October 21, 1962 - Carnivorous Plants
Focus on Nature
Carnivorous Plants
Exclusive Sunday Review Sketch by Dennis Puleston of Brookhaven.
Cutchogue
Guest Writer: this plant. Under the water Sur-
branching
inch flower stalk which bears
Art Cooley face is a complex
complicated as t he
four or five small white flowers.
growth as
This Week's writer has been flower and stalk about the Sur-
feathery branchings
Each flower waits to be polli-
na Each fl small insects which if
absent from our column for over face. On the
hundreds of tiny bladders.
they are not careful become food
a yam. Art Cooley, a science are
teacher in Bellport, spent 1 as t These structures have a one
"trap Once an insect
for the plant.
A few years ago any observant
year teaahing in Scotland. He has way door."
we can again or tiny pond animal makes its
newspaper reader could find an
now returned and
look forward to his contributions ay into this trap his exit is
,n
he tells of barred by the "door." He is slow-
advertisement for c a r n i v o us
plants for only $.59. Some un-
to our column. Today
world of inset- ly digested and consumed by the
thinking reader wrote in to find
the fascinating
here on Long
out if they would harm or con-
plant.
On plants
Island. p.s. On shore, life is no less pe ace-
sume the family hild before
m a kin his y
g purchase. Even
The nature observer finds ful for The small cher plant grows
p
though the Venus flay trap is quite
many enjoyable and pleasant sure swamp.
These ha num
in the damp sp ii
small, it still remains the most
prises in his wanderings. nestled
Its leaves shaped k e •
amazing of all the insectivorous
sojourns may take him to such moss.
diverse plats as a rock studded powder horns hold their o p e n
to catch some of
plants. Native only to the Caro-
coast with its intriguing ti d a I ends skyward
mountain lake the summer's rains. The o p e n
linas, this rapid mover in the
plant kingdom can close its dou-
pools or a clear
abounding in woodland species. end of each leaf is border some
lip or flap
ble flapped leaf in a tenth of a
To observer each trip one side by a
o the cal Here, where the
T
second. This speed, coupled with
10
is a new and exciting adventure two inches wide.
his eye has insects land, are rows and rows
to 20 spines on the outside
edge of each flap, enables the
as he finds things
overlooked before or as he spots of tiny hairs pointing downwards.
insects crawl about they
fly trap to capture any insect
hit h' happens
an animal or plant that he has As the
Despite the are led downwards by t h e s e
w to trigger the
hairs on the inside of each flap.
never seen before.
living forms, t h e hairs towards the open end of
Only the largest and strongest of
diversity of
naturalist will find few that are the leaf. Some of the insects ac-
fall and land in the
the insects are capable of forcing
as bizarre and unique as inset- cidentally olif
water in the " pitchen." The
their way out of this trap once
it has closed completely.
tivorous plants.
Long Island, with its two sides of this animal trap are as
All of the above plants, repre-
terminal moraines extending east s fish d able top and p ovide no
sentatives of the four best known
groups of insectivorous
and west and a flat south, plain traction for the struggling in-
to the south, has pro-
succumb and
plants,
retain one last secret f r o m
extending
vided nature with an appropriate sects. They soon
drop to the bottom of the liquid
the professional botanist. Do
these plants need and utilize for
ecological niche to accomodate
plants. - R i v e r s where they provide food for the
their growth the insects which
these unusual
emerge onto this fiat plain where pitcher plant.
The pitcher plant is very corn-
they capture by these ingenious
and nearly foolproof methods? As
they form areas of slow moving
which eventually become mon in many parts of the world
of different and
great a scientist as Darwin car -
waters
filled with aquatic plants a n d where a number
covered with unusual species occur. The Long
ried out some preliminary ex-
periments to attempt to answer
debris and Then are
thick carpet of s p h a g n u m Island species (Sarracenia pure
in a rosette with
this question. He found that if
a rows
moss. Giant blocks of ice were purea) g
from four to 10 leaves radiating
he removed the insect capturing
device the plants did not repro-
left embedded in the d =bris of
These huge "ice out from
athrusts central
single
duce so well as if they had the
the glacier. ant up a
cubes" melted and formed rain- low P
kettle dark red flower which h a n g s
device attached.
With recent developments, par -
filled depressions called
These formed particularly from the end of a foot and places
titularly with the use of radio-
lakes.
along the middle and
b g n it is this solitary blossom which
active isotopes, it is possible to
feed insects containing t a g g e d
of the island. They tone
i It and decayed reveals the presence of the at-
chemicals and then follow t h e
to fill with s
vegetation and were partially most hidden plant.
pitcher is
Iffind
use
use of These foods in the plant.
this method theoretically it
covered with large areas of t
to the casual. observer,
is possible to show how t h e
sphagnum moss. t
its fantastic u
spat Careful
chemicals of the insects b o d y
This moss with with and
water capacity p des Only with patient
c t i c conditions searching will this usually tom -
are utilized by the plant.
It s'ems appropriate, however,
I i
the moist c 1 i m a
moist
for the peculiar pitcher mon insectivorous plant be found
the m o r e
that one of natures most interest -
necessary
sundew. The f r e s h squashed between
Some -
ins groups of plants are capable
plant . and
which remain nur- vigorous sphagnum moss.
ter world,
to withstand the onslaught
wter ponds
a
the other common inset- how, in this competitive
is the sundew leaves, all of half an
of scientific knowledge and en-
plant -the bladderwort.
inch in diameter, compete suc
quirt' and keep secret a m o s t
'and
If, in his travels, the nature
finds himself one of fuleaves, earn ^ The
interesting
intriguing
process•
observer a a covered with
these fresh water ponds in late tiny
Tittle "fingers." Each "f i n g e r"
FIELD OBSERVATIONS
pond
August, he may find the pro
covered with a lavender hue. has Small in insects viscous searching the
L R ERNEST REPORTS:
un
This color is produced by p•
flowers from the bog for food find the sundew
Shinnecock — Oct 6-9
dreds of single
purple bladderwort. is ingen- leaves Yuch too sticky Hav-
a single six inch sequentl become trapped.
Oregon Junco
ious plant sends
flower stalk above the surface ing captured an insect, the sun-
converges t lie
Clapper Rail
of the water. At the end of this dew leaf slowly
"fingers" onto the
Red - breasted Mergansers (5)
stalk is a single purple flower remaining
one oird to one half an helpless creature. Like a closing
in-
Southampton —Oct 6 9
about
inch across. In some places they hand, the leaf encloses om
and it disapp=
Field Sparrow
blossom in such numbers as to sect
appear to color the pond surface, to be absorbed.
for survival the
Vesper Sparrow
Brown Creepers (2)
However, this modest flower does In its struggle
s undew sends up a sin le six
Ruby - crowned Kinglets (4)
not indicate the real nature of
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