Apr 22 2019
Watch out, these plants are hungry!
Most carnivorous plants grow in bogs which have soils deficient in nutrients such as nitrogen. To supplement their growth they have specialized leaves to catch and digest their prey.
There are a variety of methods that plants have evolved to catch insects. These include pitfall traps used by pitcher plants, sticky fly paper traps used by sundews, and a snap trap used by the Venus Fly Trap.
After capturing their prey, these plants secrete chemicals to digest them. This sometimes includes enzymes that break down proteins, similar to ones found in our own stomachs!