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The Bizarre Venus Flytrap!

Team StoryWeavers|November 25, 2020, 06:41 IST| 14

Can plants count? This one does!

Walls closing on you

Imagine walls closing in on you suddenly out of nowhere! The more you move, the faster the walls close. Sounds scary, doesn’t it? While this may happen to us only in our nightmares, some beings are not that lucky!

Meet the Venus Flytrap or VFT, a plant that makes this horrifying experience a possibility for insects.

Venus Flytrap

This plant is unique in more ways than one. First of all, it’s a carnivorous plant i.e. it derives most of its nutrients by trapping insects or microorganisms and dissolving them. Their trap is a pair of leaves that consist of cilia (finger-like projections) and hair. These leaves act as jaws and stomach of the plant. The cilia helps the plant retain the insects trapped in and bacteria out of the process. If you want to imagine how that works, place an eraser in one of your palms and shut both your palms tightly, and lock it up with your fingers. That’s exactly what happens. The cilia prevents trapped prey from falling out. In a way, cilia are the plant’s fingers. Ideally found in soil that is low in nutrients like sand, VFT is also unique in its appearance. 

Venus Flytrap counting

The most bizarre fact of all is that this plant can count! Yes, you read that right. Well, not aloud! Dr Hedrich, Jennifer Böhm, and Sönke Scherzer, biophysicists at the University of Tasmania, found that using the trigger hair on the surface of its leaves, VFTs can count the number of movements of a landing prey. This is to correctly identify the prey on its surface. 

 

Since there are a lot of random things that could land on the surface of its leaves like water droplets or windblown debris, the plant does not want to waste its energy on things that are not edible. Hence, it counts when the hair on its surface is touched by a moving insect.  

After that, the leaves trap the prey and release digestive enzymes. These enzymes turn the bug into a nourishing soup for the plant. The digestive process takes anywhere from five to twelve days depending on the size of the prey trapped. After this, the leaves reabsorb the enzymes and open themselves for new prey.

As weird, yet interesting this plant is, it is not the only carnivorous plant. There are others like the Pitcher plant, Pinguicula, Bladderworts, etc

Fun Facts about Venus Flytrap

If you enjoyed reading this article, here some more suggestions for you: 

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Weird But True: 10 facts about plants that will blow your mind

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About the Author


Charu, a feminist and an accidental writer, is yet to master the art of writing about herself. Always curious to learn new stuff, she ends up spending a lot of time unlearning the incorrect lessons. She enjoys all sorts of stories – real, fictional, new, old, hers and would love hearing yours too. Feel free to ping her at storyweavers@byjus.com to share anything that you think is worth sharing.

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Comments



ROHIASWA DEY

November 3, 2020

i love byju’s


ROHIASWA DEY

November 3, 2020

It is very god to learn byju’s and it concept because it i such an interesing app and it has unlimited learning concepts


Manimudrika Bej

July 29, 2020

To your finger-not much.you will eventually fall asleep and your finger will slip from deadly grip of the Venus flytrap, a plant evolved to catch small ensects, and fully incapable of digesting your finger. :-

I mean, I did try this – the plant does not have enough force to even grasp the finger. If you’re going to try this out with your plant, be gentle it won’t hurt you, and keep in mind that repeatedly irritating the plant will actually harm it.
It’s a darn plant, for flytrap’s sake!


Aditya Ranjan

June 21, 2020

Very knowledgeable


ปั้มไลค์

May 23, 2020

Like!! Thank you for publishing this awesome article.


Aayusha

May 19, 2020

What will happen if we put a finger in it??


Hitiksha

May 18, 2020

That’s gr8


Nandini

May 18, 2020

They really sound creepy!!??


NEEHAL

May 16, 2020

Astonishing


Atulya singh

May 14, 2020

Fascinating


Prakhar Sharma

May 14, 2020

Illuminating.


Anshuman

May 14, 2020

Good


Samadrita sen

May 14, 2020

Nice information..??


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