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Science

New Carnivorous Plant Discovered In Pacific Northwest (npr.org) 54

Posted by BeauHD from the watch-your-step dept.
A pretty little white flower that grows near urban centers of the Pacific Northwest turns out to be a killer. NPR reports: The bog-dwelling western false asphodel, Triantha occidentalis, was first described in the scientific literature in 1879. But until now, no one realized that this sweet looking plant used its sticky stem to catch and digest insects, according to researchers who note in their study published Monday that it's the first new carnivorous plant to be discovered in about 20 years. "We had no idea it was carnivorous," says Sean Graham, a botanist with the University of British Columbia. "This was not found in some exotic tropical location, but really right on our doorstep in Vancouver. You could literally walk out from Vancouver to this field site." Fewer than a thousand plant species are carnivorous, and these plants tend to live in places with abundant sun and water, but nutrient-poor soil.

Graham's team was doing an unrelated project on plant genetics and noticed that the western false asphodel had a genetic deletion that's sometimes seen in carnivorous plants. The researchers started to think about the fact that this flower grew in the kind of environment that's home to various other insect-eating plants. "And then they have these sticky stems," says Graham. "So, you know, it was kind of like, hmm, I wonder if this could be a sign that this might be carnivorous."

To see if the plants could actually take in nutrients from insects, researcher Qianshi Lin, now at the University of Toronto, Mississauga, fed fruit flies nitrogen-15 isotopes, so that this nitrogen could be used as a tracker. He then stuck these flies to stems of this plant. Later, an analysis showed that nitrogen from the dead insects was indeed getting into the plants. In fact, Triantha was getting more than half of its nitrogen from prey. In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published online Monday, Lin and his colleagues say that this is comparable to what's seen in other carnivorous plants. What's more, the researchers showed that the sticky hairs on the flower stalk produce a digestive enzyme that's known to be used by many carnivorous plants. And when the research team looked at specimens of this plant preserved in herbariums, they found small dead insects stuck to the stems.
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New Carnivorous Plant Discovered In Pacific Northwest More

New Carnivorous Plant Discovered In Pacific Northwest

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  • Feed me, Seymour (Score:4, Funny)

    by h33t l4x0r ( 4107715 ) on Tuesday August 10, 2021 @05:36AM (#61675385)
    Let's investigate this as a possible source of renewable energy. I think we could scale it up and toss some Exxon CEOs in there as a pilot program.

  • Not entirely surprising (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Errol backfiring ( 1280012 ) on Tuesday August 10, 2021 @06:42AM (#61675487) Journal
    Given that there are plants like the Sheperd's purse [wikipedia.org] that are carnivorous when they sprout, I was kind of waiting to see which other forms of animal digesting plants can have. Mind you, the Sheperd's purse is also found on your doorstep in many parts of the world.

    • I like how it provides a good example of 'intermediate carnivorousness' , evolution in small steps which is a long way from plants which are dedicated to capturing insects and digesting them.
      It is enough to have a stem which is a bit sticky and a modest form of nutritient transfer: maybe have a way to capture some of the stuff which dissolves through other means, maybe add a bit of stuff which helps digest the prey.
      You could extend this . If animals happen to die near the roots of a plant, to what e

      • Carnivorousness may be a benefit of poisonous fruits. Being poisonous helps a plant not to be eaten, but fruits are often edible to be spread via animals. Fruits that look edible (berries), but are actually poisonous, could help to ensure that the seed is fed after transport.

        • That would be one hungry type of seed!
          That turd is not good enough for me, I want the whole animal to feast on!

        • Carnivorousness may be a benefit of poisonous fruits. Being poisonous helps a plant not to be eaten, but fruits are often edible to be spread via animals. Fruits that look edible (berries), but are actually poisonous, could help to ensure that the seed is fed after transport.

          Or discourage eaters that aren't suitable for spreading the seed, saving it for those which co-evolved to be the seed bearers (surviving the toxin, benefiting from the "treat", and leaving the seed intact in their droppings).

          Fruits with

      • I like how it provides a good example of 'intermediate carnivorousness' , evolution in small steps which is a long way from plants which are dedicated to capturing insects and digesting them.

        Maybe the Wuhan lab can engineer me a carnivorous lawn.

        "Get off my lawn!"

        "No, I'm serious! Get off the lawn or it's going to eat you!!!"

    • Sundews and pitcher plants are common in such far-flung places as New Jersey

  • We probably underestimate (Score:5, Interesting)

    by JoshuaZ ( 1134087 ) on Tuesday August 10, 2021 @07:17AM (#61675575) Homepage
    We probably underestimate how common carnivorous plants are. But there is to some extent an issue of how we define a carnivorous plant. For example, if a plant is poisonous and it occasionally kills an animal and takes advantage of that dead animal as fertilizer is that carnivorous even if the poison is clearly primarily a defense mechanism?

    • The difference is where the nitrogen is sourced. Bring up from roots, normal everyday plant. Digest directly from a carcass you were responsible for killing? Carnivorous.

      It's in the name, "eating flesh". Without the digestive enzymes, without an ability to trap a body and keep it there, getting your nutrients from the soil the old fashioned way, just typical plant life. (For the most part poisonous plants aren't directly benefiting from a sick animal dying elsewhere.)

    • No more than you eating a cow makes you a vegetarian.
  • I for one welcome our new carnivorous flowering overlords!

  • Am I the only one who mis-read this as ... (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    ... New Coronavirus Plant Discovered In Pacific Northwest

  • Feed me Seymour! (Score:3)

    by rotorbudd ( 1242864 ) on Tuesday August 10, 2021 @08:49AM (#61675855)

    Too lazy to look it up, but wasn't The Little Shop of Horrors in the PNW somewhere?

  • I've seen situations where people have considered flypaper to be necessary. I doubt I could convince them to keep plants instead, but it's a nice fantasy.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by waveclaw ( 43274 )

      You could market it as '100% Organic Natural Flypaper" and subtly smear Big Flypaper as a corporate conspiracy in your marketing literature.

      If politicians can misuse human logical errors to climb to power on falsehoods about medicine, you can exploit the same thing to help spread and domesticate an endangered or rare species. Or make a quick buck selling flowers that grown right on people's doorsteps for free.

      After all, the best survival strategy right now is to be cute, useful or baring that at least

    • OK now look up how many flies a plant can eat per year, how many of the plants it would take to replace one strip of flypaper. And then ask if eats flies all year, or if it is seasonal.

      I don't use flypaper at all. I've learned how to chase them out the door with a broom. Really. There is a technique, and it works. Hint: It involves turning off the lights in the room the fly is reluctant to leave.

  • It kind of makes you wonder... Do more of these meat-eating plants exist?

    Perhaps there are some that are currently unknown to us - which were discovered for a very brief amount of time, but the discoverer didn't live to escape the plant and tell us about its existence

  • New Coronavirus Plant Discovered In Pacific Northwest

  • eats tourists

    • No, ten percent of British Columbia's economy comes from tourism. Be glad people visit a place with nothing much and spend money

    • If only "that grows near urban centers" was true!

      It grows in mountain bogs. Our urban centers are not actually near bogs, or the mountains, but in river valleys. Or in the case of Seattle, beside the sea.

      I went to iNaturalist [inaturalist.org] and checked, and it does not grow near urban centers, or even near popular rural tourist sites. It grows in... mountain bogs.

  • Graham first suspected something amiss when he discovered the headless torso of one of his junior researchers sticking out of a large flower. He later confirmed the finding by identifying a genetic deletion sometimes associated with carnivorous plants and by feeding it several additional interns to observe the digestive process first-hand.

  • The environmentally friendly way of solving problems.

  • I'm tired of all the doom and gloom, really I am. And I am tird of the people pretending to be the guardians of the fucking galaxy passing more rules and restrictions in order to further cement their tinpot dictator rule and turning this world into even more of a shithole as I possibly can.

    If I ever come down with a fatal terminal illness, I'm going to smoke in government buildings and blow big puffs of smoke before I am chased off, eat the biggest messiest, most artery choking BBQ burger in front of all th

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