I was thinking the other day how it would seem logical for some species of plant to become cannibalistic (feed on other plants) before evolving to carnivory. Plants like bromeliads are always trapping leaves and junk in them, it could easily be a little mulch factory. But then it also occurred to me, if plants could digest plant tissue, wouldn't they digest themselves? :p
Leilani Kimiko wrote:
I also recently posted a photo of a plant with very large traps. It is not a special plant, just the type you buy at Home Depot. The trap was 1.05" end to end when I posted the photo. Now I have a bigger trap at least 1.1" on the same plant. It's had nothing but wheat germ and alfalfa since it came out of dormancy a few months ago.
Cool idea! Did you have a control for this experiment? Without one, those results would be pretty inconclusive since flytraps will grow large and flower without trapping any prey at all.