Murderous Insights into Carnivorous Vegetables

Wow!

I felt compelled to post the below link.

The linked (free) paper was recently published in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. It makes the argument that there are more carnivorous plants in nature than are currently recognized by botanists.

It also describes some plants, and plant characteristics, that might represent ‘proto-carnivorous’ tendencies.


Hmmmmm…


Definently worth a look; here’s the abstract:
Darwin's interest in carnivorous plants was in keeping with the Victorian fascination with Gothic horrors, and his experiments on them were many and varied, ranging from what appears to be idle curiosity (e.g. what will happen if I place a human hair on a Drosera leaf?) to detailed investigations of mechanisms. Mechanisms for capture and digestion of prey vary greatly among the six (or more) lineages of flowering plants that have well-developed carnivory, and some are much more active than others. Passive carnivory is common in some groups, and one, Roridula (Roridulaceae) from southern Africa, is so passively carnivorous that it requires the presence of an insect intermediate to derive any benefit from prey trapped on its leaves. Other groups not generally considered to be carnivores, such as Stylidium (Stylidiaceae), some species of Potentilla (Rosaceae), Proboscidea (Martyniaceae) and Geranium (Geraniaceae), that have been demonstrated to both produce digestive enzymes on their epidermal surfaces and be capable of absorbing the products, are putatively just as 'carnivorous' as Roridula. There is no clear way to discriminate between cases of passive and active carnivory and between non-carnivorous and carnivorous plants – all intermediates exist. Here, we document the various angiosperm clades in which carnivory has evolved and the degree to which these plants have become 'complete carnivores'. We also discuss the problems with definition of the terms used to describe carnivorous plants.


Click the citation below to view this free article:

Mark W. Chase, Maarten J. M. Christenhusz, Dawn Sanders, Michael F. Fay. Murderous plants: Victorian Gothic, Darwin and modern insights into vegetable carnivory. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2009; 161 (4): 329 DOI: 10.1111/j.1095-8339.2009.01014.x