Beware Vegetarians
I was so shocked when I read this on the Independent. So does this means nobody can be vegetarian in this world. Potatoes and Tomatoes are very good food source but there is carnivorous side to them as you might have heard about venus fly traps and pitcher plants. They have been found as among a host of plants thought to have been overlooked by botanists and explorers searching the world’s remotest regions for carnivorous species when theyhad them very near to them.
Researchers at Royal Botanical Gardens Kew now have found that there are hundreds more plants that catch and eat insects and other small animals than they previously believed. Among them are species of petunia, ornamental tobacco plants, potatoes and tomatoes and shepherd’s purse, a relative of cabbages.
“Widely recognised carnivorous plants number some 650 and we estimate that another 325 or so are probable additions – so an increase of about 50 per cent,” said Dr Mike Fay, of Kew.
Researchers realised the plant world was more bloodthirsty than had been realised when they carried out an assessment of carnivorous plants to celebrate the bicentenary of Charles Darwin’s birth.
Darwin himself had been fascinated by carnivorous plants and conducted many experiments in which he fed them meat, and in 1875 his book on them, Insectivorous Plants, was published.
Ornamental tobaccos, and some species of potatoes and tomatoes which have sticky hairs which trap aphids and other small invertebrates are such plants. It is thought that rather than eating the prey directly they use the dead bodies decay slowly and the nutrients fall to the ground where they are taken up by the roots.
The Independent says "Such an ability is comparable to that of Roridula in Southern Africa which has sticky leaves on which flies get stuck but has no means of digesting them. It relies on a bug which devours the flies and the plant is then able to extract nutrients from the faeces which drop to the ground. Domestic varieties of tomatoes and potatoes retain the ability to trap and kill small insects with their sticky hairs and are likely to absorb the nutrients through their roots when the animals decay and fall to the ground. "
Usually when we grow them in farms, we give them enough food so they might not need to use insects for getting nutrition but in the wild they eat insects.
Dr Fay said the study’s findings backed up the idea that all flowering plants began with the capacity to eat meat when they evolved but that only some of them made use of and retained the ability.
The researchers, publishing their finding in The Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, added: “We may be surrounded by many more murderous plants than we think.
Blood-curdling tales of meat-eating plants have fascinated people in Britain ever since the first live venus flytrap to reach London caused a sensation across Europe in the 18th century.
Hopefully we all can accept the truth and enjoy eating all those fresh red tomatoes in our sandwiches. And for those who are non vegetarians, this news won't mean much.
Source - The Independent - Attack of the killer tomatoesResearchers at Royal Botanical Gardens Kew now have found that there are hundreds more plants that catch and eat insects and other small animals than they previously believed. Among them are species of petunia, ornamental tobacco plants, potatoes and tomatoes and shepherd’s purse, a relative of cabbages.
“Widely recognised carnivorous plants number some 650 and we estimate that another 325 or so are probable additions – so an increase of about 50 per cent,” said Dr Mike Fay, of Kew.
Researchers realised the plant world was more bloodthirsty than had been realised when they carried out an assessment of carnivorous plants to celebrate the bicentenary of Charles Darwin’s birth.
Darwin himself had been fascinated by carnivorous plants and conducted many experiments in which he fed them meat, and in 1875 his book on them, Insectivorous Plants, was published.
Ornamental tobaccos, and some species of potatoes and tomatoes which have sticky hairs which trap aphids and other small invertebrates are such plants. It is thought that rather than eating the prey directly they use the dead bodies decay slowly and the nutrients fall to the ground where they are taken up by the roots.
The Independent says "Such an ability is comparable to that of Roridula in Southern Africa which has sticky leaves on which flies get stuck but has no means of digesting them. It relies on a bug which devours the flies and the plant is then able to extract nutrients from the faeces which drop to the ground. Domestic varieties of tomatoes and potatoes retain the ability to trap and kill small insects with their sticky hairs and are likely to absorb the nutrients through their roots when the animals decay and fall to the ground. "
Usually when we grow them in farms, we give them enough food so they might not need to use insects for getting nutrition but in the wild they eat insects.
Dr Fay said the study’s findings backed up the idea that all flowering plants began with the capacity to eat meat when they evolved but that only some of them made use of and retained the ability.
The researchers, publishing their finding in The Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, added: “We may be surrounded by many more murderous plants than we think.
Blood-curdling tales of meat-eating plants have fascinated people in Britain ever since the first live venus flytrap to reach London caused a sensation across Europe in the 18th century.
Hopefully we all can accept the truth and enjoy eating all those fresh red tomatoes in our sandwiches. And for those who are non vegetarians, this news won't mean much.
