David Attenborough VS A Deadly Plant! | Nature Bites

this bud will soon become a leaf [Applause] it's no ordinary leaf [Music] it has a special altogether more sinister purpose this is nepenthes the pitcher plant it grows in nutrient poor soils so has to find nitrogen and minerals in another way [Music] the leaf just like a flower attracts insects with a reward the pitcher is coloured and scented to appeal to flies looking for a meal of rotting flesh the visitors are rewarded with a greasy substance on the underside of the pitcher's lid [Music] but the plant wants something in return not pollen but a meal the lip of the pitcher is covered in tiny slippery ridges [Music] wax lubricates the surface further it's extremely difficult to hold on even for a fly inside there's no escape the leaf holds a pool of digestive liquid this contains microscopic elastic filaments which give it the properties of quicksand the more the insect struggles the deeper it sinks enzymes begin to dissolve the victim's body while it's still alive some pitchers aren't content with just insects this one eats mice the mice come along perhaps attracted by the sweet nectar on the lip they fall in they can't get a purchase to get out they drown and eventually the enzymes in the pitcher's fluid dissolves the body so that eventually there's nothing left but a bit of fur and bones [Music] this picture is called nepenthe's low eye [Music] it lives on the forested slopes of borneo's mountains and it's perhaps the most extraordinary picture of them all the evidence is that it too attracts small mammals it secretes a sort of nectar from the underside of the lid there and that attracts little tree shoes this engaging little animal is tupaya montana the mountain tree shrew it feeds on fruit and any insects it can find it also visits pitcher plants until recently what happens next was a mystery this footage seems to show that the animal has found a way of evading the slippery death trap what is more it's feeding on the underside of the pitcher's lid this picture doesn't get its nutrient from the bodies of dead animals it's got another way of sustaining itself the tree shoes come to lick it and when they do their rear end is directly over the pitcher so that their droppings fall into it and it's that that provides this plant with its nourishment [Music] it's even been suggested that that nectar contains a laxative to persuade the tree shoe to do just that [Music] you

Channel: Nature Bites

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Keywords: pitcher plant, venus fly trap, carniverous plant, plants eating animals, venus fly trap footage, plants that eat animals, plants that trap prey, david attenborough, david attenborough documentary, david attenborough voice, david attenborough narration, kew gardens, kingdom of plants, david attenborough plants documentary, plants documentary skyvision, national geographic, nature documentary, plant footage, plants, green planet, david attenborough the green planet, iplayer

Id: 4GL-X4LqfVc

Length: 5min 33sec (333 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 19 2021