Plants Behaving Badly

Murder & Mayhem

Recently scientists have shown that many more plants are carnivorous than we ever thought. Welcome to the world of killer tomatoes and murderous potatoes. But even the more obvious carnivorous plants — sundews, flytraps and pitchers — are revealing new behavior. Carnivorous plants have featured in many sci-fi films over the years, but the reality turns out to be far stranger than the fiction.

The Venus Flytrap

2m 39s

Carnivorous plants have evolved ways of trapping insects. Snap traps work along the lines of an old-fashioned mousetrap. Scientists have finally worked out how the Venus flytrap can close its trap so quickly.

Previews + Extras

  • A “Symbiotic Bond": asset-mezzanine-16x9

    A “Symbiotic Bond"

    S1 E1 - 3m 9s

    Roridula, a South African plant covered in sticky resin blobs which trap insects, lack digestive glands. Roridula depend on Pameridea bugs, which are only found among these branches, to process the trapped insects and to leave behind droppings as fertilizer.

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