Plant Cell Energy Production

Most plants use photosynthesis to make chemical energy for them to use. They do this by absorbing light from the sun.

However, there are some plants that can capture, kill, and digest animals and other organisms ranging from protozoans to invertebrates and even small vertebrates.

Some examples of these types of plants are sundews, pitcher plants, and venus flytraps. So all of these plants are able to capture, kill, and digest animals and other organisms. Now, these plants usually are in acidic environments. And these environments usually lack nitrogen. And so these areas are poor in nutrients and so that’s why these plants capture, kill, and digest these animals and other organisms.

Aquatic bladderworts capture prey using unique bladder traps attached to delicate branches. And so water is constantly pumped out of the bladder by an active ion transport process, which produces a partial vacuum. Now when an aquatic invertebrate like daphnia, which is a water flea, brushes against the hair-like triggers on the outside of the bladder, a door to the vacuum is suddenly opened, causing water to rush in, sucking in the prey with it.

So this can occur in less than 1/60 of a second, then the doors quickly slam shut again and the animal is digested by the plant. So that’s just one example of the traps these plants use to kill these animals and organisms.

 

 

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by Mometrix Test Preparation | This Page Last Updated: March 3, 2022