Carnivorous plant

Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients (but not energy) from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans, typically insects and other arthropods. Carnivorous plants have adapted to grow in places where the soil is thin or poor in nutrients, especially nitrogen, such as acidic bogs. Charles Darwin wrote Insectivorous Plants, the first well-known treatise on carnivorous plants, in 1875.Six basic trapping mechanisms are found in carnivorous plants.The evolution of carnivorous plants is obscured by the paucity of their fossil record. Very few fossils have been found, and then usually only as seed or pollen. Carnivorous plants are generally herbs, and their traps are produced by primary growth. They generally do not form readily fossilisable structures such as thick bark or wood.Carnivorous plants are widespread but rather rare. They are almost entirely restricted to habitats such as bogs, where soil nutrients are extremely limiting, but where sunlight and water are readily available. Only under such extreme conditions is carnivory favored to an extent that makes the adaptations advantageous.The classification of all flowering plants is currently in a state of flux. In the Cronquist system, the Droseraceae and Nepenthaceae were placed in the order Nepenthales, based on the radial symmetry of their flowers and their possession of insect traps. The Sarraceniaceae was placed either in the Nepenthales, or in its own order, the Sarraceniales. The Byblidaceae, Cephalotaceae, and Roridulaceae were placed in the Saxifragales; and the Lentibulariaceae in the Scrophulariales (now subsumed into the Lamiales).In horticulture, carnivorous plants are considered a curiosity or a rarity, but are becoming more common in cultivation with the advent of mass-production tissue-culture propagation techniques. Venus flytraps are still the most commonly grown, usually available at garden centers and hardware stores, sometimes offered alongside other easy to grow varieties. Nurseries that specialize in growing carnivorous plants exclusively also exist, more uncommon or demanding varieties of carnivorous plants can be obtained from specialist nurseries. California Carnivores is a notable example of such a nursery in the US that specializes in the cultivation of carnivorous plants. It is owned and operated by horticulturalist Peter D'Amato. Rob Cantley's Borneo Exotics in Sri Lanka is a large nursery that sells worldwide. A study published in 2009 by researchers from Tel Aviv University indicates that secretions produced by carnivorous plants contain compounds that have anti-fungal properties and may lead to the development of a new class of anti-fungal drugs that will be effective against infections that are resistant to current anti-fungal drugs.Carnivorous plants have long been the subject of popular interest and exposition, much of it highly inaccurate. Fictional plants have been featured in a number of books, movies, television series, and video games. Typically, these fictional depictions include exaggerated characteristics, such as enormous size or possession of abilities beyond the realm of reality, and can be viewed as a kind of artistic license. Two of the most famous examples of fictional carnivorous plants in popular culture are the 1960s black comedy The Little Shop of Horrors and the triffids of John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids. Other movies, such as The Hellstrom Chronicle (1971), and television series utilize accurate depictions of carnivorous plants for cinematic purposes.