HOW IT DINES

Evening Star, Issue 22524, 17 December 1936, Page 13

HOW IT DINES

FLESH-EATING FLOWER How does that familiar yellow flowering water plant, the common bladdeiwort. secure its juicy meals or real flesh P This problem defied even the painstaking genius of Charles Darwin, but now, thanks. to_ the super-speed cinemicrography, it is a mystery no longer, says the * Scientific American. Imprisoning a specimen in an observation tank stocked with its natural prey. Professor Lloyd, of M University, proceeded to ‘ shoot its movements at the rate of 160 pictures a second. His film affords a graphic illustration of Nature’s ruthless efficiency. Faster than the human eye can peiceive, the bladderwort snaps up its prey, consisting of embryo tadpoles, mosquito larvae, water fleas, and tiny Crustacea; it takes but a thirty-fifth of & second to swallow each \ictinv. Its submerged leaves are fitted with traps, the chief feature of which is a watertight hatch. As the hatch opens inwards, an ignoring rush of water is carried to its doom. Simultaneous y, as the trap fills, up, an array of bristles bolts the hatch. Then, while the plant digests its meal, the water in the traps is slowly expelled, so preparing to •bring in the next capture.