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Scientists have discovered a previously unknown species of carnivorous plants from the genus of false chrysanthemums in the forests of Canada, which selectively lures and kills its victims with extremely sticky juice.

"The unique feature of this carnivorous plant is that its traps are very close to the inflorescences. Such a neighborhood, at first glance, should interfere with the normal pollination of flowers of this representative of the flora, but our observations have shown that the false chrysanthemum can distinguish between food and friends," said Lin Qianshi, a researcher at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver (Canada), whose words are quoted by the UW press service.

Lin Qianshi and his colleagues discovered in the forests of British Columbia, one of the western provinces of Canada, a previously unknown species of carnivorous plants, Triantha occidentalis, which is characterized by an extremely unusual method of food extraction. It belongs to the number of false chrysanthemums, herbaceous plants that grow in the mountain and northern forests of North America.

In the past, no one paid much attention to it, but during one of the walks in the forest, one of the authors of the discovery noticed that the inflorescence of Triantha occidentalis was surrounded by a lot of hairs with small insects stuck to them. Some of them were surrounded by bright red drops, extremely sticky to the touch.

This observation prompted scientists to think that this plant can purposefully catch insects and use their nutrients to accelerate its growth, and not just protect itself from pest attacks. Guided by this idea, biologists studied the genome of Triantha occidentalis and found evidence that this plant was missing one of the genes that plays a key role in the process of photosynthesis.

This same section of DNA is often damaged in other carnivorous plants, which forced the researchers to check whether the false chrysanthemum can "digest" insects. To do this, the scientists raised several hundred fruit flies, whose body contained an unusually large number of atoms of "heavy" nitrogen-15, and tried to feed them to several bushes of Triantha occidentalis.

Subsequent observations confirmed that this plant was indeed carnivorous — nitrogen-15 gradually began to accumulate in its cells after biologists applied flies to the hunting hairs of Triantha occidentalis. According to scientists, this plant receives about 60% of the nitrogen contained in its shoots and leaves in this way.

When the researchers analyzed the chemical composition of the red drops, they found that this liquid contains enzymes that can dissolve the tissues of the body of insects. This discovery surprised scientists, as they did not expect that the trapping organs and inflorescences of Triantha occidentalis would be so close to each other, since in this case pollinators of false chrysanthemums can also fall into the trap.

Subsequent observations of the behavior of insects showed that this was not the case-butterflies, bees and bumblebees never got into the hunting hairs of the plant, whereas this often happened with smaller invertebrates. As scientists suggest, this is due to the fact that the size of sticky droplets is selected by evolution in such a way that they can immobilize small insects, but are not able to catch larger victims.

As scientists suggest, some other species of false chrysanthemums may also be carnivorous plants. Among them, in particular, may include the species Triantha glutinosa, which grows in the mountains in the northeastern United States. Subsequent experiments and observations, as biologists hope, will help them to test this hypothesis in the near future.

The article was published in the journal PNAS
PHOTO: Triantha occidentalis Flower © Danilo Lima

Source: ITAR-TASS, sci-dig.ru