap snaps up prey when it lands on a mouth-like leaf. The leafs shuts, digestive fluids fill the leaf, and the little critter is dissolved. Yay!
Venus flytraps can be found in New Orleans in the United States.

Well, that's all for today.

Scientific Waffle out.

Links:
Carnivorous Plants Database