Most people think of plants like the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) or pitcher plants when they they hear the words carnivorous plants, but not all of these have evolved a morphology that is as different from regular plants as them. This weekend I went on a hike up to a mountain, and along the trail I found lots of butterworths (Pinguicula vulgaris), a plant that is in fact carnivorous even though it might not look like it.
If you didn't know that this was a carnivorous plant you would probably have walked past it without giving it a second glace. Unless you noticed the leaves, which are all located at ground-level.
As you can see, the leaves have evolved to lie horizontally along the ground, adapted to get insects to land on them. And once they do, they're stuck! Once this happens, the plant will release enzymes from small pores in the leaves, which will break down the insects to single molecules, giving the plant amino acids.
Where to find the butterworth
In contrast to many carnivorous plants, the common butterworth is actually not that rare to find, and most countries in Europe has it. In addition to this, the plant is found in both the United States and Canada, so you have a chance to find it if you live in the Northern Hemisphere. You do however need to put on a pair of hiking boots and head for the mountains, because it usually don't grow very close to sea level.
Once you're on a mountain, look for a bog area that looks like it has a serious lack of nutrients. This is where you will find the butterworth and potentially other carnivorous plants.
The leaves do have a rather unique shade of green, so they are kind of a small contrast to most other green colored plants in the mire, so spotting them is easier than you would have guessed.
Why the butterworth needs to eat insects to survive
It does sound weird that some plants need to eat insects to survive, right? As you probably remember from school, most plants get their energy from creating sugar from photosynthesis, and this is true for most carnivorous plants as well (or else they would not have green leaves). However, it's the soil that makes them having to kill!
Bog soil is extremely poor in nutrients due to it taking forever to break down the organic matter that enters it. This has a lot to do with the low pH in the area, but the point of it is that since almost nothing breaks down, no nutrients are released to the soil. This is a big problem for the plants who live there, because they need a lot more than only sugar if they want to survive. Just like us they need nitrogen to create amino acids, and the one of the only ways to get this in nitrogen-less areas are to kill and digest insects.
Other plants have adapted to be able to fixate nitrogen from the air, but that's a post for anther time.
Anyway, that's the short story of why some plants have evolved to kill insects, and carnivorous plants are actually a lot more common than many people realize. You just need to know where to look if you want to find them!
If you want to learn more about carnivorous plants, then I suggest that you check out A pitcher plant ecosystem, or "I eat flies with a little help from my friends." by @effofex. It's a great read, but it's already past payout, so give him a follow for more content like that.
Anyway, thanks for reading my post. I hope you enjoyed learning a bit about the common butterworth and carnivorous plants in general. I don't really have any sources for this since I wrote it from my own memory, but I'm sure all of this can be easily confirmed by searching for "carnivorous plant ecology" on Google.
Er en del av disse rundt hytta, trodde det Norske navnet på dem var steppe gress, vet du noe om det?
Jeg har ikke hørt om navnet steppe gress før, men jeg er kjent med å bruke navnet tettegras. Men det kan selvfølgelig være at steppe gress er et lokalnavn for dem :)
Å lesa denne artikkelen om tettegras var ein god naturfagtime. Sjølv om eg har kjennskap om denne planten frå før, lærte eg mykje nytt ved å lesa artikkelen din.
Takk elles for skarpe og gode bilete av tettegras og ei grundig forklaring om korleis denne planten skaffar seg nitrogen og ei grunngjeving kvifor den skaffar seg denne ved hejlp av å fanga insekt.Nydelege bilete av tettegras @Valth.
Med vennleg helsing
@Siggjo
Wonderful and fantastic post @valth. This looks so brilliant. Its good to read your post which makes me happy.🤗
Thanks for sharing.
Upvoted & resteemed your post.
Thank you! :D
Another great insight into the floral kingdom of your homeland, @valth - thank you for that :) I did some brief research and was surprised to find out this extraordinary species is native to my country too :) I had no idea. Its Czech name is "tučnice obecná" which would freely translate as "the fat plant" :D
Yeah, they are found in pretty much all of Europe, so I'm sure you can find it if you take a closer look at big in mountainous areas. The fat plant is a cool name for it! I guess the leaves can look pretty fat, but the flower stem is actually very thin compared to most other plants.
I will be looking for it the next time I go on a hike :) Thanks for the tip!
You're welcome!
I just saw the plant on TV. Very useful information. But I can not go there. Because I live in Indonesia.
Hahaha
I like your photos.
Have a good day @valth
Thanks. No, I don't think you will find this in Indonesia at all. But I think you have some other cool carnivorous plants over there!
Yes, maybe i find it here.
Thanks @valth
Interesting. Learned a bit more :-)
Very interesting and informative post.
I love your publications.
I always learn something new from them.
Photo amazing.
Now I will know them too, thank you for telling me about such amazing plants.
Thank you, @valth
Best wishes from @singa
Nice content
Very well articulated.
Nature looks so wonderful.
This is the essence of beauty.Beautiful and mesmerising post @valth. I really loved your post. 😍☺💚
Thanks for sharing this post.
Thank you for saying that! I'm glad you liked it :)
Interesting little plant! These are very rare in The Netherlands, and getting rarer.
Yeah, they are definitely interesting plants. Why are they getting rares in the Netherlands by the way? Are these plants having problems, or are wetlands in general getting destroyed?
Not destroyed, but they are far too dry, especially in summer. This plant grows in the east of The Netherlands, where I live, and the peat bogs here are suffering.
Ah, that's unfortunate. I guess wetlands are really going to suffer from the increased average global temperature, especially when we have heat waves much more often.
I've seen these in large number in my garden. They really make it more pleasing.
Oh, you have these in your garden? That's pretty cool!
I am a plant lover person and I really enjoyed your post specially
learning about carnivorous plants .
I'm glad you enjoyed it! :D
Amazed to know that Butterworth plants also lie in carnivorous category as Venus flytrap and pitchers.
So Big soil is one of the reason. What will happen if we provide three primary nutrients Nitrogen, phosphorus and pottasium to the soil. Any indifference in plants behavior. @valth
If we add that to the soil, other plant will likely grow and outcompete the carnivorous plants.
nice answer. I never thought in this way @valth
Sometimes I had heard about plants that ate insects but I did not think it was true, I can not believe that they do it to give oxygen is something strange but fascinating, thanks for sharing the information friend Greetings: D
It's for them to get nitrogen - not oxygen. But I'm glad you liked it! And thanks for stopping by ;)
Wow! That was some interesting read! I guess, I had come across the name "butterworth" in some book before this but I had no clue about the inner working of the plant - why they need to eat insects and why they are found in nutrient deficient areas, etc. Thanks for sharing!
I'm glad you found it interesting!
Nice. Beautiful. Awesome. Greennery looks so beautiful
Yeah, it sure is :)