Automatically, the leaf closes in around the fly and secretes digestive acids. In a desperate fight for its life the fly struggles and the only thing this does is speed up digestion. What I have just described to you is how a Sundew catches its food. You may be asking what is a Sundew? Well, it’s a carnivorous plant and that’s what I’m here to talk about today.

A carnivorous plant needs to eat insects because they grow in very poor quality soil. To get the nutrients they need, they absorb the nutrients they get from captured insects. To get the insects, plants have different methods. There are passive plants, meaning they don’t move or take any action at all, and active plants which use some form of movement. The main active plants are Fly Traps, Sundews, and Fungus Lassos. The main types of passive plants are Pitchers, Cobras and Butterworts.

A Fly Trap is the most commonly known carnivorous plant in the world. It has been used in countless horror movies, portrayed as an evil man-eating plant. But a Fly Trap usually has a mouth of only a few centimeters long. A Fly Trap catches its prey by waiting for an insect to land on its mouth, triggering microscopic hairs to close its mouth and release digestive acids, killing and absorbing the insect.

Sundews are one of the oddities of the plant world. Their hair brush like arms have a sticky substance on them that smells good to them and also holds the prey in place. When an insect smells the sticky goop, it lands on the vertical “hairs” where they get stuck in place and the rest of the hairs curl in around the insect, creating an airtight ball around the insect. It then releases its digestive acids. But, unlike other carnivorous plants, it does not release an empty insect shell. Because its sticky substance holds the shell in place it has to digest the shell too. Most carnivorous plants just release an empty shell for the wind to take.

The Fungus Lasso is the most common carnivorous plant, but also the hardest to find. It is a microscopic type of algae found in most parts of the world. It gets its food by attracting microscopic pond eels through its lasso-like loops. When the eel touches the loop, the loop tightens around the eel suffocating it. It then injects enzymes (special digestive acids) and takes the remaining nutrients. It then opens up waiting for more eels.

Pitchers have the most variety out of all carnivorous plants. There are over 900 types of Pitcher plants. They range from ground-layers to gigantic trees. A Pitcher gets its food in its bag-like leaves. Its leaves are filled with a sweet smelling acid and lined with slippery hairs. An insect that smells the sweet scent lands on the edge of the leaf. The slippery hairs cause it to slip and fall in the acid where it will be digested.

The Cobra plant gets its name from the strange hood over its leaf, making it look like a Cobra snake. There is only one type of Cobra plant which lives in California and gets its food much the same way a Pitcher plant does, but it has no acid. When the bug gets on the slippery edge and falls, the plant simply lets the insect die of hunger. Then the corpse dissolves into the bottom of the plant and the plant get its nutrients. Also, it attracts its prey not by scent, but by its glowing red attractive leaves.

A Butterwort is the most useful carnivorous plant. It was used for centuries by English farmers to make cheese. Simply place its leaf in milk and the milk will curdle into cheese. The Butterwort gets its food by collecting small insects like gnats and fruit flies on its sticky leaves. It attracts insects with an attractive flower above its leaves. When the bug sticks, it suffocates and slowly decomposes, leaving nothing but nutrients for the plant to absorb.

Some things in this world are just plain weird. These plants are obviously abnormal, but we couldn’t live without them. I hope you have enjoyed my speech.