Exploring the Venus Fly Trap with Attenborough | BBC Earth

animals don't eat it it eats animals and this one right here watch this is Venus's flytrap it shapes its traps from the ends of its leaves one or two hairs on their surface act as triggers here comes a meal touch the hair and the trap is sprung there's now no escape the beetle struggles stimulate the plant to close the trap even more tightly it now produces digestive acids from glands on the inner surface of the leaf which first kill and then dissolve its victim's body growing in the same Carolina swamp there's another carnivorous plant these are the trumpet pitchers they like the Venus flytrap find so little nutriment in this impoverished waterlogged soil that they supplemented with the bodies of animals their traps are also formed from leaves but leaves that have been folded lengthways to make a vertical tube which fills with water these spectacular trumpets may look like flowers but of course they're not though in a sense this bright yellow topped them serves the same purpose as a petal it's an advertisement of a delicious reward and the reward itself is under here sweet nectar but if an insect comes to collect it and strays into the mouth of a trumpet then it's doomed inside of the throat of the trumpet is covered with microscopic downward-pointing spines as long as it stays on the rim the amp'd is alright but if it strays off it it falls into a pond of water and drowns the tiny corpse dissolves and the marsh pitcher absorbs the resulting soup and we're one amped goes others are likely to follow the marsh pitcher attracts other animals too this frog may be hoping to eat some of the insects before the pitcher does but if it loses its footing the plant will eat it

Channel: BBC Earth

Views: 1,670,147

Rating: 4.9060054 out of 5

Keywords: Worldwide, BBC, David, Attenborough, Private, Life, of, Plants, Venus, Fly, Trap, Meat, Eating

Id: tUDiDAbY3F8

Length: 3min 32sec (212 seconds)

Published: Wed May 20 2009