Re: Carnivorous Orchids
ROBERT POGSON (robert.pogson@mwcs.mb.ca)
Sat, 28 Dec 96 22:06:00 -0600
The common Yellow Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium calceolus?) may not
be carnivorous but I'm sure it mugs insects. The smell is of something
rotten and the flower seems designed to trap large flies. They can't
back out so they have to go round a gauntlet of reproductive parts. I've
never seen it happen so I can't be sure. Perhaps next summer I'll find the
time and observe this. Perhaps I could persuade a bag full of flies to
assist. If an insect could not get out, would it be absorbed? The flowers
are long lasting but there does not appear to be much liquid inside.
These orchids supposedly absorb nutrients from fungi growing in the
floor of the forest. I would expect this would be a poor source of nitrogen
and plants as resourceful as they may well have developed a fondness for
insects. I wonder if it could be that they don't digest the insects but
merely rob them of fecal matter or whatever as they give them a licking
down?
... nfx v2.8 [C0000] :-), ;-), =:-O, :-(, well, enough exercise for today.