First new carnivorous plant identified by botanists in 20 years

August 10, 2021 1:43 PM

“What’s particularly unique about this carnivorous plant is that it traps insects near its insect-pollinated flowers,” said lead author Dr. Qianshi Lin, a PhD student at UBC botany. “On the surface, this seems like a conflict between carnivory and pollination because you don’t want to kill the insects that are helping you reproduce.”
posted by sardonyx (23 comments total)

seems like a conflict between carnivory and pollination because you don’t want to kill the insects that are helping you reproduce.

Never seemed to bother Ms. Mantis
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 2:28 PM on August 10, 2021 [3 favorites]

Rather than being a “balance”, I prefer to view it as an exceptional case of highly calibrated predation.

“Okay, so I don’t need to separate these functional areas of the plant — I can just fine-tune the adhesive goo. if you’re a big insect attracted to my flowers, then I’ll let you go free to use you for pollination. And if you’re a little insect, of no use to me in pollination, then I’ll use you as a meal.”
posted by darkstar at 2:34 PM on August 10, 2021 [2 favorites]

Sure, but evolution is a mindless process. I always get a bit itchy when people talk about evolution like it has a thought process behind it.
posted by Pendragon at 2:42 PM on August 10, 2021 [10 favorites]

This feels like an extremely elaborate setup for a misogynistic ex-wife joke from the 1970s.
posted by vorpal bunny at 2:43 PM on August 10, 2021

Sure, but evolution is a mindless process.

Agreed.
posted by darkstar at 2:43 PM on August 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

“We believe that Triantha is able to balance carnivory with pollination because its glandular hairs are not very sticky and can only trap midges and other small insects, so that the much larger and stronger bees and butterflies that act as its pollinators are not captured,”

The plant is just being very clear about its dealbreakers for its pollinator pool interest. Good on it for enforcing boundaries.

Carnivorous plants are nifty. My inner bloodthirsty child is delighted by the discovery of 'new' ones.
posted by Drastic at 2:50 PM on August 10, 2021 [5 favorites]

“Okay, so I don’t need to separate these functional areas of the plant...."

Sure, but evolution is a mindless process.

Mind is a fast simulation of evolution.
posted by otherchaz at 2:54 PM on August 10, 2021 [3 favorites]

Sure, but evolution is a mindless process.

I disagree with this.

As soon as there are organisms with minds, which I think includes reptiles, birds and mammals at least, evolution becomes mindful by default, because organisms will use their minds to discover behaviors which will increase their fitness, and then the process of selection will operate to favor mutations which enhance the usefulness of these mindful behaviors (I'm thinking of feedback between tool use and the evolution of human hands, for example), in a process which has been formally recognized as 'genetic assimilation'.
posted by jamjam at 2:58 PM on August 10, 2021 [3 favorites]

“...seems like a conflict between carnivory and pollination because you don’t want to kill the insects that are helping you reproduce.”

See also: GOP COVID response.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:05 PM on August 10, 2021 [8 favorites]

This is so cool. I had a few Venus flytraps as a kid. They were fascinating... and short lived.
posted by Splunge at 3:11 PM on August 10, 2021

I grow Royal Catchfly (Silene regia) which is very sticky and vaguely related to carnivorous plants but has lost the ability to digest the small insects that stick to it. It’s pollinated by Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds which are not in danger of getting stuck.
I also grow several species of carnivorous plants which have wonderful flowers. They all send their flowers up much higher than their sticky or pitcher bits to avoid catching their pollinators.
posted by misterpatrick at 3:25 PM on August 10, 2021 [3 favorites]

Hummingbirds eat small insects such as mosquitoes, misterpatrick, and I find myself wondering whether Royal Catchfly is offering their pollinators some protein and fat to go along with the carbs.
posted by jamjam at 3:33 PM on August 10, 2021 [3 favorites]

During my years in northern Missouri I grew New Jersey Tea plants from seed I'd collected from prairie remnants. The species has aromatic clusters of tiny flowers and I noticed that hummingbirds seemed to spend much time around those plants, but they didn't seem to be actually sucking nectar from the flowers. Then I learned that hummingbirds feed upon tiny insects, gnats and such, which swarm around the flowers.
posted by Agave at 3:47 PM on August 10, 2021 [9 favorites]

I disagree with this.

As soon as there are organisms with minds, which I think includes reptiles, birds and mammals at least, evolution becomes mindful by default, because organisms will use their minds to discover behaviors which will increase their fitness

You seem to be ignoring all the creatures who use their minds to do what turns out to be dumb stuff and don't pass on their genes. Some folks do crazy motorcycle tricks because potential mates may think it's hot and die. Some of us use our minds to watch a lot of TV, and it's impossible to guess the fitness effect of that right now. Having a "mind" doesn't inherently make you more evolutionarily successful.
posted by momus_window at 3:53 PM on August 10, 2021

You seem to be ignoring all the creatures who use their minds to do what turns out to be dumb stuff and don't pass on their genes.

You are ignoring the organisms which are watching the dumb stuff and thinking 'Jeez, better not do that!' Such as yourself, for example.
posted by jamjam at 3:59 PM on August 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

I noticed that hummingbirds seemed to spend much time around those plants, but they didn't seem to be actually sucking nectar from the flowers. Then I learned that hummingbirds feed upon tiny insects, gnats and such, which swarm around the flowers.

*Light bulb* one of life's great mysteries solved.
posted by Mitheral at 4:57 PM on August 10, 2021 [2 favorites]

"False asphodel" sounds like something from a ballad.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 5:11 PM on August 10, 2021 [4 favorites]

I did some Botany at what is now Southern Oregon University. Turns out there are a bunch of carnivorous plants both along the coast near Florence, and also up north of Selma, where there are a bunch of soils derived from rocks with not great, for life, minerals in them. Think it was Selenium. So the carnivorous plants moved in. We went there on field trips.

Life is pretty amazing in it's tenaciousness and ubiquitousness...
posted by Windopaene at 6:13 PM on August 10, 2021 [4 favorites]

Windopaene, did already-carnivorous plants arrive from elsewhere, or did neighboring plants adapt into it?
posted by clew at 8:18 PM on August 10, 2021

No "triffid" tag?
posted by genpfault at 8:56 PM on August 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

Thanks for this post, sardonyx. Truly enjoyed it.
posted by Bella Donna at 10:43 PM on August 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

Good question clew. Not sure. Probably the former. Because if all the other plants can't survive in some spot, and a carnivorous plant can, it will stick and spread. Not sure if an endemic species could evolve quickly enough to an intrusion of toxic minerals. And I think there were two species there, and the Florence ones are the same pitcher plants, again, probably the former.
posted by Windopaene at 10:51 PM on August 10, 2021

I know some kids who are OBSESSED with carnivorous plants who will love this. Thanks.
posted by medusa at 11:16 PM on August 10, 2021