this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 8 points 7 hours ago

Where are my plants that impregnate human females through their vines used as tentacles, as promised by hentai?

[–] rizzothesmall@sh.itjust.works 15 points 21 hours ago

Flowers already attracted insects. The evolution of flower into carnivorous flower is a smaller leap than a tuba or leaf into carnivory as they would also have to evolve to attract the prey.

[–] TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee 29 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm sorry but who says that all of the good botany questions have been answered??

[–] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] drolex@sopuli.xyz 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

He's a disgrace. Still classifying Rhinantus minor in the Scrophulariaceae instead of Orobanchaceae after APGIII. Smh.

[–] Ledericas@lemm.ee 4 points 1 day ago

funfact, orobacnacaeae is a parasitic group of plants also are called BROOMRAPES.

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Is it vegan if you eat carnivorous plants?

[–] Zoomboingding@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Vegan enough for package labelling, not vegan enough for the psychic powers

[–] Nasan@sopuli.xyz 4 points 23 hours ago

You get three strikes though, I think that's pretty lenient

[–] stray@pawb.social 80 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Genetic evidence suggests that carnivory developed by co-opting and repurposing existing genes which had established functions in flowering plants

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnivorous_plant

[–] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 43 points 1 day ago (1 children)

All the interesting botany questions have been answered

[–] Hadriscus@jlai.lu 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Hadriscus@jlai.lu 11 points 1 day ago
[–] PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

We just haven't found the carnivorous trees yet. Those poor, poor squirrels...

[–] Ledericas@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

there are trees armed to the teeth or extremely poisonous, many in euphorbiacae family. dynamite tree, machineel

[–] Eagle0110@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

Well there's a fundamental difference between a carnivorous plant and a murderous plant who just kills.

There are many plants who kill large number of animals all the time, as defense measures for example. But a carnivorous plant specifically kills the prey in order extract nutrients from it and use it to benefit itself, and it does so using specialized adaptations specific for that purpose and not just accidentally (like a broken tree branch falling down killing somebody down below doesn't make the tree carnivorous)

So a carnivorous plant needs to have ALL of these traits:

  1. capturing or trapping prey in specialized, usually attractive, traps;
  2. killing the captured prey;
  3. digesting the prey;
  4. absorption of metabolites (nutrients) from the killed and digested prey;
  5. use of these metabolites for plant growth and development.

...in order to be considered a carnivorous plant.

Source: Carnivorous Plants: Physiology, Ecology, and Evolution from Oxford University Press

(HIGHLY recommend if you're interested in this topic, it's an extremely good book and the best comprehensive overview on carnivorous plants at the moment, with fairly up to date information from this rapidly developing field of study!

[–] PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Armed to the teeth or armed with teeth...that they chew live animals with? Because I'm only interested in the latter.

[–] Redfox8@mander.xyz 1 points 1 day ago

Feeed mee Seymour

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[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 50 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Because the flowers attract food in the form of insects. I must be missing something here.

[–] drolex@sopuli.xyz 35 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Carnivorous plants need to attract insects to feed AND to reproduce. Of course they don't want to eat the pollinators so they usually have flowers with long stems

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yep! The pitcher plants around here have high flowers and Venus Fly Traps have hilariously high flowers.

[–] Ledericas@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago

sundews too, and sarrencenia, aquatic plants. also we found out some pitchers attract mammals for thier nutrient rich poop"poop in thier pitchers" to get all that nitrogen.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Pitcher plants and flytraps use sugary secretions to attract prey not flowers.

[–] zedgeist@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Why would they want to attract flowers?

Because they're pretty, duh

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Both use flowers with long stems to keep the pollinators out of harm's way. I grow both, seen it IRL.

[–] Baaahb@feddit.nl 43 points 1 day ago

Flowering plants use life to spread genetics. No reason to be carnivorous if there's no reason for animals to crawl all over you

[–] Ioughttamow@fedia.io 29 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Because they have fallen to the corruption of slaanesh

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 5 points 1 day ago

Stupid sexy flowering Slaanesh!

[–] Railcar8095@lemm.ee 6 points 1 day ago

Ah, I See You're a Man of Deneracy As Well

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Audrey II was a literal alien. It might not even technically be a plant, it just resembles one. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 6 points 1 day ago

Ok, so prove all the other plants aren't aliens?

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

A human has 46 chromosomes, a potato 48, this also explains some things.

[–] whoisearth@lemmy.ca 1 points 23 hours ago

People with Downs Syndrome are the missing link between humans and potatoes?

[–] PanaX@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

While all of these answers are mostly true, you have to go back in time. Darwin called it the abomniable mystery. Flowering plants and insects co-evolved rapidly roughly 150 MYA. So prior to flowering plants, there were few plants and insects and they were mostly generalists. The rapid expansion and explosion of insect diversity is deeply entangled with the explosion of diversity in angiosperms.

[–] Ledericas@lemm.ee 4 points 1 day ago

the oldest pollinators, prior to bees,butterflies and other insects. were beetles, as evidence of magnolias one of the oldest lineage of flowers, use only beetles.

[–] PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Ultimately it's more about trapping and consuming live animals, I don't really care if they actually chew.

[–] Derpenheim@lemmy.zip 15 points 1 day ago

Carnivory in plants is ALWAYS the secondary option, usually as a result of poor soil quality. Typical pollination via flowering bodies is the go to.

[–] whimsy@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Since when has carnivory been a word, what the hell

Since as long as carnivore has been a word, probably. Carnivory is the noun for the act of eating meat, carnivore is the noun for a creature that eats meat and carnivorous is the adjective to describe a creature that eats meat.

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[–] Redfox8@mander.xyz 10 points 1 day ago

Because they live in environments lacking in the nutrients that can be gained from invertebrates (e.g. in highly acidic soil). This allows them to compete better against other plants. I guess non-flowering plants don't need the same nutrients so can go without. Only a beginnner+ at ecological botany so someone here can surely explain better knowing lemmy!

[–] henfredemars@infosec.pub 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Could it be because most plant species are flowering plants?

[–] zagaberoo@beehaw.org 3 points 1 day ago

Sex is a hell of a drug when it comes to diversity.

[–] xia@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I remember watching this farmer make a case otherwise, that ordinary bramble (?) is specialized to ensnare and trap fluffy sheep, providing chemical nutrients to the bush.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 12 points 1 day ago

An interesting theory, but there are good reasons to doubt the claim, including the fact that woolly sheep are a recent product of human breeding, and that wild sheep are not even native to the same areas blackberries grow.

[–] Redfox8@mander.xyz 2 points 1 day ago

There's tonnes of blackthorn and a lot of sheep in the UK and I've never heard it to be problematic. Sheep ate pretty dim, but bramble is definitely not thorny/spiney enough to get caught bar the odd occasion. I'm sure I heard about a shrub (African maybe) that sheep can get completely ensnared in and die, but can't find it!

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