7 Carnivorous Wonders of the Plant World

Death traps that seduce insects, frogs and even mice with juicy-looking flesh and sweet nectar and then melt their bodies with acids, carnivorous plants are deceptively beautiful and totally fascinating to watch. Though some botanists once thought that carnivorous plants caught insects purely by accident, we now know that they evolved a taste for flesh often out of necessity, growing in places with nutrient-poor soil. These 7 types of carnivorous plants stand out for their unusual trapping mechanisms or bizarre eating habits, like one that happily consumes the droppings of small animals.

1) Mouse-Eating Pitcher Plants

(images via: wikimedia commons)

Jug-like plants half-full of rainwater, acids and enzymes, pitcher plants secrete nectar along their rim to lure in prey – typically insects and the occasional amphibian. But sometimes, they have an appetite for food of a larger and meatier variety. A newly-discovered species named Nepenthes attenboroughii, named after the British naturalist and television host David Attenborough, has been known to eat not just little mice but also larger rats. Their pitchers can be as large as a football and are often found to contain giant centipedes and spiders up to four inches long.

2) The Beautiful and Deadly Sundew

(images via: wikimedia commons)

Covered in dewdrops that sparkle in the sun, Drosera – commonly known as sundews – are beautiful ornamental plants. They’re also deadly, attracting insects with that ‘dew’ on the tips of their tentacles and then trapping them with the sticky mucilage, releasing enzymes to digest them. It can take up to fifteen minutes for the insect to die. The nutrient ‘soup’ that is left behind by the dissolved insect is then absorbed into the leaves of the plant. All species of sundew are able to move their tentacles , bending in toward the center of the leaf to bring the insect into contact with as many glands as possible.

3) Pitcher Plant Eats Shrew Poo

(image via: discover magazine, wikimedia commons)

The Giant Montane Pitcher plant, Nepenthes rajah, is the largest meat-eating plant in the world. It’s big enough to trap rats – though it doesn’t do it very often. But there’s another taste it prefers to that of meat: poop. Specifically, the waste of the tree shrew.
When there aren’t enough bugs around, Nepenthes rajah is perfectly happy serving as a toilet for the tree shrew. It uses nectar to lure the shrews close and then collects their waste in its giant pitcher. Scientists believe that the plant’s pitcher has evolved to this perfect tree shrew toilet size specifically for the development of this strange symbiotic relationship.

4) Butterworts: The Flypaper Plant

(images via: wikimedia commons, emmc)

Members of the genus Pinguicula have a special ability: trapping insects on the surface of their leaves just like flypaper, liquefying their prey and then absorbing it. Commonly known as ‘butterworts’, these plants form pretty stemless rosettes, sometimes growing a single blossom on a long stem. Many can cycle between being carnivorous and non-carnivorous depending on the season. These plants have specialized glands scattered across the surface of their succulent leaves that produce visible wet droplets, which draw in bugs like mosquitoes that are in search of water. For the unfortunate bug who chooses to land upon this little plant, struggling is not just futile, but counterproductive – it causes the insect’s body to come into contact with more sticky glands which trap it even further. Like the poo-eating pitcher plant, butterworts have learned to take what they can get: they also digest pollen that lands on their leaves.

5) Bladderworts: Deceptively Innocent

(images via: cascade carnivores, wikimedia commons)

They look like ordinary aquatic plants, and even have lovely little yellow flowers that sprout forth above the surface of the water. But Utricularia – also known as bladderworts or bladder traps – have extremely sophisticated traps that can even pull in slippery, wriggly prey like tadpoles. Along its long stems, generally submerged in pond water or lying in damp boggy soil, bladderworts have little pouch-like traps which, when set, are under negative pressure relative to their environment. When their ‘trapdoor’ is triggered by potential prey, the water surrounding the trap is sucked in, and when full of water, the traps ‘close’. This trapping mechanism makes it possible to catch larger prey, slowly sucking in a tadpole by its tail and ingesting it bit by bit. Mosquito larvae, nematodes and water fleas are also common prey. Bladderworts grow all over the world in virtually any wet environment, and even sometimes grow in the damp bark on trees in South American rainforests.

6) The Cobra Lily

(images via: wikimedia commons, marlin harms)

Typically found in streams or bogs fed by cold mountain water, the Cobra Lily (Darlingtonia californica) – also known as the California Pitcher Plant and the Cobra Plant – is a rare find, and difficult to cultivate. Its tubular leaves are arranged in such a way that from certain angles, the plant resembles a cobra about to strike, tongue and all. Unlike other pitcher plants, the Cobra Lily doesn’t collect rainwater in its pitcher. It actually regulates the amount of water by pulling water up out of the soil through its roots. Once an insect is lured inside, lubricating secretions and downward-pointing hairs prevent them from escaping, and translucent ‘exits’ that aren’t actually exits at all seem to taunt them in their final moments. Once the insect gets tired of trying to escape, it falls down into the water and drowns.

7) The Venus Flytrap

(images via: wikimedia commons, platycryptus)

The star of the show – the carnivorous plant with the most dramatic meat-eating reflexes – is, of course, the Venus Flytrap. Beetles, spiders, ants and grasshoppers make up the majority of the Venus Flytrap’s prey; interestingly, a number of small holes on the plant’s surface allow small flying insects to escape because the nutrients they contain are not worth the energy expended in trapping them. When open, the trap’s lobes are convex, luring insects with juicy-looking pink flesh. When trigger hairs on the surface are stimulated, the trap clamps shut, forming a concave cavity, and as the insect or spider struggles, the lobes press together even tighter, sealing hermetically and forming a ‘stomach’ to digest the food. Venus flytraps have occasionally been known to eat larger prey such as frogs.

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15 Rare, Exotic & Amazing Plant Species

Plants that eat rats, slimy alien-looking fungi, leaves that dance all by themselves and flowers that smell like the rotting corpse of a horse: all of these wonders of nature are among the most rare, exotic and unusual plant species in the world. Some are astonishingly beautiful despite the foul odors they emit, while others look like they emerged from the mind of a horror writer, but they’re all fascinating examples of the diversity of Earth’s flora.

1) Rat-Eating Pitcher Plant (Nepenthes attenboroughii)

Even the most benign of pitcher plants is strange and amazing, but the species discovered in August 2009 may just be the weirdest carnivorous plant yet. It’s believed to be the largest meat-eating plant in the world, and is capable of digesting rats. Scientists found it on Mount Victoria in the Philippines and named it after famed nature broadcaster Sir David Attenborough.

2) The String of Hearts (Ceropegia woodii)

This houseplant looks like an artist’s rendering of extraterrestrial flora come to life: a bizarre flower with fused petals and what looks like a hairy lollipop coming out of it. The flower forms a tube lined with small hairs that point downward, so that insects attracted to the plant’s foul smell get trapped inside. The flower doesn’t consume the flies, though – it holds onto them until its hairs wither, and when the insects escape, they’re covered in the flower’s pollen.

3) Stinkhorn Mushroom (Mutinus Caninus)

Could these be the ugliest fungi ever? Stinkhorn mushrooms pop up out of the ground in all their creepy, stinking glory, distributing their spores through the malodorous, muddy-looking slime found at their tips. This particular variety, mutinus caninus, is so named because it resembles a certain unmentionable body part of dogs.

4) Dancing Plant (Desmodium Gyrans)

Have you ever watched a plant move all by itself? The “dancing plant”, also known as the telegraph plant, actually moves its leaves in jerky motions when exposed to direct sunlight, warmth or vibration – hence their reaction to music. Its leaflets, each of which is equipped with a hinge at the base that allows it to move, rotate along an elliptical path. This plant is famous for being a favorite of Charles Darwin, and is featured in depth in his book The Power of Movement in Plants.

5) Pelican Flower (Aristolochia grandiflora)

These flowers are almost beautiful in their strangeness, with big inflated chambers instead of petals and intricate, colorful patterns of veins. But don’t get too close, or you won’t be able to get the dead mouse smell out of your nose for hours. No, this plant isn’t a carnivorous rat-eater like the Nepenthes attenboroughii – it just uses a decaying rodent smell to attract pollinators.

6) Sensitive Plant (Mimosa pudica)

You might say this pretty little plant with its starry pink blossoms and fern-like leaves is shy. Reach out and touch it, or even just blow on it, and its leaves will close up as if startled or protecting themselves. When it’s disturbed, the stems release chemicals that force water out of the cells, which makes the leaves appear collapsed. It’s not known exactly why the plant has evolved to possess this trait, but scientists think it may be to scare off predators.

7) Hydnora africana

This plant isn’t just unattractive, rising out of the ground like the head of a blind sea snake and opening its jaws to the world. It smells like feces, too. A parasitic plant that attaches itself to the roots of other species, Hydnora africana emits its pungent odor to attract carrion beetles and dung beetles, its natural pollinators.

8) Cycad (Encephalartos woodii)

It’s one of the rarest plants in the world: a tall palm with dark, glossy leaves, once found only on a single south-facing slope on the edge of the Ngoye forest in Southern Africa. It’s extinct in the wild and produces no seeds – the only plants ever found were males. People have begun crossing it with its closest relative to produce ‘pups’ that, after 3 generations, are almost pure E. woodii again.

9) Dead Horse Arum Lily (Helicodiceros muscivorus)

When a plant’s name has the words ‘dead horse’ in it, you know it’s bad news. H. muscivorus is a giant flower bearing the distinct scent of rotting meat, meant to draw in female blowflies which it captures inside its swollen cavity and holds there through its first night after flowering. It releases the flies, now covered in pollen, the following day to move on to neighboring H. muscivorus plants.

10) Flypaper Plant (Pinguicula gigantea)

Call them opportunists, but butterworts – also known as flypaper plants – will grab hold of anything that lands on their leaves and immediately start digesting it. The upper surface of the plant is covered in sticky digestive enzymes to trap victims like mosquitoes and gnats, but it can also absorb nutrients from pollen.

11) Welwitschia mirabilis

If this desert plant looks like it came straight out of the age of dinosaurs, that’s because it did. Two succulent leaves continuously grow from the short, thick trunk, splitting over time into strap-shaped sections. The leaves can reach twelve feet in length. These odd plants are considered living fossils and can live up to 2,000 years.

12) Corpse Flower (Amorphophallus titanum)

It’s the biggest flower in the world, and also the smelliest. The corpse flower, indigenous to the tropical forests of Sumatra, emits a pungent odor reminiscent of rotting flesh. Its central, phallus-shaped spadix warms to human body temperature during bloom to attract pollinators. The leaf structure of the flower can reach up to 20 feet tall and 16 feet wide.

13) Waterwheel Plant (Aldrovanda Vesiculosa)

Closely related to the Venus flytrap, the aquatic, free-floating waterwheel plant has similar snap-traps on the end of each ‘spoke’ emerging from the main stem. Each trap is covered in ‘trigger hairs’ that cause the trap to close when stimulated.

14) Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis)

Wollemi pines have been around for at least 200 million years, but weren’t known to science until 2004, when a field officer at Wollemi National Park in Australia noticed what he thought was an ‘unusual specimen’. Fewer than 100 trees are known to be growing in the wild, but a propo

15) Snowdonia Hawkweed

It may not be smelly, oversized or weird looking, but Snowdonia Hawkweed may just be the rarest plant in the world. Botanists thought it had gone extinct decades ago, but in 2002 it was rediscovered growing on a mountain slope in Wales. “We were literally capering about for joy on the mountain ledges like lunatics when we found it,” said Tim Rich, head of vascular plants at the National Museums and Galleries of Wales.

All credits goes to webecoist.com for paragraphs in this post.

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5 UNUSUAL HOUSEPLANTS

Below are some remarkable plants that originate from the far reaches of the globe and can reside with us in our homes. Transplanted from foreign lands, unusual houseplants call upon our sense of wonder. But their greater appeal lies in our ability to cultivate them. This is just a handful of the odd, interesting, most peculiar plants I've come across that can be grown indoors. 

1) CORAL BEAD PLANT

Botanical Name: Nertera granadensis

Other common names for this New Zealand native plant are: Bead Plant, Pincushion Plant and Coral Moss. Coral Bead Plant is an unusual-looking ornamental plant that grows in a thick mat of tiny, dark-green leaves on intertwining stems. In early summer, small, white flowers appear followed by orange-red berries. The attractive berries can completely cover the foliage and will usually last for months.

  

Because of its need for cool temperatures and humidity, Coral Bead Plant can be somewhat difficult to please indoors in cold climate. Moving the container outdoors in spring will give it the cool air and bright light it needs to flower and produce berries. Just put the plant in a sheltered spot out of cold winds or out of direct sun in tropical region. If the plant is kept very warm, it will be a foliage plant without any berries. 

The plant will still be attractive. In fact, the foliage looks a lot like Baby's Tears (Soleirolia soleirolii). The shallow roots of this plant make it best-suited for a shallow pot. Repot in spring only when needed. I don't have experience with this one. From what I've read, Coral Bead Plant can be fussy about temperature and water, often making it a temporary house plant. 

2) LIVING STONES

Botanical Name: Lithops swantesii
Commonly called Living Stones, Stoneface, Pebble Plants, Flowering Stones, Mimicry Plant. Lithops (from the Greek “lithos” meaning stone and “ops” meaning face) are true mimicry plants: their shape, size and color causes them to resemble small stones in their natural surroundings. The plants blend in among the stones as a means of protection. Grazing animals which would otherwise eat them during periods of drought to obtain moisture usually overlook them. Even experts in the field sometimes have difficulty locating plants for study because of this unusual deceptive camouflage.

An amazing likeness to small stones makes this succulent really blend in to its native South African landscape. Bright yellow daisy-like flowers appear once a year in mature plants.

 Daisy-like flowers of Living Stone

In the wild, Lithops inhabit vast area of dry regions of Southern Africa. Several areas in which these plants grow receive less than 2 inches of rainfall per month throughout the entire year. In an extreme situation of low rainfall, at least one species of Lithops depends on mist or fog to provide its main source of moisture. In fact, almost the entire plant is devoted to this function. Lithops could not survive in many areas where the medium is considerably wet. Its curious habits make Living Stones a fascinating house plant.

 

3) AIR PLANT

 Botanical Name: Tillandsia ionantha
Tillandsia are part of the Bromeliad family, the Genus name is Tillandsia which is also the common name, these are further broken down into species name, most people just call them Air plants. There are over 550 species of Tillandsia (plus many hybrids), that grow in the Mexico, South and Central Americas. They grow naturally only in the New World(Western Hemisphere country), with the exception of only one. Among the species, only 16 are native to Florida.

Tillandsias take all their water and nutrients through the leaf system, none or very minimal amounts are absorbed by the root system. Its unusual nature allows a lot of creative possibilities as to where to grow it. This also means that, it does not harm the plant on which it grows. This root system is used as wire like anchors to hold onto trees, rocks etc. Since the root system is not important to the plant this can be removed without harm, to make make your plant easier to mount. The roots may or may not grow back, either way is doesn't matter to the welfare of your plant.

Eye-catching Tillandsia usneoides (Spanish moss, sometimes called graybeard).

 Unique home decor of Tillandsia

Air Plants are the rootless wonders of the plant world.

General Info

• Tillandsias DO have to be watered, they live 'in' air, not 'on' air. 
• Tillandsias are NOT toxic to animals, although this does not mean your pet won't eat them, but they will survive the experience, your plant might not. 
• Tillandsias are NOT parasitic, they do not harm the host tree. 
• Trim away brown, bent or damaged leaves, this will not hurt the plant. 

Main reasons Tillandsias die/depleted

• They were not initially cared for properly (their owner was told they need little or no water).
• They did not get enough light (they were more than 10 feet from a bright window or skylight).
• They were placed in DIRECT SUN. Garden windows are generally too warm unless they are shaded or facing north.
• They were not watered thoroughly and frequently. Bulby and fleshy Tillandsias can rot! Drain them thoroughly and water less frequently.
• Tillandsias growing outdoors need more watering than indoor Tillandsias, as the sun and wind dry them out more quickly.

4) PADDLE PLANT

 
Botanical Name: Kalanchoe thyrsiflora
Paddle Plant is an unusual-looking succulent that grows in a rosette of flat, round leaves. The gray-green leaves grow to about 6 in (15 cm) long and will become tinged in red when exposed to sun. Mature plants may produce a spike of fragrant, yellow flowers in spring. These South African succulents belong to the Crassulaceae family, an extremely varied group.

 Large, flat leaves gives this odd-looking succulent plant its common name.

A South African native, Paddle Plant thrives in bright light, and its greenish-gray leaves will become red-tinged when exposed to full sun. 

Shed some light. Like most succulents, this plant grows best in bright light. It will even enjoy some direct sun. Move it outside for the summer, if you want. Just make the move a gradual one to avoid scorching its leaves. Be sure to bring it back indoors if the temperature drops below 50°F/10°C.
Keep it on the dry side. Paddle Plant is easy to grow in average room conditions, tolerating the dry air of heated homes well. The one thing it doesn't like is soggy soil, so I'd recommend potting it in a terra cotta pot with drainage holes and using a sandy medium, such as cactus potting mix for fast drainage.
Repot in spring when it becomes crowded -- but don't over-pot. Use a container that's only slightly larger.

5) COFFEE PLANT

 Latte, Mocha and Espresso coffee plant series

Botanical Name: Coffea arabica
Coffee plant is the source of the world's most popular breakfast beverage. Not many know, however, that it makes a beautiful and easy-to-grow house plant.

This member of the Rubiaceae family is one of 90 in the Coffea genus. It is an evergreen shrub that has glossy, dark-green leaves with ruffled edges on willowy stems. 

This coffee bean plant can reach height of 15 ft or more in its native tropical habitat, but you can cut it back to control its size. Pruning harshly won't hurt it at all. Repot in spring, moving to a pot 1 size larger. Use a pot with a drainage hole to avoid overwatering.

 Coffee Arabica flowers

  

After 3 or 4 years, Coffea arabica produces star-shaped, sweetly scented white flowers. These flowers are followed by green fruits which change to red then to almost black as they ripen, a process that takes several months. Inside each ripened fruit are 2 seeds (or beans) that when properly roasted can be ground and made into coffee.

Growing coffee plants indoors is easy. They are vigorous growers and are long-lived. They make attractive house plants, just don't expect them to offer that morning cup of joe. It could take a few years before you see many fruits on it.

Can you grow Coffee Plant in your home? You bet. But if you're expecting it to make your morning cup of joe you may be disappointed. It rarely flowers and produces fruit indoors. It makes a nice house plant, though.

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Plant Fun Facts!

Here are some interesting and funny facts that I found about different plants. If you want a little light reading, continue on... :)

• An African bugleweed synthesises in its tissues a substance similar to the hormone that controls the development of caterpillars. If a caterpillar is persuaded, experimentally, to ingest that substance, then when it turns into a butterfly it will develop two heads and die. -David Attenborough, The Private Life of Plants, p70 

 Blue Bugleweed

• 84% of a raw apple and 96% of a raw cucumber is water.  
• A notch in a tree will remain the same distance from the ground as the tree grows.  
• A pineapple is a berry.  
• Arrowroot, an antidote for poisoned arrows, is used as a thickener in cooking (so if you ever get shot with a poison arrow, do not go to a doctor, look in your kitchen cabinet. 

Arrowroot
• Avocados have the highest calories of any fruit at 167 calories per hundred grams.  
• Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew cannabis sativa (marijuana) on their plantations.  
• In the Netherlands, in 1634, a collector paid 1,000 pounds of cheese, four oxen, eight pigs, 12 sheep, a bed, and a suit of clothes for a single bulb of the Viceroy tulip.  

 

• No species of wild plant produces a flower or blossom that is absolutely black, and so far, none has been developed artificially.  
• Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.  

Nutmeg 

• Peanuts are beans.  
• Quinine, one of the most important drugs known to man, is obtained from the dried bark of an evergreen tree native to South America. 
• The California redwood - coast redwood and giant sequoia - are the tallest and largest living organism in the world.  

Redwoods State Park
• The largest single flower is the Rafflesia or "corpse flower". They are generally 3 feet in diameter with the record being 42 inches. 
• The oldest living thing in existence is not a giant redwood, but a bristlecone pine in the White Mountains of California, dated to be aged 4,600 years old.  

 Bristlecone Pine Tree

• The rose family of plants, in addition to flowers, gives us apples, pears, plums, cherries, almonds, peaches and apricots.  
• Asparagus is a member of the lily family, which also includes onions, leeks, and garlic. 
• The bright orange color of carrots tell you they are an excellent source of Vitamin A which is important for good eyesight, especially at night. Vitamin A helps your body fight infection, and keeps your skin and hair healthy.  
• Onions contain a mild antibiotic that fights infections, soothes burns, tames bee stings and relieves the itch of athletes foot. 
• One bushel of corn will sweeten more than 400 cans of pop.

One Bushel of Corn

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