Darwin's 150-Year-Old Hypothesis Confirmed: Saxifraga Officially Recognized as a Carnivorous Plant
Most plants obtain nutrients through photosynthesis. However, some plants actively capture insects and digest them to absorb nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. These are known as carnivorous plants. Carnivory has independently evolved at least 14 times among flowering plants, giving rise to a remarkable diversity of trapping mechanisms, including pitfall traps, snap traps, sticky traps, suction traps, and lobster-pot traps.
Although these trapping mechanisms differ, true carnivorous plants share the same basic sequence of events: they first attract prey, then capture it, secrete digestive enzymes to break it down, and finally absorb the nutrients released from the prey.
Between ordinary plants and true carnivorous plants lies another group of species. These plants can trap insects with sticky surfaces, but there is no evidence that they digest or absorb nutrients from their prey. They are therefore referred to as protocarnivorous plants. Distinguishing true carnivorous plants from species that merely trap insects accidentally remains a subject of considerable debate.
As early as 1875, Charles Darwin, author of Insectivorous Plants and one of the founders of evolutionary theory, noticed that two species of Saxifraga—Saxifraga rotundifolia and Saxifraga umbrosa—were covered with sticky glandular hairs that frequently trapped insects.
Want to read more?
Subscribe to thesoundofevolution.com to keep reading this exclusive post.
