Hut plants. ⚠️
Predators are found not only in the animal world, but also among plants. Carnivorous plants can be found under the name insectivorous plants, since they feed on insects or small animals. They usually grow on soils that are practically devoid of nutrients (swamped meadows, swamps, peat, sand). Therefore, eating insects helps such creatures to survive.
What are the means of capturing prey in carnivorous plants?
In total, there are more than 600 species of carnivorous plants on Earth. According to the method of capturing prey, they are all divided into those that actively catch, having mobile hunting organs, and those that passively catch, using traps. In the first case, predators grab the prey and hold it during digestion with the help of sticky hairs (dewweed, biblis, saltpetre) or leaf plates that close when the insect crawls inside (Venus flytrap).
Otherwise, the plant lures the prey into its trap, at the bottom of which there is digestive juice. For example, the nepenthes creeper trap resembles bright scented jars with a lid and slippery walls covered with a wax coating. Insects, lured by the aroma, sit on the leaves, slide inside the trap and end up in the liquid. After that, the absorption of the victim by the plant begins.
Nepenthes raja is the largest insectivorous plant in the world. It is most often found on the island of Kalimantan. The stems are up to 6 m long, and the trap-jugs are up to 50 cm high. Such a predator can hunt not only insects, but also lizards, mice, rats.