Carnivorous Plants #3: Aquatic Bladderwort
It is crazy to think that there are even water plants that are carnivorous. Aquatic bladderworts normally grow in still water like ponds and small lakes and feed off of any small creatures like water fleas and can even eat small tadpoles if they their traps are big enough. Most of the nutrients they get are from the organisms they digest. They also however have leaves that photosynthesize but no roots, so they just float in the water.
Their Traps are really remarkable as they can trap prey in less than a second. They are designed in such a way that they seal completely shut and are able to release the water inside through the trap walls, creating a vacuum inside. At the opening in the trap there is a door surrounded by trigger hairs, that once disturbed, triggers the door to open and the small creature to be sucked in. The door closes immediately and then the digestive process begins by the secretion of digestive enzymes and is complete within a few days. To attract pray the traps secrete a gooey substance that is sweet and the highest concentration is always at the door to the trap.
The flowers of aquatic bladderworts are the only part of the plant that sticks out of the water like in the picture bellow. They come in many colors, some being self pollinated while others get pollinated by insects. They produce many tiny seeds is they are successfully pollinated.
In my opinion, many types of carnivorous plants that live in water either fresh water or salt water.
In my place, there are so many plants that live in calm waters, one of the very many found are green algae, they also eat a small planton that lives side by side with it.
This type of algae in my place is widely found in citizen wells, the community also believes its existence can also be a benefit as a well water purifier.
image source : http://www.waternsw.com.au
Thank you @madiba has shared your interesting information. very helpful.
I went to this talk and walk on wetlands once. I was very impressed by the role that wetlands play in purifying water.
Wow also cool. Especially the water purification part. We can live symbiotically with plant carnivores. Pretty cool.
That is pretty cool. Thanks for sharing.
Something rare. For those of us who believe in god here we can understand How great is the power of god to create everything on earth. God can create creatures and bodans of various kinds, sometimes we as human beings can hardly understand why this can happen. But in fact such a thing is very easy for the god of heaven and earth. Thanks This is a very good post
I believe in God and it is very true what you said. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
I love bladderwort! I'm Irish so we also have lots of butterworts and sundew on our boggy areas.
That is pretty amazing. I am from South Africa and carnivorous plants are hard to find unless you go into the mountainous areas. I have only ever seen sundews in the wild before.
I worked as an ecologist for 6 years in Ireland, so I guess I got to see more bladderwort than the average person who maybe doesn't go rooting about in muddy ditches regularly, unless maybe they're a fisher. They are so cool the way they suck in the little hapless daphnia. I love aquatic systems, it's like those massive NASA shots of the universe where they keep zooming in, at first it's a picture of stars but as you go in to unveils more and more depths and detail to the texture. It's like that in ponds and rivers, at first glance you see water, zoom in, then you see there are some plants there, zoom in, then you see they are different types of plants, and pretty weird ones at that, zoom in, holy shit there's great big predator insects swimming about (e.g. water boat men), zoom in, what the, there's like a herd of daphnia bobbing about below that leaf, they're so tiny! - what the - that plant just ate it! Zoom in, plancton! Mate, have we gone to the electron level of what, plancton are weird!!!
Sorry, bit of flight of fancy there :)
As for butterworts and sundews (there are various types of each), I semi-regularly see them even just walking down country lanes, and they are plentiful in boggy areas. But always a joy to see, so cute, so beautiful! Apparently there are also pitcher plants that were introduced but I've never seen them personally. here's a web page with some pics:
http://www.ipcc.ie/a-to-z-peatlands/carnivorous-plants-killers-in-the-bog/
Nature is just amazing!
It truly is!
Habla, blah blah blah blah blah, Español for my bunghole...
Interesting
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Fascinating how immense and varied Nature is.
Basically...Plants that "hunt"
Good Post!
That is a good way of looking at it.
very nice post! Btw, you can center the images and the text by inserting this:
"< "center">"Your phrase or image here"<"/"center">" Remove the " sign
I never knew that. Thank you, I will try it out.
You are welcome :)
WOW!!! That is absolutely amazing. Also makes me wonder what other carnivorous plant organisms are out there in the aquatics, and the future of their evolution. The Plant Kingdom will forever fascinate me. Great post, will follow your future post.
Here's an image and link to one of my favorite carnivorous pants:
Image Source and More Info
Thanks, that is a cool link. I had a teacher who grew all of those kinds of carnivorous plants, they blew my mind.
Under water world are very interesting and unknown for me. Thanks for
is you google or research?
I researched it using Google, it was inspired by my maths and science teacher from primary school. She grew carnivorous plants and gave me some to grow. I have always been fascinated by them.