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▲After millions of years, why are carnivorous plants still so small?smithsonianmag.com
62 points by gmays 4 days ago | 27 comments
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IAmBroom 12 hours ago [-]
OK, I wrote my theory, and then read the article: same.

But I will add that a commercial grower of venus flytraps once got curious, and took a few thousand cloned plantings, growing them in a variety of conditions. As soon as the soil became nourishing, the plants would die. Post mortem seemed to indicate their roots were fungally attacked.

So: plant adapts to living in a food desert (not an actual one, of course; it has to be wet for the carnivory to work, as the article points out). Plant gains weirdo digestion abilities, but at the same time, it no longer needs expensive anti-fungal defences - because the ground isn't rich enough to support parasitic fungi.

Then: human adds the nutrients back in. Boom! The ordinary fungus in the air, which has a tough time invading grass or tree or tobacco or pepper roots (because they have extensive defences, like capsaicin), lands in the rich soil of pretty-much helpless flytrap roots, and has a buffet.

NegativeLatency 11 hours ago [-]
Sorta similar with a lot of plants I imagine, we planted a Madrone tree and it's very tempting to want to water a small & new tree but they can also get root issues if the ground is too wet or doesn't drain well enough. They're highly adapted to living on the sides of cliffs.
ge96 10 hours ago [-]
I've been trying to grow a mango from a seed for so long. The roots always get hit by black fungus and it dies off. Tallest I got one to grow was about 10"
thatcat 4 hours ago [-]
Try adding some natto innoculant to the seed
khafra 2 hours ago [-]
I hope there's a mad scientist somewhere, making a cross-genetic venus flytrap that also produces capsaicin and nicotine.
_tom_ 11 hours ago [-]
You are assuming that they haven't.

Brambles can trap sheep, benefiting from the sheep as fertilizer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrGobnZq83g

Falling coconuts can not only kill people, but probably kill far more small animals, again benefiting from them as fertilizer,

ethbr1 10 hours ago [-]
Came to HN for tech news, left with a disturbing realization that coconut trees might be low-key carnivorous.
username135 8 hours ago [-]
Right?!
doesnt_know 3 hours ago [-]
Going down that line of thought... Cocunuts naturally selected for harder shells because those killed, creating more fertilizer ...
Affric 8 hours ago [-]
If plants moved faster we would be absolutely terrified of them.
athenot 7 hours ago [-]
Let's not be too hasty...
Nevermark 4 hours ago [-]
I would have thought that plants which ate neighboring plants, for their easily accessed nutrients and to protect their own access to sunlight, water and forest nutrients, would be pervasive.

I have heard of chemical/strangling/parasitical type competition. The banyan tree is territorial, for instance.

But we would need another name, other than territorial, carnivorous or vegetarian, to describe plant predators which overtly, actively fed on the physical structure or leaves of fellow plants.

olau 1 hours ago [-]
I think the problem is that then you need two energy harvesting systems, and there's not just that much to eat nearby.

I guess to effectively live a long life by eating other stuff, you need to be able to move, or what you eat need to be able to move to you.

almosthere 12 hours ago [-]
We haven't had an unscheduled total eclipse of the sun with people singing in the background yet.
colecut 11 hours ago [-]
have they tried feeding them alllll niiight loooong
leoedin 12 hours ago [-]
Larger animals tend to more intelligent - presumably there’s a natural limit to the size of prey a carnivorous plant can reliably catch from a static location.
HelloNurse 23 minutes ago [-]
Larger animals are highly undesirable prey because they tend to be able to free themselves from a carnivorous plant (low value), with a high probability of severe damage to the plant in the attempt (high cost): they can just walk or climb away, but also involuntarily break a stalk with their weight, tear open a sac with talons, rip away slowly regenerated adhesive parts, eat something that should be dangerous, and so on.
IAmBroom 12 hours ago [-]
Counterpoint: mice and at least one monkey baby have died in pitcher plants in the wild.
jonplackett 11 hours ago [-]
Isn’t this still just the original point though, mice ain’t that big!
chrisco255 4 hours ago [-]
> Some large carnivorous plants are alive out there, but none is big enough to make a meal out of you.

Clearly these researchers have never been to the Mushroom Kingdom.

musicale 3 hours ago [-]
I guess there are still some things that we can be grateful for.
bilsbie 8 hours ago [-]
A related question is why plants in general can thrive on such tiny amounts of protein. (Nitrogen)
bell-cot 11 hours ago [-]
As soon as a carnivorous plant gets big enough to be eating young mammals, it hits the Mama Bear barrier. With motivation, even a tiny mammal can do an enormous amount of damage to a plant.
hirvi74 9 hours ago [-]
Some carnivorous plants do eat mammals. Though not primarily, some pitcher plant species have been known to eat mice, for example.
12 hours ago [-]
Sevii 10 hours ago [-]
Plants not being able to chew or tear their prey is a big disadvantage.
mlinhares 6 hours ago [-]
Not if you're prey. i'd rather not have more stuff trying to eat me :P
nyeah 11 hours ago [-]
tl;dr Basically a lot of sorry excuses.

If you're a plant, don't buy into the negativity. Work your way up the food chain. If you eat it, then it's your food.

curtisszmania 5 hours ago [-]
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AStonesThrow 9 hours ago [-]
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