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Exploring the Fascinating World of Carnivorous Plants

This quiz explores the fascinating characteristics, adaptations, and ecological relationships of carnivorous plants, honoring their unique place in the plant kingdom.

#carnivorous plants #quiz #botany #ecology #plant adaptations

1 ________ (tropical pitcher-plant family)

2 Heliamphora is limited to South America, but the family contains two other genera, Sarracenia and Darlingtonia, which are endemic to the Southeastern United States (with the exception of one species) and ________ respectively.

3 Instead, they form a mutualistic ________ with species of assassin bug (genus Pameridea), which eat the trapped insects.

4 Ironically, carnivorous plants are themselves susceptible to infestation by parasites such as ________ or mealybugs.

5 What does the following picture show?  Depiction of a native being consumed by a Ya-te-veo ("I see you") carnivorous tree of Central America, from Land and Sea by J.W. Buel, 1887   Cephalotus follicularis   Audrey Junior, the man-eating plant from the cult film The Little Shop of Horrors   The primitive pitchers of Heliamphora chimantensis are an example of pitfall traps.

6 As a waste product, respiration produces ________.

7 What does the following picture show?  Stylidium turbinatum   The traps of Catopsis berteroniana are unlikely to have descended from a hairy leaf or sepal.   Drosophyllum lusitanicum is one of the few carnivorous plants to grow in dry, alkaline soil.

8 What does the following picture show?  Brocchinia reducta: a carnivorous bromeliad   Roridula gorgonias: a borderline carnivore that gains nutrients from its "prey" via the droppings of a predatory bug   The traps of Catopsis berteroniana are unlikely to have descended from a hairy leaf or sepal.   Audrey Junior, the man-eating plant from the cult film The Little Shop of Horrors

9 The simplest ones are probably those of ________, the sun pitcher plant.

10 What does the following picture show?  Modelling carnivory in plants: gross photosynthesis, respiration and net photosynthesis as a function of the plant's investment in carnivorous adaptations. An optimum carnivory of zero occurs in poorly lit habitats with abundant soil nutrients.   The primitive pitchers of Heliamphora chimantensis are an example of pitfall traps.   Artist's restoration of Archaeamphora longicervia, the earliest known carnivorous plant   Brocchinia reducta: a carnivorous bromeliad

💡 Interesting Facts

  • the Western Australian carnivorous plant Drosera derbyensis was first found by Allen Lowrie near the Boab Prison Tree just outside of Derby.
  • the tuber of Drosera gigantea, one of the largest carnivorous sundew species, can be a metre below the ground.
  • the Western Australian carnivorous plant Drosera erythrorhiza was split into four related subspecies in 1992.
  • the Western Australian carnivorous plant Drosera zonaria was first witnessed flowering in 1954, 106 years after it was described as a new species.
  • the discovery of Archaeamphora longicervia, the first known carnivorous plant, suggests that flowering plants should have originated much earlier than previously thought.
  • the English Sundew, a carnivorous plant with wide distribution in the northern hemisphere, originated from a hybrid involving a plant with localized distribution in the Great Lakes area.
  • the carnivorous plant Drosera regia (pictured, with prey) is one of the most imperiled Drosera species, with a single small population estimated to consist of only 50 mature plants.
  • the carnivorous plant Drosera meristocaulis is endemic to Pico da Neblina in South America, 17,000 km (11,000 mi) to the west of its most closely related species.
  • Genlisea margaretae, a carnivorous plant native to Southeast Africa, has the smallest recorded flowering plant genome.
  • Drosera falconeri (pictured) is one of the few carnivorous plants that grow in alkaline soils.
  • Pinguicula elizabethiae and P. orchidioides (pictured), two rosette-forming herbs found in Mexico, eat insects.
  • Utricularia inflata is one of the few invasive species of carnivorous plant.
  • the Brazillian endemic genus Philcoxia, which may represent another genus of carnivorous plants, was formally described in scientific literature 34 years after the first specimen had been discovered.
  • a subspecies of the carnivorous plant Drosera stolonifera has only been collected from the summits of two mountains, Bluff Knoll and Toolbrunup in Western Australia.
  • Colura zoophaga, a species of liverwort native to Kenya, traps ciliates in microscopic structures formed by fusion of the leaf edges, but scientists do not know whether it is a carnivorous plant.
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