insectivorous plant

The insect traps of North American pitcher plants are modified leaves. Insects are lured into the pitchers by sweet secretions and then tumble into the fluid at the base, where they drown and are slowly digested.

Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula). The Venus flytrap is a carnivorous plant native to the bogs of the southeastern USA. It is characterized by small white flowers clustered at the end of a stem 20-30 cm/8-12 in high, and distinctive modified leaves. When an insect alights on a leaf, the two halves of the leaf snap shut and then secrete enzymes to digest the insect.

Plant that can capture and digest live prey (normally insects), to obtain nitrogen compounds that are lacking in its usual marshy habitat. Some are passive traps, for example, the pitcher plants Nepenthes and Sarracenia. One pitcher-plant species has container-traps holding 1.6 l/3.5 pt of the liquid that ‘digests’ its food, mostly insects but occasionally even rodents. Others, for example, sundews Drosera, butterworts Pinguicula, and Venus flytraps Dionaea muscipula, have an active trapping mechanism. Insectivorous plants have adapted to grow in poor soil conditions where the number of micro-organisms recycling nitrogen compounds is very much reduced. In these circumstances other plants cannot gain enough nitrates to grow. See also leaf.

Near-carnivorous plants are unable to digest insects, but still trap them on their sticky coated leaves. The insects die and decay naturally, with the nutrients eventually becoming washed into the soil where they finally benefit the plant.