Cape Sundews Trap Bugs In A Sticky Situation | Deep Look

[Music] you've probably heard of the infamous venus fly trap or the elegant pitcher plant sundews are their sticky shimmering relative there are hundreds of species some of them as small as a pea others with towering branches the length of your arm they're often found in bogs with nutrient poor soil where only some plants can thrive but they need more nitrogen and phosphorus than they can find in this meager soil [Music] so our carnivorous friends evolved a resourceful way to bring a little life into their diet each leaf is studded with red hair-like tentacles that secrete dew drops from their round glands those glistening droplets are made of water and complex sugars they lure in insects like this unfortunate weevil with their sweet aroma and taste but before long the weevil gets hopelessly trapped in this super sticky substance [Music] cecil glands at the base of the tentacles release digestive enzymes into the prey some sundews like this forked variety dissolve their meals on the spot but the cape sundew goes even further over several hours it tightly grips its meal with its leaves by completely enveloping its prey the sundew can extract even more nutrients cape sundews bend the very idea of how we think plants should behave they not only move their tentacles but they sense prey with them too incredibly they seem to be able to tell what's alive like this fly and what's not like this leaf just a tiny stimulus can set the sundu in motion moving in response to touch like this is called phygmotropism while plants don't have brains or neurons like we do they do use electrical signals just like our nervous systems scientists call these signals action potentials they guide the tentacles graceful and deadly grasp it's possible that sundews can also detect whether they've trapped something that's nutritious or not [Music] that one got lucky for the unlucky ones all that's left is an empty exoskeleton when a sundew's had its fill it will slowly unfurl again patiently waiting for its next meal ugh what is that smell it's the giant corpse flower which looks like raw meat and smells like a dead rat flies and beetles love it and what's up with tumbleweeds they start out green and full of life with teeny pink flowers but soon turn into prickly rolling brown skeletons by the thousands enjoy and see you soon

Channel: Deep Look

Views: 1,621,749

Rating: 4.9291263 out of 5

Keywords: sundew, sundew plant, carnivorous plants, deep look, PBS, sundews, drosera, carnivorous plant, carnivorous, cape sundew, drosera capensis, science, 4K, education, nature, wild, documentary, macro, botany, horticulture, bog, tentacles, wildlife, plant, dew, dew drops, thigmotropism, evolution, predator, insect, meat eater, sticky, nitrogen, phosphorous, insects, tentacle, pitcher plant, venus fly trap, prey, eat, eating, sarracenia, meat eating plants, learning, sundews eating, droseras, how do sundews, time lapse

Id: D4kBrsyWhS4

Length: 3min 57sec (237 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 28 2020