It won鈥檛 bite.
But if you鈥檙e a tiny insect like a midge or gnat, and walking up the sticky stalk of a Triantha occidentalas 鈥� a flowering wetland plant commonly found on Vancouver Island and all along the Pacific coast 鈥� it will literally suck the life out of you.
The plant isn鈥檛 new. Botanists have known of its existence for about 150 years.
But now scientists at the University of 颅British Columbia have discovered the Triantha 颅occidentalas has evolved into a new lineage of carnivorous plant, capable of ingesting the 颅nitrogen and phosphorus of captured prey in order to survive and thrive in an otherwise 鈥渘utrient-poor habitat.鈥�
It鈥檚 a significant discovery because, since the time of Charles Darwin, it鈥檚 only the 12th known carnivory evolution in the plant kingdom and the first time the trait has been discovered in the Alismatales order, which contains about 4,500 species of tropical or aquatic flowering plants.
The findings, by UBC botany doctoral student Quianshi Lin and Prof. Sean Graham, along with Tom Givnish at the University of Wisconsin-颅Madison, were published this month in the National Academy of Sciences. It was the first new carnivorous plant discovered by scientists in 20 years.
鈥淐arnivorous plants have fascinated people since the Victorian era because they turn the usual order of things on its head 鈥� this is a plant eating animals,鈥� said Graham.
He said although the study area was on North Vancouver鈥檚 Cypress Mountain, 鈥測ou can drive an hour out of Victoria, or Nanaimo, and find them.鈥�
It lives in wetlands in open areas from sea level to the alpine.
What makes the Triathna occidentalas unique among carnivorous plants is its capture area isn鈥檛 in the flower, but along the stem, where a series of small sticky hairs trap small insects.
鈥淭his seems like a conflict between carnivory and pollination because you don鈥檛 want to kill the insects that are helping you reproduce,鈥� said Lin.
Researchers found the plant was able to 颅balance its taste for bugs with pollination because the small trapping hairs on its stem aren鈥檛 strong enough to hold major pollinators such as bees and butterflies.
鈥淭he smallest insects like midges, tiny flies and small beetles are held, but we have never found a bee or butterfly,鈥� said Graham.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a case where this plant can have its cake and eat it, too.鈥�
Lin built on previous work by Graham, who found Trianthna lacked a particular gene often missing in carnivorous plants.
Lin attached fruit flies labelled with nitrogen isotopes to its flowering stem. This provided a tracking system to trace nitrogen uptake by the plant. Other plants nearby, such as the 颅carnivorous sundew and non-carnivorous 颅species, were used as controls in the study.
Analysis found a 鈥渟ignificant uptake of 颅nitrogen鈥� by Triantha, showing it received more than half its nitrogen from prey.
The study also found the sticky hairs on the stock produced a digestive enzyme used by several carnivorous plants to absorb phosphates from prey.
鈥淚n science, there is always speculating and new hypotheses. Many are tested, but many turn out to be not true,鈥� said Graham. 鈥淚t is rare. So that is why this is a very significant discovery.鈥�
The proximity of Triantha to major urban centres in western sa国际传媒 and the Pacific coast in the United States suggests that other carnivorous plants 颅鈥� and many other 颅ecological surprises 鈥� remain to be discovered, even in well-studied ecosystems.
Graham cautioned that if you want to bring Triantha home to deal with pesky summer fruit flies, please don鈥檛. It鈥檚 not wise to uproot wild plants, and it doesn鈥檛 do well outside of its natural environment.
He suggests admiring its quirks and buggy appetite from a distance.
