Carnivorous plants are an amazing creation of nature. Evolution has equipped them with various kinds of fishing gear and digestive glands. About 500 species of carnivorous plants are known.
Waiting
Sarracenia has special leaves for catching insects in the form of water lilies, forming a funnel. The plant secretes a secret, the color and smell of which lures insects. They fall to the edge of the funnel and can easily get inside.
Nepentes is a vines up to 15 meters high. The trapping leaves have the shape of a water lily, turning into a cup-shaped formation. The calyx is closed by a growth resembling a lid.
This cover protects the trap from overflowing with rainwater. The bottom of the bowl contains glands to absorb nutrients. There are many types of nepentes, large species can catch even small mammals like rats.
Pemphigus uses an amazing bladder trap. The pressure in the bubbles is negative, as a result, when the hole is opened, suction occurs. This is how the insect gets inside.
Californian darlingtonia leaf forms a cavity with a hole. Insects trapped inside find themselves in the thick of hairs that impede their movement towards the exit. As a result, they have the same road - to the digestive organs.
The predator genlisei has flowers that act like a crab claw. To prevent the insect from escaping from the trap, small hairs grow from the inside.
Adhesive
Zhiryanka has special glands on the leaves, the sticky secretion of which contains digestive enzymes. The leaves are bright, bright green or pink. They attract insects, which land on the leaf and immediately fall into the trap.
The sundew is equipped with glandular tentacles, at the ends of which a sweet secret is secreted. As soon as the insect sits on one of the tentacles, the rest immediately close around it. This is not a lightning-fast process, but reliable enough.
Biblis is a carnivorous plant native to Australia. Its leaves are covered with glandular hairs that secrete mucus. The slime has an attractive appearance, for which this plant was even nicknamed rainbow.
Grabbing
The Venus flytrap uses a two-leaf trap. The inner surface of the valves contains red pigment, and sensitive hairs grow along the border. Stimulation of the hairs causes the trap to close, leaving the victim in a kind of closed stomach.
The hairs do not close tightly, so that small prey can slip out. After digestion of three victims, the leaf dies off, because an excess of nutrients is harmful to the plant. While new ones are growing, the flycatcher rests from food.
Aldrovand vesiculosus is an aquatic carnivorous plant. It feeds on small aquatic invertebrates. A bipartite trap can be slammed shut within tens of milliseconds.
