Introduction to Carnivorous Plants

About Scientific Names

The first thing that we need to remember about any branch of science is that every plant, animal, mushroom, insect, and every thing else for that matter has a scientific name. That goes for Carnivorous Plants as well. In case you know nothing about scientific names, it is important that:

• They are written in a universal language, meaning that everybody in the world knows the plant, animal, or whatever by one name!
• The language is usually Latin
• The first part is always Capitalized (this is called the Genre) and the second is always lowercase (this is called the species)
• If the species is listed as sp. it refers to any species in that Genre.
• It is important to always remember to make a scientific name italics or underlined to indicate that you are referring to a scientific name.

On each page about the carnivorous plants, I will have listed their names, but here are the most common plants with their names:

Common Name Scientific Name Venus Fly Trap Dionaea muscipula Sundew Drosera sp. American Pitcher Plant Sarracenia sp. Tropical Pitcher Plant Nepenthes sp. Butterworts Pinguicula sp. Sun Pitcher Plants Heliamphora sp. Cobra Lily Darlingtonia californica Australian Pitcher Plant Cephalotus follicularis

Why They Are Carnivorous

These plants are called carnivorous because they live in soils that have very few nutrients. It would be like you trying to live on nothing but water! Since these plants live in places where there is no food, they need to get their food from other places. These plants have special parts on them that attract bugs, spiders, beetles, and other small creepy-crawly things. Once attracted, the creepy-crawly things will get trapped in special leaves or roots that kill the critter and become food for the plant.

Since these plants catch 'bugs', they were originally thought to only eat 'insects', and they were called Insectivorous in early writings. The problem is that 'bugs' is not a proper scientific word, and since science is interested in proper classification, a more accurate word was needed. These plants do not just eat insects, because spiders are not 'insects', they are called arachnids. Since the plants eat both Insects and Spiders, they are called carnivorous which accounts for eating many types of critters, even frogs and small mammals in the case of some pitcher plants. Now, for the purpose of this site, I will refer to what these plants eat as either bugs, insects, prey, or whatever else they might eat just to keep it fun!

How They Eat

The first thing a carnivorous plant needs to do is lure the prey into the trap. There are a few ways that a plant gets the prey. Most plants have colors that are attractive to an insect or have an odor that makes the insects think that there is food in them. Some of the carnivorous plants even make chemicals on the leaves similar to drugs which make the insect walk into the plant to get more. Below are some of the specialized ways that these plants capture prey.

Special Ways to Catch Prey Leaves with moving traps Leaves covered with sticky slime Leaves with pools of water and other liquids Vacuum traps in the roots Slippery sides on the inside of leaves Special pointed hairs that lead an insect into traps

Once the plants catch the prey, it is time to eat. First, you might ask, can a bug escape? The answer is yes, sometimes. For example, a strong ant can escape from a Sundew with enough work. If the Venus Fly Trap is too slow at closing, the food can walk out of the trap. In some cases, some bugs might even be able to squirm out of a closed trap, but that is very rare. Most things that get into a pitcher plant can not escape. It is possible, but rare because the inside of those traps are very smooth and the trap is full of water.

Once the bug is fully trapped, it needs to be digested. These plants do not often have a stomach like you and me, but they have been created to eat without one. How each one digests the bug will be covered under each different plant, but to give you an idea, some plants have special chambers or places that are just for digestion. These plants include the Pitcher Plants. The Venus Fly Trap has a special leaf. The Sundew dissolves the bug right out in the open! Below is a short list of how these plants will digest:

How a Plant Digests the Bug Making enzymes, which are special chemicals that break open the bug Drowning the bug in water in the leaves Other chemicals that can eat away the bug and leave behind the nutrients

Digging Deeper

Now you know some of the basics about these mysterious plants, use the menu on the top or left of the page to learn more about each type of plant. You can go back to the home page to go to the Growing Menu to learn how to grow these plants, or the Links menu to find out how you can get some plants of your own. On the Home page is also a History link so that you can learn about the history of the study of these interesting plants. Please move on to the Site Use link to learn how to use this site to the best of it's design.

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All information on this site ^©2006 State College Carnivorous Plants. Site designed and maintained by Tom Murosky. Last update January 22, 2007. I allow free use of all written materials on this site. Easy download PDF files availible in the resource link of each plant type. Photographs may contain copyrights from other organizations, you must contact them regarding use of photographs. -- We have had visitors.