Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2000 10:10:21 -0700 From: Ivan Snyder <bioexp@juno.com> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg1047$foo@default> Subject: Devil's Claws
Hi CPers,
Devil's Claws, are they carnivorous? Whether they are or not they should
be of interest to those of us who study carnivorous plants. I have
assembled some info here that I hope at least will amuse. I will post
this in parts since it's long.
In the past few years a number of authors have investigated this plant in
regard to its possible carnivory. I feel in reading that Barry
Meyers-Rice delivered the final blow to our respect and interest in this
plant in two articles in the June 1999 Carnivorous Plant Newsletter. This
he did by demonstrating not only is the plant probably not carnivorous,
but also it stinks! Since then I have heard little else on the plant. But
please read on, I have additional information which may redeem the plant
in your eyes. And anyway, I now grow one which my friend Ed Read brought
back from Mexico that doesn't stink.
CARNIVORY?
Barry and others tested the plant using the photographic film method
proving that the plant does not digest the protein substance gelatin. I
tested Ibicella lutea another way. I put smashed ( **humanely killed** )
fruit flies and drops of milk on the leaves and then put the plant in a
plastic bag over night. I did this because I noticed in Byblis it would
not secrete digestive fluid unless it was humid. The next day I saw that
there was a fluid pooled around the flies and milk droplets, and the milk
was curdled. I did this test also on other sticky plants including a very
gooey monkey flower (Mimulus sp.), but all these others did not secrete a
fluid as did Ibicella. Under the microscope I saw glands on the leaf
surface of Ibicella which I think did the secreting besides the sticky
glandular trichomes much like in Pinguicula. Devil's Claw does in fact
capture insects. But all this does not prove that the plant is
carnivorous. I believe the plant is merely displaying defensive tactics.
Perhaps they could be labeled "opportunistically carnivorous", but these
plants do not seem to rely on carnivory. I do, as a person interested in
CP find this plant worthy of study because this I think is an example of
precisely how carnivory originated in Pinguicula. And consider this,
Devil's Claw is only one small step away from being truely carnivorous.
Maybe one day soon some biotechnologist will insert the gene for
digestion into the plant making it into a fully fledged CP. Then all you
strict CPers might be more respectful of this stinking plant.
In part II tomorrow, read more exciting facts about different kinds of
Devil's Claws and where to get them.
Ivan Snyder
Hermosa Beach
California
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