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General Science Notes On – Insectivorous Plants Of India – For W.B.C.S. Examination.
Insectivorous Plants
- These plants are specialized in trapping insects and are popularly known as insectivorous plants.Continue Reading General Science Notes On – Insectivorous Plants Of India – For W.B.C.S. Examination.
- They are very different from normal plants in their mode of nutrition. They, however, never prey upon humans or large animals.
- Insectivorous plants can broadly be divided into active and passive types based on their method of trapping their prey.
- The active ones can close their leaf traps the moment insects land on them.
- The passive plants have a ‘pitfall’ mechanism, having some kind of jar or pitcher-like structure into which the insect slips and falls, to eventually be digested.
- The insectivorous plants often have several attractions such as brilliant colors, sweet secretions and other curios to lure their innocent victims.
Why do they hunt despite having normal roots and photosynthetic leaves?
- These plants are usually associated with rain-washed, nutrient-poor soils, or wet and acidic areas that are ill-drained.
- Such wetlands are acidic due to anaerobic conditions, which cause partial decomposition of organic matter releasing acidic compounds into the surroundings.
- As a result, most microorganisms necessary for complete decomposition of organic matter cannot survive in such poorly oxygenated conditions.
- Normal plants find it difficult to survive in such nutrient poor habitats.
- The hunter plants are successful in such places because they supplement their photosynthetic food production by trapping insects and digesting their nitrogen rich bodies.
Insectivorous plants of India
Insectivorous plants of India belong mainly to three families:
- Droseraceae (3 species),
- Nepenthaceae (1 species) and
- Lentibulariaceae (36 species).
Drosera and Aldrovanda
- Drosera and Aldrovanda belong to family Droseraceae.
- Drosera or Sundew inhabit wet infertile soils or marshy places.
- Aldrovanda is a free-floating, rootless aquatic plant, the only species found in India, occurs in the salt marshes of Sunderbans, south of Calcutta. It also grows in fresh water bodies like ponds, tanks and lakes.
Pitcher Plants Family: Nepenthaceae
- Pitcher plants belong to family nepenthaceae. The members of the family are commonly known as ‘pitcher plants’ because their leaves bear jar-like structures.
- Distribution: Confined to the high rainfall hills and plateaus of north-eastern region, at altitudes ranging from 100-1500 m, particularly in Garo, Khasi and Jaintia hills of Meghalaya.
Utricularia and Pinguicula
- Utricularia and Pinguicula belong to family Lentibulariaceae.
Medicinal Properties of Insectivorous Plants
- Drosera are capable of curdling milk, its bruised leaves are applied on blisters and used for dyeing silk.
- Nepenthes in local medicine to treat cholera patients, the liquid inside the pitcher is useful for urinary troubles, it is also used as eye drops.
- Utricularia is useful against cough, for dressing of wounds, as a remedy for urinary disease.
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