All this talk about CO2 brings to mind an unusual observation I made a few
years ago when I was growing a VFT inside a closed terrarium. I had some
spare dry ice at the time and thought that placing some inside the
terrarium might induce quicker growth in the plants. Several hours after
thoroughly saturating the terrarium with CO2 I noticed that the lobes of
the VFT traps were closing very slowly. By the end of the day, they were
all shut tight as if they had each caught an insect. It took several
days for the traps to open again.
Jan wrote:
> The CO2 partial pressure will however influence the acidity of at least the
> extracellular fluid, i.e. force the plant to react to these conditions, and
> this might induce a (transitory) growth response.
I understand that the movement in VFT traps is due to a rapid
growth of the cells in the two lobes - could the CO2 have simulated this
effect by causing rapid growth? Has anyone else observed this?
Thanks,
Ch'ien Lee