sub-carnivores

From: SCHLAUER@chemie.uni-wuerzburg.de
Date: Wed Oct 28 1998 - 08:12:07 PST


Date:          Wed, 28 Oct 1998 08:12:07 
From: SCHLAUER@chemie.uni-wuerzburg.de
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg3420$foo@default>
Subject:       sub-carnivores

Dear Laurent,

> When you tell to Kamil he features non-carnivorous genera as
> brocchinia or proboscidea, do you mean these genera couldn't be
> considerated as non-carnivorous because only an unique species is
> carnivorous in this genus, or because these specie are still not been
> demonstrated as carnivorous at all ?

We had these discussions several times on this list already. Please
check out the archives.

Apparently none of the bromeliads has endogenous hydrolytic activity
in their "traps". Bromeliads and similar cistern-forming monocots are
adapted at accumulating all sorts of living and dead debris as a
compensation for the missing substrate in their habitats (many are
epiphytic). This is a specialized form of soil generation/
accumulation, not carnivory in the sense we discuss it here. Even the
simplest _Heliamphora_, which may even lack digestive enzymes (but
_H. tatei_ does secrete them!), is dimensions more of an animal trap
than the most elaborate bromeliad.

_Proboscidea_ and _Ibicella_ are perhaps sub-carnivorous. They lack
digestive enzymes but they may have mutualistic symbioses comparable
to the better understood sub-carnivores _Roridula_ and _Byblis_.

Kind regards
Jan



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