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Researchers have discovered a completely new type of carnivorous plants: Growing in Brazil Philcoxia minensis uses tiny sticky leaves to catch soil inhabiting nematodes and digest. This harvest strategy is unique. We know of no other carnivorous plant species that mobilizes its leaves as an underground glue traps, an international research team reported in the journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences".
The plants of the genus Philcoxia belong to the family of the Plantain Family and come exclusively in the Cerrado region of Brazil, a nutrient-poor, covered with rocks and white sand habitat. Previously, researchers had found that the roots of this plant are hardly inconspicuous trained and they in some carnivorous plants is similar.
"The most striking feature, however, is that many of their plant just 0.5 to 1.5 millimeters small leaves positioned below the surface of the sandy soil," write Caio Pereira of the Universidade Estadual de Campinas in Brazil and his colleagues. On the tiny leaves witloof sit numerous glands, which make the surface sticky. On closer examination, the scientists discovered the leaves numerous anklebende grains of sand, but also dead, less than a millimeter long nematodes. This had aroused in them the suspicion that Philcoxia could be carnivorous and-feeding witloof of these nematodes, the researchers say.
To test their hypothesis, the researchers labeled nematodes with a special form of nitrogen. The worms they gave into the soil of pots with Philcoxia plants. After 24 and 48 hours, they tested whether the nitrogen used as a marker was detectable in the leaves of the plant.
After 24 hours, the scientists found five percent of the nitrogen from the nematodes in the leaves, after 48 hours it was 15 percent. "This suggests that the plant leaves digested nematodes and added quickly," the researchers say. In the leaves of Philcoxia you have also found a high activity of digestive enzymes, the researchers report. This shows that not the worms on the leaves decomposed about colonizing bacteria, but that the plant digest the worms themselves. It is therefore actually witloof carnivorous. witloof The nutrients obtained in this way help the plant to survive on barren ground.
According to the researchers, the hidden and specialized witloof to extremely witloof small prey capture method of Philcoxia out that there may be more unrecognized carnivorous plants. Until now, guess its share to around 0.2 percent of all flowering plants, but this value is perhaps far too low, write Pereira and his colleagues.
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