Carnivorous plant

"Insectivorous Plants" redirects here. For the book by Charles Darwin, see Insectivorous Plants (book).

An upper pitcher of Nepenthes lowii, a tropical pitcher plant that supplements its carnivorous diet with tree shrew droppings.[1][2][3]

Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans, typically insects and other arthropods, and occasionally small mammals and birds. They still generate all of their energy from photosynthesis. They have adapted to grow in waterlogged sunny places where the soil is thin or poor in nutrients, especially nitrogen, such as acidic bogs.[4] They can be found on all continents except Antarctica, as well as many Pacific islands.[5] In 1875, Charles Darwin published Insectivorous Plants, the first treatise to recognize the significance of carnivory in plants, describing years of painstaking research.[6][4]

True carnivory is believed to have evolved independently at least 12 times[6][7][8][9][10] in five different orders of flowering plants,[11][12] and is represented by more than a dozen genera. This classification includes at least 583 species that attract, trap, and kill prey, absorbing the resulting available nutrients.[13][14] Venus flytraps (Dionaea muscipula), pitcher plants, and bladderworts (Utricularia spp.) can be seen as exemplars of key traits genetically associated with carnivory: trap leaf development, prey digestion, and nutrient absorption.[11]

The number of known species has increased by approximately 3 species per year since the year 2000.[15] Additionally, over 300 protocarnivorous plant species in several genera show some but not all of these characteristics. A 2020 assessment has found that roughly one quarter are threatened with extinction from human actions.[16][17]

  1. ^ Clarke CM, Bauer U, Lee CC, Tuen AA, Rembold K, Moran JA (October 2009). "Tree shrew lavatories: a novel nitrogen sequestration strategy in a tropical pitcher plant". Biology Letters. 5 (5): 632–5. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2009.0311. PMC 2781956. PMID 19515656.
  2. ^ Chin L, Moran JA, Clarke C (April 2010). "Trap geometry in three giant montane pitcher plant species from Borneo is a function of tree shrew body size". The New Phytologist. 186 (2): 461–70. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8137.2009.03166.x. PMID 20100203.
  3. ^ Clarke C, Moran JA, Chin L (October 2010). "Mutualism between tree shrews and pitcher plants: perspectives and avenues for future research". Plant Signaling & Behavior. 5 (10): 1187–9. doi:10.4161/psb.5.10.12807. PMC 3115346. PMID 20861680.
  4. ^ a b Darwin, Charles (1875). Insectivorous Plants. London: John Murray. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
  5. ^ Cross, A. T. (2019). "Carnivorous plants.". A Jewel in the Crown of a Global Biodiversity Hotspot. Perth: Kwongan Foundation and the Western Australian Naturalists' Club Inc.
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Pain-2022 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Kauffmann, Michael (9 August 2021). "Cryptic Carnivores". Backcountry Press. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
  8. ^ Callaway, Ewen (6 February 2017). "How plants evolved into carnivores: Distantly related plants acquired their ability to eat meat through similar genetic changes". Nature. 542 (7640). doi:10.1038/nature.2017.21425. eISSN 1476-4687. ISSN 0028-0836. S2CID 78872433. 'We're really looking at a classic case of convergent evolution,' says Victor Albert, a plant-genome scientist....
  9. ^ "The long reach of the monster plant: Carnivorous plants have fascinated writers and botanists alike". Nature. 542 (7640): 138. 6 February 2017. Bibcode:2017Natur.542R.138.. doi:10.1038/542138b. eISSN 1476-4687. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 28179680. S2CID 47134958.
  10. ^ Lin, Qianshi; Ané, Cécile; Givnish, Thomas J.; Graham, Sean W. (9 August 2021). "A new carnivorous plant lineage (Triantha) with a unique sticky-inflorescence trap". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 118 (33). Bibcode:2021PNAS..11822724L. doi:10.1073/pnas.2022724118. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 8379919. PMID 34373325.
  11. ^ a b Hedrich, Rainer; Fukushima, Kenji (17 June 2021). "On the Origin of Carnivory: Molecular Physiology and Evolution of Plants on an Animal Diet". Annual Review of Plant Biology. 72 (1): 133–153. doi:10.1146/annurev-arplant-080620-010429. ISSN 1543-5008. PMID 33434053. S2CID 231595236.
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ellison-2009 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Givnish TJ (January 2015). "New evidence on the origin of carnivorous plants". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 112 (1): 10–1. Bibcode:2015PNAS..112...10G. doi:10.1073/pnas.1422278112. PMC 4291624. PMID 25538295.
  14. ^ Barthlott W, Porembski S, Seine R, Theisen T (2007). The Curious World of Carnivorous Plants: A Comprehensive Guide to Their Biology and Cultivation. Translated by Ashdown M. Portland: Timber Press. ISBN 9780881927924.
  15. ^ Jennings DE, Rohr JR (May 2011). "A review of the conservation threats to carnivorous plants". Biological Conservation. 144 (5): 1356–63. Bibcode:2011BCons.144.1356J. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2011.03.013.
  16. ^ Cassella, Carly (27 September 2020). "The World's Marvellously Freaky Carnivorous Plants Are in More Trouble Than We Knew". ScienceAlert. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
  17. ^ Cross, Adam T.; Krueger, Thilo A.; et al. (10 September 2020). "Conservation of carnivorous plants in the age of extinction". Global Ecology and Conservation. 24: e01272. Bibcode:2020GEcoC..2401272C. doi:10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e01272. hdl:20.500.11937/84611.