While it is not uncommon to see an insect eating a plant, sometimes the reverse is true, quite possibly more often than you think. There are several types of insect-eating plants that live in the United States. These plants often inhabit the wet soils of marshes and bogs. These soils lack nitrogen, which is an essential nutrient for plant growth. These plants derive nitrogen from insects after trapping and digesting them.
The most popular insect-eating plant is perhaps the Venus flytrap. The leaves of the flytrap are clam-shaped with spikes around the edges. When an insect lands on the flytrap, the leaves snap shut, and the spikes trap the insect inside. Although it is called a flytrap, the plant mostly eats crawling insects because it is more difficult for them to escape. The largest insect-eating plant is the pitcher plant. This plant gets its name from the leaves, shaped like pitchers, which collect rainwater. The rim of the pitcher has stiff, downward pointing hairs. When insects enter the “pitcher,” the hairs trap the insects, which are now unable to escape. The insects then fall into the bottom of the pitcher, drown, and are digested. The sundew plant consumes insects with its acid. The leaves of the plant use sticky tentacles to trap an insect for a meal. The bladderwort traps insects similarly to the Venus flytrap. The bladderwort is a water plant that has many small bladders, which have trapdoors and sensitive bristles. When an insect touches a bristle, the trapdoor pulls water and the insect inside the bladder before digesting it. Although these plants have an unorthodox method of gathering nutrients, they are truly fascinating specimens.
