There are plants that are very different from the usual "peaceful", harmless flowers and grass. These are predators who have perfectly mastered the art of hunting - in order to obtain vital substances, they have learned to catch and eat animals. Various predator plants use their technique to lure and eat prey. Many are fascinated by this process, others are struck by the unusual appearance of carnivorous plants.

Features of predator plants

There are 2 signs by which a predator plant can be distinguished:

It must have a mechanism for capturing prey and killing it. Typically carnivorous plants use leaves to act as traps. To lure the victim, they use bright coloring, smells or special hairs. Also, predator plants have a special system that does not allow the caught animal to get out.

Such plants must be able to digest meat. Some of them have glands in the leaves that secrete digestive enzymes. Other carnivorous plants have bacteria or even insects that process food instead of them.

How did ordinary plants develop such abilities? Scientists suggest that this happened as a result of evolution. Plants that grew in severe nitrogen-deficient conditions needed to look for other sources of nutrients, so they adapted to trap animals.

Most often, predatory plants eat a variety of insects, spiders, and small crustaceans, but even birds, lizards, mice, rats, and other small animals can become victims.

Top 5 Fascinating Carnivorous Plant Facts

What are plants that eat insects called?

In fact, the predator plant does not check who its prey is. Some representatives of the species do specialize in catching insects, but, nevertheless, plants will consume everything that comes across to them.

Below are the most unusual, dissimilar predator plants that can surprise and even puzzle.

Nepenthes, also called pitcher or monkey cup, is a genus of carnivorous herbaceous plants with about 140 species of various shapes and sizes. They grow mainly in Madagascar, Southeast Asia and Australia. Favorite habitats are jungle or highlands.

Nepenthes is one of the most popular predator plants for growing at home. It is a shrub with many leaves, among which traps grow in the form of pitchers with a beautiful rim and a kind of lid on long vines.

These jugs are usually brightly colored and function as passive traps. Attracted by variegated flowers or nectar, the victim sits on the mouth of the leaf, then falls along the slippery wax surface into the jug into the watery liquid. The victim is prevented from getting out by descending hairs located on the inner surface of the leaves. It sinks and is digested by special enzymes.

Interesting to know: pitcher traps grow on average up to 10 cm, but this family also has record holders. The largest carnivorous plant is called nepenthes raja. Its water lily reaches a height of 35 cm and has a diameter of 16 cm, which allows it to catch rodents and other small animals.

Carnivorous plants are able to live in symbiosis with living beings. For example, a separate species of pitchers is friends with ants. Those cleanse it of the remnants of undigested food, leaving their excrement inside the jug, and the plant feeds on them. Another type of Nepenthes has adapted to feed on the droppings of mountain tupais. These animals eat nectar from water lilies, sitting on them, and immediately relieve their need. Here is such a curious mutual assistance.

This plant, resembling the mouth of a toothed beast, is familiar to almost everyone. Dionea or Venus flytrap is another favorite of indoor gardeners. The birthplace of this original creation is the east coast of the United States.

Each dionea contains 4-7 traps ranging in size from 3 to 10 cm. They consist of 2 hinged leaves. There are 14-20 teeth on the edge of the petals. The outer part of the traps is usually green, while the insides have a red pigment that changes with the age of the Venus flytrap.

When an insect or leaf-crawling spider contacts the hairs, the trap prepares to close, but it only snaps into place if a second contact occurs within about 20 seconds of the first contact. Such a mechanism prevents the useless capture of non-living objects without nutritional value. Also, the flycatcher will only start digesting food after 5 extra stimuli to make sure a live creature has been caught.

The prey continues to struggle inside the trap, causing its leaves to shrink tighter. The trap turns into a stomach, digestion begins for 10 days. Then the petals open again.

An interesting fact: in America, a medicine is being prepared from a Venus flytrap that claims to treat HIV and Crohn's disease.

Aldrovanda, which belongs to the same family, hunts like a Venus flytrap. Aldrovanda grows underwater in lakes, looks like algae. She also has many bivalve traps, only small in size. With them, she catches small underwater inhabitants. Unlike Dionea, Aldrovanda can be found almost all over the world. In Russia, it also exists, but is listed in the Red Book.

For some, it will be a discovery that carnivorous plants grow not only in the wild jungle. For example, pemphigus lives in fresh water and moist soil on every continent except Antarctica. It is an algae without a root system. Bladderwort is often used in the aquarium trade.

These carnivores capture small organisms with a unique technique. Utricularia have a network of bubble-like traps. To catch prey, pemphigus pumps water out of these bubbles, creating negative pressure. As soon as some insect comes into contact with the bristles on the surface of the trap, the mechanism works, and it is instantly sucked into the bubble, like a vacuum cleaner!

Interesting to know: pemphigus is considered the fastest in the list of carnivorous plants.

Round-leaved sundew is found throughout North America, Korea, and Japan. This predatory flower is called so for a reason. Its stems are covered with many tendrils with dew-like droplets. The leaves of most types of sundew are very small in size - 1 cm, and the dewdrops on them are so tiny that you cannot see them with the naked eye.

Many believe that drosera traps are flowers, but in fact they are modified leaves.

The method of catching animals in this carnivorous plant differs from all previous ones. Sundew catches prey like duct tape for flies. Drops on the leaves are filled with a sweet substance that attracts animals. It is also a super powerful glue with paralytic properties. It is worth touching an insect, and there is little chance of salvation!

Drosera begins to close around its prey, braiding it with its hairs, wrapping it into a ball and moving it to the center of the sheets. There are glands that secrete digestive enzymes. Thus, the plant eats animal food.

Few would suspect such a cute flower of carnivory, but Byblis is indeed predatory. Byblis grows in Western Australia. Their leaves resemble thin, long blades of grass dotted with small hairs and droplets of liquid. This mucus shimmers with all the colors of the rainbow, for which the flower is also called rainbow.

Byblis height, on average, is 25-50 cm, although there are giant species of about 70 cm. Dozens of purple or pink flowers grow on the shrub, making the plant even more beautiful and unique.

The appearance and method of capturing the prey of the biblis makes it similar to the sundew, although they are completely from different families, and live in different areas. The victim is attracted by droplets of liquid, she sits on a sheet and immediately sticks “tightly”. Gradually, the plant completely envelops the caught animal with mucus, softening it. Another type of byblis gland secretes digestive enzymes that slowly digest prey. By the way, it often feeds on snails, frogs or insects.

The darlingtonia leaf is designed in such a way as to lure prey by deception. It becomes a variety of insects, more often - flies. The trap has a bizarre shape, resembling a cobra with an open hood, and 2 antennae have a semblance of fangs.

The glands on the leaves secrete sweet nectar, and there are even more of them inside the hood, thanks to which the insects themselves crawl there. From the inside, the leaf tissue has translucent areas, which the victim takes for exits. She tries to fly through them, but flies even further.

To make it harder for the victim to escape, the inside of the Darlingtonia leaves are coated with a waxy substance. The insect has nothing to cling to, so it is very likely to fall into the lower part of the trap filled with liquid.

There, its soft parts are digested and converted into nitrogen compounds. Darlingtonia cannot digest the solid remains of insects, and they remain inside.

This rare species of carnivorous plants grows in Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, and Guyana. Brocchinia leaves form a bowl for storing water. Their walls reflect ultraviolet light, which attracts insects. In addition, the water in the bowl gives off a sweet smell. The prey crawls inside and eventually drowns there. Digestion occurs with the help of digestive enzymes and bacteria.

Although some of the creatures described are fearsome, even the most predatory plant in the world will not harm a person. In fact, they are delicate and fragile. As a result of human activities, more than one species has already died, and the rest are on the verge of extinction. Therefore, we recommend visiting one of the reserves, where you can see these predators live before they disappear!

Natural, beautiful, and often even useful, plants are an integral and necessary part of our daily lives. From the taste of noble drinks aged in oak barrels to the pleasant scents of flower-inspired perfumes, plants evoke nothing but pleasure for most people. But not all representatives of the flora exist to make people happy. These apparently peaceful creatures sometimes have a darker side. Poison juices, toxic leaves, prickly stems - all this is designed to harm and cause pain. Meeting with some plants is best avoided, and this selection will tell you which flowers and trees are especially dangerous for humans.

10. Manchine

The manchineel tree (Hippomane mancinella) is a fruit-bearing tree native to the coastal regions of the Caribbean, including the West Indies and Central America. Locals in Spanish-speaking countries call the manchineel "arbol de la muerte" or the tree of death. This sinister name was given for a reason, and it suits the manchine very well.

The fact is that this plant is extremely poisonous. The tree secretes a toxic sap that slowly oozes from the bark, leaves, and fruit. The plant fluid contains the extremely poisonous substance phorbol, and contact with this juice causes blisters on the skin, similar to real burns. And if this phorbol-rich liquid gets into an open wound, it can spread throughout the circulatory system, and for a person everything will end in death.

Burning macinella is no less dangerous, because even so it releases toxins, and directly into the air. If combustion products get on the mucous membrane of the eye, this can cause either severe burning and irritation, or even blindness.

The fruits of the tree are of particular concern, and all because these fruits are distinguished by their small shape and appetizing appearance. The manchineel fruit looks like a small apple and looks quite edible. It may even seem pleasant and sweet in taste. But in the end, the taste of this treat is accompanied by less pleasant effects - a swelling of the throat and the threat of death.

Due to its extreme toxicity, the locals once used the sap of the manchineel tree to lubricate their hunting arrows. This plant is clear proof that sometimes the sweetest things can have the most sour effects.

9. Prayer rosary

Prayer rosary (Abrus precatorious) is a wild Indonesian legume plant that is often compared to the "crab's eye". Due to their attractive red and black coloration, abrus beans are often used by Indonesians in jewelry making, especially for making decorative rosaries. Initially, this abrus grew only in Indonesia, later it was brought to the USA, where it is cultivated as an ornamental plant. Especially large plantations are found in the southern states of America - in Hawaii and Puerto Rico.

The liana vine blooms with attractive pink flowers, but the beauty of this plant hides its sinister secret - rosary peas are extremely toxic. If the skin of the fruit is damaged, the plant needs to release less than 0.00015% of its toxin to kill a human. However, if the integrity of the peel of peas is not broken, it is absolutely harmless, and can even pass without consequence through the entire digestive tract of a person who had the imprudence to swallow a red-black bead.

Abrin, the toxin of the abrus plant, comes into active contact with the cells of the human body, interferes with the synthesis of the protein necessary for our body, and sticks together red blood cells. Prayer rosary fruit has two ways to enter the human body: through the respiratory tract or while eating. If you inhale the toxin of this abrus, you will experience nausea, fever and pulmonary edema. Eating food poisoned with abrin can be much more dangerous for a person. If you eat a pea with a damaged skin, prepare for severe nausea and vomiting, as well as dehydration, accompanied by dysfunction of the kidneys, liver and spleen, which ultimately leads to a painful death.

Currently, no antidote to the toxins of the bead fruit has yet been created, and too late medical assistance can only relieve pain and relieve some of the symptoms of poisoning. There is no way to stop the processes that kill a person from the inside, if you do not flush the body immediately after poisoning.

The toxic properties of abrus have been used in hair products against lice, and the roots of the rosary contain glycyrrhizin, which Indian healers add to painkillers. In modern pharmacology, this plant has not gained much popularity.

8. White snake root or highest ageratina

White snakeroot (Ageratina altissima) is a North American flowering herb found primarily in wooded areas of the Midwest. The top of the highest ageratina is decorated with umbrellas with small white flowers, and in appearance this green plant may seem completely harmless, but its modest beauty is insidious and hides a deadly secret.

White snake root contains the powerful toxin tremotol, and it usually affects a person who already suffers from milk sickness. The process of secondary infection is due to the consumption of contaminated milk produced by a cow that accidentally ate ageratina and became ill. An animal that has ingested a toxic plant can be recognized by a syndrome that causes severe tremors and convulsions. If you drink the milk of a sick cow, you will also be poisoned by tremotol and suffer from milk sickness.

Dairy disease has many symptoms, including loss of appetite, weakness, muscle stiffness (hypertonicity), intestinal upset, vomiting, and constipation. In the worst case, poisoning with white snake root toxin leads to coma and death.

The best thing you can do to relieve the symptoms and pain of milk sickness, as well as to partially eliminate the poison from the body, is to take sodium lactate with glucose. But these measures can only mitigate the destructive effect of tremotol, without saving from inevitable death.

Ageratina the Supreme is responsible for a huge number of deaths and in the past caused the premature death of the mother of Abraham Lincoln. Today, thanks to increased safety measures in the livestock sector, the risk of developing dairy disease has been reduced to almost zero.

7. Oleander

Oleander (lat. Nerium) is an ornamental shrub popular for its beautiful flowers and enviable unpretentiousness. Initially, the plant grew in northern Africa and on the Mediterranean coast, but today the oleander adorns gardens and alleys of parks around the world, mainly in warm and hot latitudes. An ornamental shrub adorns both private gardens and public spaces, however, few realize how dangerous this natural beauty is.

Oleander contains a range of deadly toxins, including cardiac glycosides, oleandrin, oleondroside, nerozide, and a host of other toxic substances. This powerful chemical mixture is so poisonous that it only takes one leaf to kill an adult human. The toxins in oleander are very plentiful and cause a range of potentially lethal effects, among which the best known are blurred vision, gastrointestinal upset, bradycardia and arrhythmia (slow and irregular heartbeat), heart block, and a host of systemic disorders that affect brain function. . Defeat comprehends almost all vital organs.

If medical assistance is provided in a timely manner, the chances of surviving and fully recovering are the highest, although much also depends on the amount of poison that has entered the human body. At the hospital, doctors flush the patient's stomach with activated charcoal to remove the deadly toxin from the digestive tract as soon as possible.

The main problem is that often patients do not realize the cause of their indisposition and, as a result, die a painful death without seeking help from qualified doctors.

6. Jimson weed or stinkweed

Stinky Datura (Datura stramonium) is known by the more common name "devil's trap". Many people remember this plant from a fairy tale episode in which Harry, Hermione and Ron encountered a treacherous flower while searching for a wizard's stone.

However, the real devil's trap is an even more dangerous and sinister plant than the one discovered by Potter's friends at Hogwarts. Jimson's weed is a tall, herbaceous plant of the nightshade family with a funnel-folded corolla (the aggregate of a flower petal) and prickly seed pods. This toxic plant is native to Asia, but Datura has now made its way to the West Indies, Canada, and the United States.

The devil's trap seems simple and modest in appearance, but in fact it is capable of knocking down even an adult healthy person. Datura contains a mixture of dangerous tropane alkaloids, which can harm almost the entire human body, but are most dangerous for our brain.

Some people use Jimson weed as a hallucinogen. Its poisonous properties can cause atypical pupillary dilation, blurred vision, frightening hallucinations, euphoria, delirium, aggressive behavior, as well as tachycardia and dry mouth.

The devil's trap does not need to be specially treated in any way, and juice squeezed directly from the stem or flower of Datura is enough to infect it with toxins, and the seeds of the plant can be swallowed raw. Death is not the most likely outcome of poisoning, but intoxication with stinky dope can make you experience not the most pleasant sensations.

5. Castor oil

Castor beans (Ricinus communis) look innocent and harmless, but they actually contain one of the most powerful natural toxins on Earth, ricin. For the same reason, the plant was even listed in the Guinness Book of Records.

Ricinus communis is a medium-sized herbaceous plant originally native to Ethiopia. Today, castor bean is widely distributed throughout the world, especially in temperate and tropical latitudes, where this plant can be found in ordinary gardens and vegetable gardens, as well as in parks and other public places.

For centuries, our ancestors have valued the beneficial properties of castor oil, which is extracted just from the castor bean. So why is this plant considered so deadly? It's all about the spotted brown fruit. Beans are the vessels that contain the same ricin. The pulp of the slander fruit is used to make a dried powder, which is a real killer and is very dangerous if inhaled or mixed with liquids. Intoxication occurs with a different set of symptoms, depending on how ricin entered the human body.

If swallowed, it causes severe gastrointestinal upset, abdominal pain, vomiting, and bloody diarrhea, leading to severe dehydration, low blood pressure, and kidney failure. Inhalation of ricin results in a bloody cough, followed by rapid pulmonary edema. If ricin enters the bloodstream through an injection, you will first experience vomiting and flu-like symptoms, the injection site will swell, and as a result, acute failure of all organs of the body will develop.

The worst thing is that all these symptoms are detected only a few days after the initial contact with ricin. It takes only 2 milligrams to kill an adult human, and there is no antidote for this toxin in the world yet. Well? Now you will think twice, when is the next time your grandmother will offer you a castor oil treatment?

4. Sleepy grass

This dangerous plant has many names: belladonna, belladonna, rubella, sleepy dope, wild cherry, European belladonna, deadly nightshade and belladonna belladonna. From Italian belladonna is translated as a beautiful woman. Yes, this lady is beautiful, but at the same time she is extremely dangerous.

Sleepy grass grows in Europe, northern Africa and western Asia, and eventually it appeared in the United States. Belladonna is a tall plant with dark green leaves, beautiful purple bell-shaped flowers and black-red berries.

The belladonna quite rightly got its name, but its external charm is deceptive - the toxins contained in the plant can easily kill you. Belladonna contains three tropane alkaloids and other toxic components that cause severe intoxication. Among the symptoms of wild cherry poisoning, the most common are severe dehydration and thirst, difficulty swallowing and breathing, blurred vision, vomiting, tachycardia (rapid heartbeat), slurred speech, hallucinations, and delusions. The most severe signs of intoxication are convulsions and coma, which ultimately lead to death.

Belladonna contains toxins in all parts of the plant, but most of the poison is concentrated in its roots. Nevertheless, it is the berries of sleepy grass that most often cause trouble. Brilliant dark red fruits are very similar to ripe cherries, which, contrary to all expectations, turn out to be sweet. But the consequences of such confusion are unlikely to please anyone ...

3. Cerberus odollamskaya or "suicide tree"

Cerbera odollam (Cerbera odollam) is a beautiful ornamental plant that grows in the swamps of India and southern Asia. Locals call it “pong-pong” (“stinky”) because of its specific smell, and this tree has its own cunning tactic to seduce and fool you into certain death. The suicide tree attracts attention with beautiful white flowers and small mango-like fruits. But do not be deceived by the external attractiveness of this plant, because its fruits are extremely toxic.

Cerberus odollam seed contains the glycoside cerberin, which acts as a steroid that blocks the channels of calcium ion circulation in the human body. But it is free calcium that is involved in the processes of blood coagulation, regulates muscle contraction of cells and the secretion of hormones. Cerberin intoxication causes severe gastrointestinal upset, diarrhea, irregular heart rhythms, heart failure, and vomiting. These symptoms appear several hours after poisoning, and just one seed contains enough poison to kill an adult.

The suicide tree got its ominous name for a reason. Every year, thousands of people die with the help of this plant, thus choosing not the fastest and most painless way of suicide. By the way, the scientific version of the name of this plant also hints at a connection with the realm of the dead - Cerberus comes from the nickname of the three-headed hellish dog from Greek mythology.

2. Water hemlock or water milestone

Water hemlock (Cicuta douglasii) is a weed that grows in the wetlands of the American west and is also known as cat parsley, omeg, water rabies, mudweed, waterweed, dog angelica, gorigola, and pig louse.

In appearance, this is an ordinary herbaceous plant of a meter height, the top of which is decorated with umbrellas of small white flowers. The rhizome and the smell of hemlock are reminiscent of carrots, but this is not at all the plant that should be added to salads.

Water rabies contains the strongest toxin - hemlock - a dangerous unsaturated alkaloid with a pleasant smell. Cicuta is found in all parts of the plant, but its highest concentration is present in the rhizome of the weed.

Most often, people are poisoned by hemlock by accident, swallowing a toxic plant by mistake, confusing it with a parsnip. The poison manifests itself in a variety of unpleasant symptoms, including nervousness, muscle tics, dilated pupils, rapid pulse and breathing, tremors, convulsions, seizures, kidney failure, coma, and rapid death.

One small handful of weed, which can be chewed at a time, is enough to kill an adult human. Poisoning with water hemlock happens so quickly that this green villain almost does not give time to get to the hospital.

1. Aconite

Aconite (Aconitum napellus) is a herbaceous plant in the buttercup family that has many popular nicknames, including wolf root, grass king, goat death, iron helmet, hood, horse, potion king, wolf slayer, and wrestler root. Aconite grows in western and central Europe and is an ornamental flowering plant that is easily recognizable by its dark purple flowers resembling a monk's hood.

And although aconite flowers are compared to a monastic cloak, this plant is far from holy innocence. King Grass contains an alkaloid called aconitine. Aconitine destroys the channels of sodium circulation, a substance directly related to cardiac performance. Symptoms of wolf bug poisoning include tingling, numbness of the mouth and tongue, nausea, vomiting, difficulty breathing, weak or irregular heartbeat, pain, convulsions, and paralysis, which eventually leads to death.

Most often, intoxication occurs due to the ingestion of aconite in food, although the taste of this plant is rather unpleasant. A dose of poison for sad consequences is needed very small due to the high efficiency of this substance.

When people think of plants, they usually think of ordinary trees, flowers, and bushes that are found everywhere. Many do not even imagine that there are predatory plants in the world that can kill what approaches them. Let's get acquainted with some sinister representatives of the flora. Among them are deadly poisonous plants.

Venus flytrap

When imagining dangerous plants, people usually immediately think of this flower, and not without reason. These frightening plants, common in some states of America, lie in wait for prey with barbed petals open. As soon as the insect enters the trap, the flytrap closes and produces enzymes that can dissolve not only the fly, but also human flesh. The digestion process takes about ten days. People are lucky that these plants are not gigantic and do not pose a serious danger to someone larger than an insect.

Nepenthes Attenborough

Discovered in 2000, this plant poses a greater threat than many others. Most predator plants are limited to insects and spiders, but even rodents can get into the Nepenthes water lily. Water accumulates in the plant during rain, and when the rodent is about to drink, the valves collapse, and the animal falls into the trap, after which the plant slowly digests its prey.

Dendrocnide excelsa

This poisonous plant looks harmless enough, which makes it especially dangerous. It is common in Australia and is characterized by a burning poison that can kill dogs and horses. Survivors of contact with the plant describe it as a combination of electric shock and acid burn. The pain is so excruciating that one victim shot himself in order not to suffer from it.

Voronet thick-legged

This plant resembles a monster from a Japanese horror movie, but it grows everywhere. It is a tall red stem with many large berries, each of which is so poisonous that it can kill a person. If a person were to eat the berry, they would experience hallucinations, dizziness, and palpitations that could be fatal. Interestingly, the poison does not work on birds.

Cape sundew

Sundews resemble something between a plant and an octopus. They prey on insects. When a butterfly lands on a leaf covered with sticky tentacles, the plant coils around it and digests it.

Chilibukha

This plant is called the emetic nut. It contains two poisons at once. The first is strychnine, used as a pesticide. It is found in fruits, so protecting yourself is quite simple - you need not eat them. Another poison, brucine, is contained in the bark, and is of great danger, since the tree is similar to trees of another species, the bark of which can be eaten. A person poisoned by brucine will suffer from a serious intestinal disorder.

Hellebore black

This plant looks harmless, but poses a serious danger. If a person eats it, he will receive serious burns of the throat, mouth and eyes, gastroenteritis and hematemesis await him.

H. G. Wells has a fantastic story "The Strange Orchid", whose hero almost dies in the arms of a bloodthirsty flower. The reason for his writing was newspaper publications about Madagascar, Brazil, Nicaragua and other hard-to-reach places. Each such message caused a storm of indignation among armchair scientists, although plants that devour insects and even small animals were already known then.

The cannibal tree is waiting for its victims

One of the first mentions of pro appeared in the New-York World magazine in 1880. It was the story of the German researcher Karl Liche about the sacrifice, which he witnessed in the jungles of Madagascar, in front of his eyes a beautiful young woman from one of the local tribes was sacrificed to ... a tree.
This tree reached a height of 2.5 meters, and the shape resembled a pineapple, with sharp, knife-like leaves. Serpentine vines twined around it, and on top there were two formations, resembling either plates or palms facing each other. They secreted a thick juice that apparently had narcotic properties.
While the natives performed a ritual dance, a woman climbed a tree and began to lick the juice, which was becoming more and more. At some point, she, apparently, having fallen into oblivion, fell between the “palms”, which began to approach, squeezing her body. There was a crunch of bones. The creepers-tentacles shuddered, crawled towards the woman and began to stick to her body. The blood of the unfortunate streamed down the trunk, mixing with the sweet juice of the killer tree. For ten days, the terrible monster digested its victim, after which it “burped out” the unfortunate skull.

According to Karl Liche, the bloodthirsty cannibal tree was well known to the inhabitants of Madagascar, who have long called their island "the land of the cannibal tree." However, none of the subsequent expeditions could find anything like a monster in the jungle, and the explorer was considered a liar.

Cannibal Tree or Green Vampire

On August 27, 1892, the Illustrated London News published a report about a tree growing in Nicaragua and devouring dogs, naturalist J. Dunstan was studying plants near one of the lakes in Nicaragua when he heard the heart-rending barking of his dog. Rushing to where the dog was barking. Dunstan discovered that it was entwined with a web of rope-like roots and fibers, and a hideous black vine that exuded a thick, sticky mass. With great difficulty, Dunstan managed to break this net and free the dog, whose skin turned out to be covered with wounds, apparently inflicted by a vine that was about to drink dog blood. The locals knew this terrible plant well and called it the “snake tree”. In their opinion, it could suck all the blood out of a dog in a few minutes.
cannibal tree met in the virgin forests of Central America and English ethnographers. The leader of the expedition, Dr. Caleb Enders, wrote: “We have heard from the Indians more than once that in the thick of the forests there are predatory plants that supposedly feed on living creatures. One of them looks like a thick cactus dotted with sharp dagger-thorns. It is worth a careless person to come close to him, as the green "knives" instantly pinch him from all sides and pierce the body. Blood begins to flow from the cuts, which the green vampire quickly absorbs through the bark, which is porous like a sponge.

Enders goes on to describe in detail the encounter with this tree, which, fortunately, was without casualties.
Another case occurred in the mountains of Sierra Madre de Chiapas in Mexico. American traveler Steve Spike witnessed how a bird sat on a branch of a vampire tree, and it, like a living snake, wrapped itself around the victim and squeezed it, eagerly absorbing the blood that came out. After a while, the tree threw a corpse squeezed out like a lemon to the ground, unimpressed by this sight, Spike touched one of the branches, and in the blink of an eye she squeezed his hand in a death grip. The traveler managed to pull out his hand, leaving “a piece of his skin as a memory for the green vampire.
Around the same area of ​​Mexico in 1933, the French explorer Byron de Prophet also saw a huge cannibal tree. The bird landed on one of its huge leaves, which curled up and sank its spines into the bird's body.

Cannibal tree in Africa

The sensation of 1958 was a photograph of a cannibal tree taken by biologist Klaus von Schwimmer in the wilds of Central Africa. Schwimmer organized an expedition, intending to explore the headwaters of the Kapomobo River in Northern Rhodesia. Five whites and 20 porters, led by an experienced hunter and interpreter from the Barotse tribe, took part in it, the travelers climbed the river in motor boats, then went deeper into the jungle, where in a large clearing they saw a lone tree similar to an Indian banyan tree, which, in addition to a thick main the trunk was even a little thinner. The crown of the tree consisted of long broad leaves, and many vines hung from the branches. In addition, the tree emitted a surprisingly strong pleasant smell, which made travelers rush towards it, but then Schwimmer saw a thick layer of bones under the tree and shouted for people to stop. Everyone obediently froze, but one of the porters approached the green monster too close. The creepers hanging from the tree stirred and reached out to the man, entwining him. It was not possible to pull the poor fellow out of the clutches of the green monster. The only thing that the expedition members could do. - to avenge the murder.
Armfuls of brushwood were brought to the foot of the tree, which they immediately set on fire. The man-eating tree, as if sensing imminent death, "shot" vines-tentacles into the fire and immediately pulled them back. Soon the lower branches and the slender trunks that supported them began to smoke. The burning monster emitted a terrifying stench
Von Schwimmer's report so outraged the researchers of tropical Africa that a criminal case was opened against him on charges of falsification and fraud, but the British, who were in the jungle with Schwimmer, testified under oath that he was telling the truth. Moreover, Professor de Grost from Cape Town found several people in Rhodesia who were Schwimmer's porters, who corroborated his story.
And a year later, the Brussels Tropical Institute organized a new expedition to Rhodesia. Focusing on the records of the first expedition, she easily managed to find both the "glade of death" and a huge number of bones of various animals and people under a layer of ash.

Cannibal Tree - Eater of Brazilian Monkeys

In the 70s of the last century, the Brazilian naturalist Mariano da Silva, traveling through South America, discovered a tree in the tropical forest on the border between Brazil and Guyana, which attracted monkeys with its intoxicating smell. Having smelled it, the animals, forgetting about caution, climbed up the trunk until the leaves of the crown closed over them, enclosing them in a dense cocoon. The besotted monkeys died before they even squeaked. According to da Silva, for three days the green monster digested the prey, and then “burped” the gnawed bones to the ground.
The debate about whether there are cannibal trees continues to this day, because while most of them are described only in the diaries of travelers, science has yet to deal with these monsters, which are distant relatives of such insectivorous plants as sundew, Venus flytrap and nepenthes, which in the tropical forests of South Asia, Indonesia, New Guinea and Australia, there are more than 70 species.

The idea that the representatives of the flora inhabiting our planet serve as food for herbivores, reptiles and insects is firmly rooted in the human mind. Their share in the human diet is also large. But there are such types of carnivorous plants that do not wait to be eaten, but they themselves are not averse to feasting on living organisms.

Cause of carnivorous plants

Almost everything that grows from the earth feeds on its juices. To do this, they have a root system, often very branched, through which nutrients enter the stem, and then are absorbed, turning into wood, fiber, leaves, and sometimes beautiful inflorescences pleasing to the eye. The better the soil, the more opportunities. This applies to all types of flora, from grass to huge redwoods. Unfortunately, climatic diversity does not always contribute to the growth and survival of biological objects. The land is not fertile everywhere. So we have to adapt, not only to people, but also to all our other space satellites. Indeed, in essence, we are flying in space, surrounded by a dead vacuum, and our world has become alive because we have air, water, heat and much more, which is essential. Carnivorous plants feed on creatures that are on the evolutionary ladder above them, not because of innate cruelty, they are forced to obtain the substances necessary for their life activity because there is nowhere else to take them.

Insidious beauty

The food for predatory flowers is mainly insects. They rarely sit down on everything, except to rest a little. Boat bugs are also constantly looking for something to profit from, such is the fate of all living beings on the planet. Of course, carnivorous plants could simply wait for the right opportunity, but then most of them would hardly have survived. Therefore, they take the initiative on the same principle as people who claim that luck is in the hands. In the absence of limbs, a predator plant uses the organs at its disposal, namely leaves and flowers. Capricious insects can be attracted by aroma, color and the beauty that harmless daisies, poppies or daffodils captivate bees and butterflies, with the only difference that they should be even more seductive, at least from the point of view of insects.

Mechanism of plant digestion

And now a gullible insect sits on a predator plant in the hope of feasting on nectar. The structure of the leaves contains traps, divided according to the functional load into baits and grips. Organs of various shapes are capable of attracting insects (for example, in the form of cilia, like in sarracenia, or jugs of water, with which Nepenthes lures its victims). The main thing is for the insect to fly closer, make sure that it is offered an unprecedented treat, and make a fatal landing for itself. After that, the predator plant uses hairs that firmly hold the victim for the time necessary for the leaves or petals to close, blocking the escape route. There is no more hope for salvation. Through the release of special enzymes, the insect is killed, its vital juices containing useful substances (nitrogen, phosphorus, alkali metal salts, etc.) pass into the tissues of the killer flower. All that remains is what cannot be digested - chitinous shells.

Sarracenia - evil queen

She is from the New World. It lives mainly in the southern part of North America, although it is also found in Canada, but less often. This predatory plant uses special leaves for hunting, also called trapping, similar to a funnel with a cape-hood. This cover protects the opening from which the tempting insect odor is emitted from rain and excessive diffusion of the nectar-like secretion liquid. Sarracenia bait also contains a substance that has a relaxing effect on the victims, similar to a narcotic effect. The leaf surface is smooth and slippery. Under the charm of the sweet smell, bugs or flies themselves tend to get into this terrible funnel, from which there is no way out. Having fallen inside, the victims are digested and dissolved by protease and other caustic enzymes.

Who can eat Nepenthes?

If, in terms of beauty, sarracenia, perhaps, ranks first among insectivorous flowers, then in terms of size, the priority rightfully belongs to Nepenthes, an inhabitant of the South Pacific region. He lives in Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia, China, India, as well as the Philippines, Seychelles, Madagascar, Sumatra and the island of Borneo. The local primates use this plant as a source of water in the heat, so its other name is "monkey cup". The leaves of the Nepenthes resemble a water lily, they are connected to long stems, like those of lianas. The bait is plentiful, it can be more or less sticky. Unfortunate insects fall into this liquid, drown in it, and then dissolve. Most of the Nepenthes species are of very moderate size, but there are real giants among them. It's not just carnivorous plants. Photos of Nepenthes Rajah or Nepenthes Rafflesiana, with an appetite to eat birds, mice and even rats, make an indelible impression. Fortunately, for larger mammals and humans, they do not pose a danger.

Genlisei and her claw

Carnivorous plants also live in Africa. On the "Black Continent" there are over two dozen species of a rather beautiful yellow genlisey flower. It is also widespread in South America. Genlisei, with its asymmetrical shape, resembles a crab's claw, which is easy to hit, but almost impossible to escape. The thing is that the hairs growing on its inner surface are arranged in a spiral, and their direction prevents reverse movement. At the same time, hunting for all living things is carried out not only above the earth's surface (this is the case of photosynthetic outer leaves), but also in the soil, where microorganisms are sucked in together with soil water through hollow tubes, also spiral-shaped. Digestion of food occurs directly in the channels of its intake.

Color hallucinations of California Darlingtonia

Insectivorous plants amaze with a variety of methods for misleading their victims. So, California Darlington, which hunts near rivers, lakes and springs with cool water, has the shape of a bulb. In the center of this miracle of nature is a hole with two fang-shaped leaves, quite sharp. The Darlingtonia itself lives underwater. Its difference is that it does not use leaves for catching, insects get inside it through the “crab claw”, an asymmetrical petal. But the main catch lies in the color disorientation of the victim, achieved by many light-shadow transitions, into which the insect plunges, once inside. These insectivorous plants simply drive their victims crazy with the help of specks on the light-conducting shell, and they can no longer understand where is up and where is down. In addition, the hairs give them the right direction.

Sucking Bubble

The unique bubble trap is characteristic of the plant with the sonorous name Utricularia. It is small, the largest of the bubbles reach a centimeter or a little more. Accordingly, the prey is modest, pemphigus is saturated with tadpoles and water fleas. But the diversity and range are impressive. There are more than two hundred species, and you can meet this predator almost everywhere, except perhaps the tundra or Antarctica. The technique used in hunting is also unusual. A small vacuum is generated inside the bubbles, and the flower, like a small vacuum cleaner, sucks insects passing by along with water. This happens very quickly, the whole process from opening the trap hole to plugging it takes some microseconds.

Sticky Fatty

Almost a complete analogue of duct tape, which just a couple of decades ago in the summer hung from the ceiling of almost every diner. True, the Pinguicula, or fat-wort, is much prettier than those dark brown spirals from the past. Bright green or pink leaves on the outside are covered with two types of cells. The peduncle glands, located closer to the stem, produce mucus containing a glue that attracts the smell, and at the same time securely fixes insects. This is the same sticky. The second type of cells are the so-called sessile glands. They belong directly to the digestive system and produce protease, esterase and amylase, that is, enzymes that decompose living organisms into components useful for the plant.

Some types of butterwort hide under a dense rosette for the winter in order to bloom again in the spring and continue the merciless hunt, spreading carnivorous sticky leaves.

rainbow bibles

This predator lives in Australia. It's hard to imagine a beautiful slime, but that's how you can define its surface. In appearance, the byblis bears some resemblance to the sundew, but it is a very special kind of carnivorous plant.

In cross section, the leaf is round, it is provided with a conical sharp end. The hairs growing on it exude a viscous substance of beautiful iridescent hues. Flowers are also not without aesthetic appeal and are equipped with five curved stamens. The hunting mechanism is not particularly original. The insect sticks, as a rule, it is small. Here he ends.

Aldrovanda - floating trap

Bubble Aldrovanda lives in water. She is a record holder in two categories. Firstly, this carnivorous creature (it is difficult to call it a flower, rather some kind of algae) grows very quickly, almost a centimeter daily. This does not mean that aldrovanda will soon flood all tropical water bodies. How fast it lengthens, just as fast it shortens. This plant has no root, it grows at one end and dies at the other.

The second unique feature of Aldrovanda is considered by biologists to be its traps. They are very small, up to three millimeters, but they are enough to catch small aquatic vertebrates, and do it quickly. The trap consists of two halves covered with hairs. The response time is measured in tens of milliseconds, which is a kind of speed record. Such a rapid movement of a living organism has no analogues.

Our sundew

But not only in exotic countries live insectivorous plants. Species distributed in the Far Eastern regions, Siberia and the European part of the Russian Federation (and there are three of them) can survive in the cold due to the ability to form reliably thermally insulated buds. Having survived in the winter, they come to life in the spring and begin hunting for bugs and flies that are greedy for delicious aromas. An example is the plant-predator sundew, whose range occupies almost the entire temperate climate zone in both the northern and southern hemispheres. After wintering, not very long shoots are knocked out of the buds, living for one year. The leaves growing on them are about a centimeter in size, covered with thin hairs of a reddish hue that emit drops that resemble dew (hence the name). Is it worth explaining that it is this liquid that the sundew uses as bait? In the first warm months, various bugs that accidentally find themselves in the predator's zone of action become the subject of hunting. Further, the hunt is more targeted. In July, the flowering season begins, and pollinating insects become victims. Five-petalled flowers are quite beautiful, and look like bright clouds above the surface of the swamp.

Despite the lethal effect produced on insects, this plant serves a person and is very useful for the treatment of bronchitis, asthma, atherosclerosis, and even helps to alleviate suffering from epileptic attacks.

Predators in the house

The beneficial qualities that plants that feed on the juices of insects killed by them can boast of have found recognition among people. Houseplants-predators have long been welcome inhabitants of residential and office premises. Advantages, such as unpretentiousness, peculiar beauty and the ability to exterminate inappropriate living creatures, motivate the choice in their favor when deciding which flowerpot to put on the windowsill. The eternal scourge of all offices, offices, and sometimes houses or apartments is the concern about who will water the flowers. In the case of predatory representatives of the flora, it is not particularly necessary to worry, they can take care of themselves for quite a long time.

Catches flies and mosquitoes

To get rid of flies and mosquitoes, or at least reduce their number, people are helped along with sticky paper or insecticides by predator plants. The Venus flytrap is scientifically called Dionea (Dionaea muscipula). Her homeland is the savannah of North America. Its dimensions allow you to place vases and pots even in tight spaces. The flower is beautiful, white, with a pleasant aroma. The two valves look friendly and hospitable, only small teeth along their edge can suggest an ominous prospect for a fly that decides to sit at least on the edge of this shell. Dionea receives an inaudible signal from one of the three hairs placed in each trap - the valves close. The main phase of the movement of the petals is swift and takes only one tenth of a second, which gives reason to consider the flycatcher more like a flyswatter. However, if the insect is small, it can still escape by making its way through the still existing cracks. In this case, the retention process stops, as does the entire digestive cycle, and after about a day, the entire fly-catching system returns to its original combat position. But this doesn't happen often. Sometimes it happens that two or three insects fall into the trap at the same time.

plant care

So, the choice is made. The owner of the premises is a rather busy person, perhaps often goes on business trips, and capricious flowers do not suit him. Only cacti or predator plants meet all its requirements. A photo seen in a magazine, or an example of the successful coexistence of such flowers with familiar people, confirms the choice in favor of a flycatcher or a sundew. The treasured pot was bought and placed on the windowsill. What to do next?

Nothing at first. It is necessary to let the plant get used to the new place and release a couple of new leaves. If the house is perfectly clean, and there is no one to eat a flower, you will have to feed it from time to time, and insects should be given alive, because it is their natural stirring that activates the entire nutritional process. For the same reason, it is not necessary to feed a carnivorous plant with human food like pieces of sausage or cheese. Such a diet will cause extremely unpleasant consequences, from a nasty stench to the complete death of a flower.

Insects are different, among them not everyone is ready to accept the role of a helpless victim. Other beetles are quite capable of literally gnawing out their right to life by making a hole in the trap with their jaws. You should not experiment with especially thick-shelled insects, as well as with too large ones. Not everything that is bigger is tastier, and the size of the victims should allow them to fit freely in the trap, and it is better if they are half the size of it. It is not recommended to overfeed carnivorous plants, one should be aware of the harsh conditions in which they are accustomed to survive. A normal “portion” of a flycatcher is up to three flies (and not a day, but for the whole summer). Sarracenia's appetite is less modest, but even it does not exceed a dozen individuals.

In addition, traps have a limited “motor resource”, for example, “shell” veneers are designed for no more than four meals, after which they die. If you load them all at the same time, soon the plant will simply have nothing to eat.

A special warning to fishing enthusiasts who believe that their passion guarantees the constant availability of suitable food. Bloodworms, earthworms or hairy worms and other bait are good for fish, but plant digestion is not designed for all this abundance.

Any excessive nutrition is harmful to predatory flowers in the same way as to people, it leads to decay. In winter, they do not need to be fed at all. So, the complete diet.

Carnivorous plants have many times become the prototypes of fantastic monsters that live in distant worlds. People like everything mysterious, they find a special charm in the predatory beauty characteristic of these wild and domestic flowers. And in addition to such a useful quality as the ability to exterminate annoying insects, flycatchers or sundews have another important advantage. They are simply beautiful.