Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

They Really Do Eat Insects

Learning from Charles Darwin’s Experiments with Carnivorous Plants

  • Chapter
Darwin-Inspired Learning

Part of the book series: New Directions in Mathematics and Science Education ((NDMS))

  • 800 Accesses

Abstract

Carnivorous plants. The idea of plants eating animals conjures up visions of giant Venus’s flytraps making meals of humans in a Little Shop of Horrors or Triffids marauding across the English countryside. And indeed, these strange plants have inspired countless children’s books and science-fiction movies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Adamec, L. (1997). Mineral nutrition of carnivorous plants: A review. Botanical Review, 63(3), 273–299.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Albert, V. A., Williams, S. E., & Chase, M. W. (1992). Carnivorous plants: Phylogeny and structural evolution. Science, 257(5076), 1491–1495.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bauer, U., Bohn, H. F., & Federle, W. (2008). Harmless nectar source or deadly trap: Nepenthes pitchers are activated by rain, condensation and nectar. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 275(1632), 259–265.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bohn, H. F., & Federle, W. (2004). Insect aquaplaning: Nepenthes pitcher plants capture prey with the peristome, a fully wettable water-lubricated anisotropic surface. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 101(39), 14138–14143.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. L., & Ellison, A. M. (2007). Nitrogen cycling dynamics in the carnivorous northern pitcher plant. Sarracenia purpurea. Functional Ecology, 21(5), 835–843.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. L., Gotelli, N. J., & Ellison, A. M. (2008). Linking the brown and green: Nutrient transformation and fate in the Sarracenia microecosystem. Ecology, 89(4), 898–904.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chamberlin, T. C. (1890). The method of multiple working hypotheses. Science (Old Series), 15(366), 92–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conan Doyle, A. (1890). The sign of four. London: Spencer Blackett.

    Google Scholar 

  • D’Amato, P. (2013). The savage garden, revised: Cultivating carnivorous plants. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Darwin, C. (1859). On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. London: John Murray.

    Google Scholar 

  • Darwin, C. (1875). Insectivorous plants. London: John Murray.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Darwin, C. (1880). The power of movement in plants. London: John Murray.

    Google Scholar 

  • Darwin, F. (1878a). Insectivorous plants. Nature, 17(429), 222–223.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Darwin, F. (1878b). The nutrition of Drosera rotundifolia. Nature, 18(449), 153–154.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Darwin, F. (1911). The life and letters of Charles Darwin, including an autobiographical chapter. New York, NY: D. Appleton & Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dixon, P. M., Ellison, A. M., & Gotelli, N. J. (2005). Improving the precision of estimates of the frequency of rare events. Ecology, 86(5), 1114–1123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dodoens, R. (1554). Cruijdeboeck. Leyden, The Netherlands.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellis, J. (1770). Directions for bringing over seeds and plants from the East Indies, and other distant countries in a state of vegetation. To which is added, the figure and botanical description of a new plant, Dionaea muscipula or Venus’s Flytrap. London: L. Davis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellison, A. M., & Adamec, L. (2011). Ecophysiological traits of terrestrial and aquatic carnivorous plants: Are the costs and benefits the same? Oikos, 120(11), 1721–1731.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ellison, A. M., & Farnsworth, E. J. (2005). The cost of carnivory for Darlingtonia Californica (Sarraceniaceae): Evidence from relationships among leaf traits. American Journal of Botany, 92(7), 1085–1093.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ellison, A. M., & Gotelli, N. J. (2009). Energetics and the evolution of carnivorous plants: Darwin’s ‘most wonderful plants in the world’. Journal of Experimental Botany, 60(1), 19–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ellison, A. M., Butler, E. D., Hicks, E. J., Naczi, R. F. C., Calie, P. J., Bell, C. D., & Davis, C. C. (2012). Phylogeny and biogeography of the carnivorous plant family Sarraceniaceae. PLoS ONE, 7(6), e39291.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flinders, M. (1814). A voyage to Terra Australis; undertaken for the purpose of completing the discovery of that vast country (Vol 1). London, UK: W. Bulmer & Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Forterre, Y., Skotheim, J. M., Dumais, J., & Mahadevan, L. (2005). How the Venus flytrap snaps. Nature, 433(7204), 421–425.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frank, J. H., & O’Meara, G. F. (1984). The bromeliad catopsis berteroniana traps terrestrial arthropods but harbors Wyeomyia larvae (Diptera: Culicidae). Florida Entomologist, 67(3), 418–424.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gerard, J. (1633). The herbal or general history of plants, revised and enlarged by Thomas Johnson. London: Norton & Whittakers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghiselin, M. T. (2005). Homology as a relation of correspondence between parts of individuals. Theory in Biosciences, 124(2), 91–103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Givnish, T. J., Burkhardt, E. L., Happel, R. E., & Weintraub, J. D. (1984). Carnivory in the bromeliad Brocchinia reducta, with a cost/benefit model for the general restriction of carnivorous plants to sunny, moist, nutrient-poor habitats. American Naturalist, 124(4), 479–497.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gotelli, N. J., & Ellison, A. M. (2012). A primer of ecological statistics (2nd ed.). Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Green, S., Green, T. L., & Heslop-Harrison, Y. (1979). Seasonal heterophylly and leaf gland features in Triphyophyllum (Dioncophyllaceae), a new carnivorous plant genus. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 78(2), 99–116.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hooker, W. J. (1858). Nepenthes villosa from Kina-Baloo, Borneo. Curtis’s Botanica Magazine, 14(3rd series), 5080.

    Google Scholar 

  • Juniper, B. E., Robins, R. J., & Joel, D. M. (1989). The carnivorous plants. London: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kellermann, C., & von Raumer, E. (1878). Vegetationsversuche an Drosera rotundifolia, mit und ohne Fleischfutterung. Botanische Zeitung, 36(14), 209–218, 225–229.

    Google Scholar 

  • Linnaeus, C. (1753). Species plantarum, exhibentes plantas rite cognitas, ad genera relatas. Stockholm, Sweden: Laurentius Salvius.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lloyd, F. E. (1942). The carnivorous plants. New York, NY: Ronald Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Macbride, J. (1818). On the power of Sarracenia adunca to entrap insects. Transactions of the Linnean Societyof London, 12, 48–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Platt, J. R. (1964). Strong inference. Science, 146(3642), 347–353.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Popper, K. (1959). The logic of scientific discovery. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sirota, J., Baiser, B., Gotelli, N. J., & Ellison, A. M. (2013). Organic-matter loading determines regime shifts and alternative states in an aquatic ecosystem. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 110(19), 7742–7747.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sowerby, J. (1790). English botany. London: R. Hardwicke.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taper, M. L., & Lele, S. R. (Eds). (2004). The nature of scientific evidence. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Harvard Forest, Harvard University, USA

    Aaron M. Ellison

Authors
  1. Aaron M. Ellison
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Education, University of London, UK

    Carolyn J. Boulter

  2. Institute of Education, University of London, UK

    Michael J. Reiss

  3. Department of Pedagogical, Curricular and Professional Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

    Dawn L. Sanders

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Sense Publishers

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Ellison, A.M. (2015). They Really Do Eat Insects. In: Boulter, C.J., Reiss, M.J., Sanders, D.L. (eds) Darwin-Inspired Learning. New Directions in Mathematics and Science Education. SensePublishers, Rotterdam. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6209-833-6_19

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation