Down the ages, storytellers have imagined plants that act like animals, and animals that turn into plants. But when one plant was found to actually behave like an animal – and a flesh-eating one at that – no one believed it.
The Venus flytrap of North America acts like a spring-trap, snapping its claw-like leaves shut on any bug unfortunate enough to alight. Despite the name, its favourite food is spiders. It was at first considered a kindly plant that offered shelter from the rain. It took a while before the truth dawned.
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This is a plant that actively catches its prey. It has ‘claws’ and leaves that resemble flesh. It digests its victims within a customised ‘stomach’, so efficiently that only a wisp of skin remains. It can tell what is edible and what isn’t, and whether a bug is large enough to be worth a meal. It’s almost as though this plant can think.
We should be thankful the Venus flytrap isn’t large enough to bite us.
Top image: a Venus flytrap just before it eats a fly. Credit: chameleonseye/Getty Images
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