1. Cover image © Henrik Larrson Murderous Plants Investigating adaptation and competition in carnivorous plants Lesson 1 Plant nutrition and adaptation

2. Plant Nutrition © Dawn Sanders and Karen Goldie-Morrison

3. Growing in a Stressful Environment “The habitats in which (plant) carnivores typically occur are those in which harsh abiotic conditions limit competition between species, and it is under such abiotic stress that carnivory represents an improved although not optimal strategy.” Chase, M. W., Christenhusz, M. J. M., Sanders, D. and Fay, M.F. (2009) Murderous plants: Victorian Gothic, Darwin and modern insights into vegetable carnivory. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 161(4): 329-356.

4. Sarracenia (Pitcher Plant) © Carol Boulter © Mair Shepherd

5. Dionaea ( Venus Flytrap) © Mair Shepherd

6. Drosera (Sundew) Drosera binata © Dawn Sanders © Mair Shepherd © Henrik Larrson

7. Carnivorous Plant Science Today Robert Holt, from the University of Florida, says “Some ecosystem processes might be scale-dependent, emerging only at certain absolute sizes.” But he thinks other pitcher plant processes — predator-prey interactions, mutually beneficial species, the effects of disturbance — are found across ecosystems. “Everything that happens in a pitcher plant happens at a larger scale,” said Holt. “There’s a tremendous amount of information in there.” Extracts from Keim, B. (2009) In the Bowels of Carnivorous Plants, a Tiny Model of the World. Wired, [online]

8. Darwin’s Size of Prey Hypothesis “Now it would manifestly be a great disadvantage to the plant [Venus’ fly trap - Dionaea muscipula] to waste many days in remaining clasped over a minute insect, and several additional days or weeks in afterwards recovering its sensibility; in as much as a minute insect would afford but little nutriment. It would be far better for the plant to wait for a time until a moderately large insect was captured, and to allow all the little ones to escape; and this advantage is secured by the slowly intercrossing marginal spikes, which act like the large meshes of a fishing-net, allowing the small and useless fry to escape.” Charles Darwin Insectivorous Plants, 1875

9. Sarracenia Traps as Islands “Islands are beloved by ecologists, because they’re simplified fractions of the whole complex world. And one way to think about pitcher plants is as a modest-scale island,” said Robert Holt, an eminent University of Florida ecologist. “You’ve got four or five trophic levels in a pitcher plant, just like you’ve got four or five trophic levels in a lake,” said Aaron Ellison, Harvard University biologist. At the very base are bacteria, which support phytoplankton, which support single-celled animals, which support fly larvae. All of it relies on nutrients delivered by drowning bugs. Extracts from Keim, B. (2009) In the Bowels of Carnivorous Plants, a Tiny Model of the World. Wired, [online]