The Plants that Nom

I remember the first time I saw a venus fly trap, I was about 8 and my friends mom told me they ate flies. I didn't believe her, plants don't eat animals! Then she bough one from Kroger and for a while it didn't do much.  Then one day I went to my friends house and lo and behold there was something in its trap!

Ever since that day I have been fascinated by carnivorous plants.  How these plants have adapted to their inhospitable conditions shows how amazing life can be and exactly what evolution can accomplish.  Nitrogen is one of the most precious resources a plant needs, after taking botany with the awesome Dr Monfils ;) I know that nitrogen is an essential macronutrient because it is used in all amino acids and it is present in the chlorophyl needed for photosynthesis.  This is why carnivorous plants had to develop their unique way to get nitrogen, by eating... well dissolving... other organisms.   After learning what nitrogen is required for I can, in a polite way, tell my freinds mom she is wrong.  She told me that the plant doesn't use the insects they consume for energy, however through a secondary system they do.  If carnivorous plants didn't consume the nitrogen in the animals they wouldn't be able to produce chlorophyl so they couldn't photosynthesize their own energy.

Since that first fly trap the coolest moment I have had regarding carnivorous plants was when I got to see them in their natural habitat.  I look BIO 100Z on Beaver Island the summer before I came to CMU and I can easily say it was my favorite class of my entire college carrier.  One of the best parts of this class was when we got to explore the Egg Lake bog where you can find these beauties, Sarrscenia purpurea.  They are pitcher plants and in order for them to grow in the super acidic, nutrient poor bog ecosystem they need to have an alternative way to get nutrients.  The way pitcher plants work is that at the bottom of the pitcher there is a reservoir of sticky, sweet smelling liquid that contains enzymes.  An insect, attracted to the sweet smell goes into the top and falls down into the goo, getting stuck, and is digested by the enzymes.  If that isn't cool then I don't know what is.

I think one of the main reasons I am still fascinated by these carnivorous plants is that I myself am not a carnivore.  I have been a vegetarian for over 5 years and I think its interesting that while I, a humyn therefore member of a species that is suppose to eat meat, doesn't; and yet a plant who isn't suppose to consume anything does! I guess this is just a way for the plants to get back at the animals who eat them.

^The world most famous carnivorous plant, Audrey II.^