How does a purple pitcher plant eat bugs?

Question

I am doing this project for school and I need to know how purple pitcher plants eat bugs

Answer 1

Bugs are attracted down the throat of the plant by the smell, and get trapped by the hairs which grow point down and inward, preventing the bug from crawling back out, then digestive sap secrected from the inside of the throat causes the bug to fall to the center of the throat where it is dissolved and fed to the rest of the plant by its interior fluid transport system.

It's pretty gross actually.

Answer 2

Here is a more detailed answer to your question. The Sarracenia purpurea is divided into 5 zones. Zone 1 is the hood or lid. This is lined with with stout downward pointing hairs. There are also nectar glands among the hairs that attract the insects. The nectar contains an intoxicating drug which impairs the insect. To some degree, the coloration is also an attractant.
Zone 2 is called the attracting and conducting zone. This is a rolled lip like structure that curves around the entrance of the trap. Here, even stronger nectar is produced enticing and intoxicating the insect further.
Zone three is a smooth waxy zone in which there are no hairs, but many digestive glands and a smooth surface which provides no footing.
Zone 4 is the retentive and absorptive zone. Here the downward pointing hairs reappear.to help hold struggling prey or at least keep it from climbing. Here is the mixture of digestive juices and prey. This is where digestion and absorption occur. Zone 5 occurs only in the species Sarracenia purpurea. It is a smooth hairless zone which acts as a settling point for the insect exoskeletons that have been digested.
To break it down to you here's what happens: An insect is attracted to the trap by a combination of color and nectar. As the insect drinks the intoxicating nectar, it tends to follow the nectar trail to the lip of the trap. here is where the nectar is strongest. The drunk insect will lean over into the trap opening in hopes of finding more nectar and fall. Downward pointing hairs make climbing back out impossible. Finally the drunken, exhausted insect usually falls into the pool of digestive fluids in the bottom of the trap, where it is digested and absorbed into the walls of the plant, leaving only the hard exoskeleton to sink to the bottom of the pit. Sounds like a sci-fi movie dosen't it?

Answer 3

Wow, this took me back. I did a science project in school like the one you are doing. You already have great answers here - I have nothing to add. I would recommend that you buy a carnivorous plant to learn first hand how cool they are. I had a Venus flytrap for over five years and it ate any fly that came into the house!

Answer 4

Perennial flowers can keep their potential for substantial classes of time, if circumstances are valuable adequate - I understand which you have not adapted those to be truthfully desirable, yet i assume that it relatively is had some photograph voltaic. simply by fact the plant contained some water, this could have evaporated, and greater beneficial the final humidity ranges, fantastically if it may not get away. some flowers, like animals and us people, are waiting to thrive even nevertheless good judgment could let us know that they in all probability shouldn't. i could carry on on your plant, as its overall performance is checklist breaking - (if ever plant's skill to thrive without plenty sustenance have been presented information) , and could carry it in stable stead for destiny skill to stand up to greater extreme stresses than maximum flowers could. That suggested, a black chook persistently used to pull one in all mine up, outdoors, and left it stranded in the dry daily, or greater usually if I replanted it. It looked as though it may exchange into obsessed on it, or its region, and this plant went directly to stay for various years - i don't think of it relatively is as stressful as yours seems to be nevertheless. If it relatively is spring the place you're, then it is going to now be in a stable place to renew advance, if it may get organic easy. you have extremely had stable success with it, so count quantity your self fortunate, as many people warfare with those flowers. desire this facilitates. stable success! Rob