Is a venus flytrap a producer or a consumer?

Question

well does it not grow from a seedling and produce its own self? Does it actually use the insects to grow? Or does it not have roots and photosynthesise like most other plants?

Answer 1

Does it matter?
It's interesting, so it produces (provokes) interest
It consumes insects, but for the collectors of carnivorous plants it produces (provokes) passion.
During daylight it produces oxygen and consumes carbon dioxide
At night it produces carbon dioxide and consumes oxygen
Why did you ask the question?

Answer 2

Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) is a carnivorous plant that catches and digests animal prey (mostly insects and arachnids). The trapping structure is formed by the terminal portion of each of the plant's leaves. The plant's name refers to Venus, the goddess of love and plant life.

The plant is a small herb, forming a rosette of 4 to 7 leaves, which arise from a short subterranean stem which is actually a bulb-like rhizome. Each leaf reaches a maximum size of about 3 to 7 cm, depending on the time of year; longer leaves with robust traps are generally formed after flowering. Flytraps that appear to have more leaves are generally colonies, formed by rosettes that have divided beneath the ground.The leaf blade is divided into two regions: a flat heart shaped photosynthetic capable petiole, and a pair of terminal lobes hinged at the midrib, forming the trap which is actually the true leaf. The upper surface of these lobes contains red anthocyanin pigments and its edges secrete mucilage. The lobes exhibit rapid plant movements, snapping shut when stimulated by prey. The trapping mechanism is tripped when prey items stumble against one of the three hair-like trichomes that are found on the upper surface of each of the lobes. The trigger hairs must be touched twice in quick succession (which prevents non-prey stimuli such as raindrops from triggering the trap), whereupon the lobes snap shut in c. 100 ms. The edges of the lobes are fringed by stiff hair-like protrusions or cilia, which mesh together and prevent large prey items from escaping. (These protrusions, and the trigger hairs, are probably homologous with the tentacles found in this plants close relatives, the sundews). The holes in the meshwork allow small prey to escape, presumably because the benefit that would be obtained from them would be less than the cost of digesting them. If the prey is too small and escapes, the trap will reopen within a few hours.
The Venus Flytrap is found in nitrogen-poor environments such as bogs. Although it has been successfully transplanted and grown in many locales around the world, the venus flytrap is found natively only in North and South Carolina in the United States; one such place is North Carolina's Green Swamp. The nutritional poverty of the soil is the reason that the plant has evolved to have such elaborate traps: insect prey provide the nitrogen for protein formation that the soil cannot. The venus flytrap is not a tropical plant and can tolerate mild winters.


So in the end i had like to inform u that it is a producer as all green plants are producers.
Since it grows in nitrogen deficient soil, it traps insects. It actually doesnt consume insects as it doesnt eat them up. It discards the rest of the body after using the nitrogen.

Answer 3

The term producer and consumer doesn't deal with whether or not it produces or consumes for itself. It deals with how it obtains organic compounds. Most plants are considered producers because the create organic compounds without the need of preexisting compounds. In the case of the Venus flytrap. It has very little chlorophyll to actually photosynthesis for itself. Therefore it consumes insects to make up for the deficiency. So simply put, It is solely a consumer.

Answer 4

It is both. Venus fly trap is a producer because it can produce organic materials for food using water and carbon dioxide. On the other hand, as far as I can remember the structure that traps the insect is a metamorphosed leaf. It also becomes a consumer because the nutrients or elements that it needs from the soil is not enough. This is because venus fly trap grows in nitrogen-poor soil. The protein content of the insects provides the needed nutrients.

Answer 5

Well technically it is both, based on simply ecological definitions. I do believe that primarily it is a producer. Here's why. The venus fly trap feeds on insects to replenish its store of nitrogen, now, it is not uncommon to see some of these plants in areas where there is little but still enough nitrogen to hold them over, and they will actually go their entire lives without ever digesting an insect. The ability to digest insects evolved secondarily as an adaptation to survive and exploit harsh, nitrogen poor environments, like bogs and fens. These plants still do all the little things that plants do in order to be considered producers, which by definition means to harvest the sun's energy throught the process of photosynthesis, which they do all the time. This full time job of theirs, like almost all members of the the Kindom Plantae, would certainly make them primary producers, and part time consumers. Thats just my opinion, I hope that may have given you an idea.... Good Question, its a head scratcher!

Answer 6

Techinally it is only a consummer. Though it is a plant and most plants are enery producers as they use phtosynthesis to produce energy, a venus flytrap does not preform photsynthesis. Thus it does not produce energy and must become a consumer in order to survive (it consumes insects).

I may be wrong, Ecology was never my strong point.

Answer 7

The Venus flytrap is actually a producer, which just means that it makes its own food. However, it is unable to get the nitrogen that it needs to live from the air around it, so it attracts insects that contain nitrogen to fulfill its requirements. Despite popular belief, they do not "eat" the insects because they prefer the taste..it's all about using what it's got to get other things that it needs.

Answer 8

A venus flytrap is both producer because it produce nutrition, and shopper because it eats insects. yet i am going to assert that that is extra of being a shopper because it consumes more beneficial than generating nutrition.

Answer 9

All green plants produce and consume, so the answer is both!

Plants consume carbon dioxide (even Venus flytraps) and produce oxygen...

Answer 10

What does a venus flytrap produce???

It doesn't have flowers, it doesn't do anything but eat insects (and whatever other things that plants do)...