Abstract
Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) has had a conservation status of vulnerable since the 1970s. Little research has focussed on the ecology and even less has examined its juvenile stages. For the first time, reliance on invertebrate prey for growth was assessed in seedling Venus flytrap by systematic elimination of invertebrates from the growing environment. Prey were experimentally removed from a subset of Venus flytrap seedlings within a laboratory environment. The amount of growth was measured by measuring trap midrib length as a function of overall growth as well as prey spectrum. There was significantly lower growth in prey-eliminated plants than those utilising prey. This finding, although initially unsurprising, is actually contrary to the consensus that seedlings (traps < 5 mm) do not catch prey. Furthermore, flytrap was shown to have prey specificity at its different growth stages; the dominant prey size for seedlings did not trigger mature traps. Seedlings are capturing and utilising prey for nutrients to increase their overall trap size. These novel findings show Venus flytrap to have a much more complex evolutionary ecology than previously thought.
Highlights
Charles Darwin in a letter to Asa Gray [1] wrote “I care more for Drosera ( Dionaea) than the origin of species . . . it is a wonderful plant, or rather a most sagacious animal
No other plant holds such a high reputation in its specialism to carnivory than Venus flytrap, Dionaea muscipula, and the fascination Darwin had for this plant is shared by modern scientists
Seedling growth is a crucial aspect of flytrap ecology, as growth at this stage is slow due to the small size of prey they can acquire
Summary
Charles Darwin in a letter to Asa Gray [1] wrote “I care more for Drosera ( Dionaea) than the origin of species . . . it is a wonderful plant, or rather a most sagacious animal. No other plant holds such a high reputation in its specialism to carnivory than Venus flytrap, Dionaea muscipula, and the fascination Darwin had for this plant is shared by modern scientists. In great part, this is because of the rapid closure of its trap (e.g., [2,3,4]). While the abundance of information on trap physiology is of great interest in understanding plant movement, it gives little benefit in relation to preserving this already vulnerable species [12, 13]. Little if anything is known about nutrient uptake, responses to environmental factors such as light, soil type, and moisture, and the prey requirements of seedling stages
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