Bizarre Nature - Plants That Eat Animals.

Many plants are autotrophic organisms, which means they produce organic material from the simple molecules. In other words, they produce their food themselves. With the evolution appeared new types of plants that feed themselves with insects or small animals. Those plants are called carnivorous or insectivorous plants. They have adapted to this through time. Carnivorous plants have specific methods for catching insects.

Botany.org explains some of the interesting methods:

“- Pitfall traps of pitcher plants are leaves folded into deep, slippery pools filled with digestive enzymes.

- Flypaper (or sticky or adhesive traps) of sundews and butterworts are leaves covered in stalked glands that exude sticky mucilage.
- Snap traps (or steel traps) of the Venus flytrap and waterwheel plant are hinged leaves that snap shut when trigger hairs are touched.
- Suction traps, unique to bladderworts, are highly modified leaves in the shape of a bladder with a hinged door lined with trigger hairs.

- Lobster-pot traps of corkscrew plants are twisted tubular channels lined with hairs and glands.”

It’s worth noticing that Insectivorous plants don’t draw the nitrogen out of the soil, but from the insects they eat. Thus, they can grow even in soil that is not rich with nitrogen. You must admit, this is one of the most bizarre adaptations in nature.  Finally, we could see this as a proof that plants never stop evolving.