The carnivorous Nepenthes pitcher plants that I grow in my conservatory are producing new leaves and pitchers, and one has caught its first fly. Deep inside the pitcher you can see the drowned insect. The dark spots on the inner wall of the pitcher are the plant’s digestive glands which secrete the enzymes that slowly dissolve their prey. The photomicrographs show the glands in the wall at x40 and x100 magnification. They not only secrete enzymes, but also absorb the products of digestion which provide the plants with essential nitrogen, for producing its own proteins. This – in effect – is the plant’s stomach.
I have a different type of pitcher plant (Sarracenia formosa) which I assume will be similar 'inside'. I must try to investigate.
ReplyDeleteThe glands are similar in Sarracenia, concentrated just below the level of the liquid in the tube. I have a couple of Sarracenia flava plants with pitchers that reach about 45cm. tall, that catch wasps in the conservatory - although the wasps sometimes manage to bite through the wall of the pitcher and escape. Do your pitchers amplify the buzzing of trapped insects, like the old gramophone trumpets? I can be quite gruesome. I also have some Pinguicula plants with sticky leaves like flypaper, which are excellent for catching those little black mushroom flies that hatch out of potting compost, and a very old, large Drosera binata plant which has a mass of sparkling sticky tentacles that are very efficient at catching larger flies.
ReplyDeletesoooo pretty like frosted and fractured stained glass
ReplyDeleteThanks Alex, the microscopic world is truely beautiful and mysterious.
ReplyDelete