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sundew

The Sundews (Drosera) comprise one of the largest genera of carnivorous plants, with over 170 species. These members of the family Droseraceae lure, capture, and digest insects using stalked mucilaginous glands covering their leaf surface. The insects are used to supplement the poor mineral nutrition that sundews are able to obtain from the soil they grow in. Various species, which vary greatly in size and form, can be found growing natively on every continent except Antarctica

venus fly trap

The Venus Flytrap, Dionaea muscipula, is a carnivorous plant that catches and digests animal prey (mostly insects and arachnids). The trapping structure is formed by the terminal portion of each of the plant's leaves. The plant's common name refers to Venus, the Roman goddess of love, whereas the genus name refers to Dione.The Venus Flytrap is a small herb, forming a rosette of four to seven leaves, which arise from a short subterranean stem that is actually a bulb-like rhizome. Each leaf reaches a maximum size of about three to ten centimeters, depending on the time of year;[2] longer leaves with robust traps are usually formed after flowering. Flytraps that have more than 7 leaves are colonies formed by rosettes that have divided beneath the ground.
The leaf blade is divided into two regions: a flat, heart shaped photosynthetic capable petiVenus Flytraps are very popular as cultivated plants, although they have a large reputation for being difficult to grow. This reputation is almost exclusively due to inappropriate treatment of the plants by retailers and their consequent ill-health on purchase. However, Venus Flytraps are safely grown in pots under conditions that mimic those in their natural habitat.ole, and a pair of terminal lobes hinged at the midrib, forming the trap which is the true leaf. The upper surface of these lobes contains red anthocyanin pigments and its edges secrete mucilage. The lobes exhibit rapid plant movements, snapping shut when stimulated by prey. The trapping mechanism is tripped when prey items stumble against one of the three hair-like trichomes that are found on the upper surface of each of the lobes. The trapping mechanism is so specialized that it can distinguish between living prey and non-prey stimuli such as falling raindrops

pitcher plant

Pitcher plants are carnivorous plants whose prey-trapping mechanism features a deep cavity filled with liquid known as a pitfall trap. It has been widely assumed that the various sorts of pitfall trap evolved from rolled leaves, with selection pressure favouring more deeply cupped leaves over evolutionary time. However, some pitcher plant genera (such as Nepenthes) are placed within clades consisting mostly of flypaper traps: this indicates that this view may be too simplistic, and some pitchers may have evolved from flypaper traps by loss of mucilage.Whatever the mechanism of digestion, the prey items are converted into a solution of amino acids, peptides, phosphates, ammonium and urea, from which the plant obtains its mineral nutrition (particularly nitrogen and phosphorus). Like all carnivorous plants, they occur in locations where the soil is too poor in minerals and/or too acidic for most plants to be able to grow.
The families Nepenthaceae and Sarraceniaceae are the best-known and largest groups of pitcher plants.
The Nepenthaceae contains a single genus, Nepenthes, containing about 120 species and numerous hybrids and cultivars. In these Old World pitcher plants, the pitchers are borne at the end of tendrils that extend from the midrib of an otherwise unexceptional leaf. The plants themselves are often climbers, accessing the canopy of their habitats using the aforementioned tendrils, although others are found on the ground in forest clearings, or as epiphytes on trees.
Sarraceniaceae is a family of pitcher plants (along with Nepenthaceae), belonging to order Ericales (previously Nepenthales).These plants grow in nutrient-poor, often acidic soil and use the insects as a nutritional supplement. The pitchers originate from a rhizome and die back during the winter dormancy. Plants of the genus Sarracenia occur mostly in sphagnum bogs.
There are several species of American pitcher plants, most having tall, narrow pitchers that are vertical or nearly so. The Purple pitcher plant, however, has short, squat, bulbous pitchers close to the ground, and the Parrot pitcher plant has pitchers that grow horizontally.

carnivorous plants

Carnivorous plants (sometimes called insectivorous plants) are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients (but not energy) from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans, typically insects and other arthropods. Carnivorous plants appear adapted to grow in places where the soil is thin or poor in nutrients, especially nitrogen, such as acidic bogs and rock outcroppings. Charles Darwin wrote the first well-known treatise on carnivorous plants in 1875.[1]
True carnivory is thought to have evolved in at least 10 separate lineages of plants, and these are now represented by more than a dozen genera in 5 families. These include about 625 species that attract and trap prey, produce digestive enzymes, and absorb the resulting available nutrients. Additionally, over 300 protocarnivorous plant species in several genera show some but not all these characteristics.