Carnivorous plants are so strange that they can trigger fear. But person-eating plants are the stuff of low-budget science fiction, not reality
Why Do Some Plants Consume Insects?
Here’s a situation I’ve run into many times. Me giving a presentation: “Plants are the base of the food chain on planet earth. Do plants eat animals, or do animals eat plants?”
Someone in audience: “What about the plants that eat insects?”
Okay, let’s figure out this question. What about these carnivorous plants? Do they upset the foundation of the food chain idea? And what lesson do they hold on whether you should eat meat?
SURPRISING FACTS ON CARNIVOROUS PLANTS
Plants need both energy and nutrients to survive and grow. All plants, carnivorous or not, get their energy from the sun. Using the process of photosynthesis in leaves, they convert sunlight into energy that is stored in chemical bonds. This energy is used both by plants for their own processes and by animals (which cannot directly harvest sunlight for energy and must rely on plants, either directly or indirectly).
Nutrients needed to build plant cells are mainly (more…)
