Carniflora News – February 2020 (PDF)

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Carniflora News – February 2020 (PDF) THE AUSTRALASIAN CARNIVOROUS PLANTS SOCIETY INC. CARNIFLORA NEWS A.B.N. 65 467 893 226 February 2020 Aldrovanda vesiculosa in flower. Photographed by David Colbourn Drosera petiolaris. Photographed by Robert Gibson Welcome to Carniflora News, a newsletter produced by the Australasian Carnivorous CALENDAR Plants Society Inc. that documents the meetings, news and events of the Society. FEBRUARY The current committee of the Australasian Carnivorous Plant Society Inc. comprises: 7th February 2020 - AUSCPS meeting - Canberra featuring a Venus Fly Trap workshop 9th February 2020 - Old Bus Depot Markets - Canberra 14th February 2020 - AUSCPS meeting - Sydney Utricularia, Aldrovanda & Genlisea COMMITTEE MARCH 6th March 2020 - AUSCPS meeting - Canberra featuring Carnivorous Plants 101 President - Wesley Fairhall 13th March 2020 - AUSCPS meeting - Sydney Byblis, Drosophyllum & Roridula [email protected] 15th March 2020 - Old Bus Depot Markets - Canberra 28-29th March - Collectors’ Plant Fair, Clarendon, N.S.W. Vice President - Barry Bradshaw APRIL [email protected] 3rd April 2020 - AUSCPS meeting - Canberra Utricularia, Aldrovanda & Genlisea 10th April 2020 - AUSCPS meeting - Sydney Nepenthes & carnivorous bromeliads Treasurer - David Colbourn 13th April 2020 - Royal Easter Show - Carnivorous Plant Competition [email protected] MAY 1st May 2020 - AUSCPS meeting - Canberra Cephalotus, Heliamphora and Pinguicula Secretary - Kirk ‘Füzzy’ Hirsch 8th May 2020 - AUSCPS meeting - Sydney featuring Cephalotus and Heliamphora [email protected] JUNE General Committee Member - Sean Polivnick 5th June 2020 - AUSCPS meeting - Canberra Pygmy Drosera, perennial Byblis & [email protected] Roridula 12th June 2020 - AUSCPS meeting - Sydney featuring Carnivorous bromeliads JULY 3rd July 2020 - AUSCPS meeting - Canberra featuring a Sarracenia and Darlingtonia DELEGATES 10th July 2020 - AUSCPS meeting - Sydney (AGM) featuring Winter growing Drosera AUGUST Journal Editor - Dr. Robert Gibson Sydney Coordinator - Wesley Fairhall 7th August 2020 - AUSCPS meeting - Canberra - Pests, diseases, terrariums & lights. [email protected] 14th August 2020 - AUSCPS meeting - Sydney featuring Pinguicula Newsletter Editor - David Colbourn Sydney Coordinator - Kirk Hirsch SEPTEMBER [email protected] [email protected] 4th September 2020 - AUSCPS meeting - Canberra - Drosera workshop; Canberra region carnivorous plants. 11th September 2020 - AUSCPS meeting - Sydney featuring Nepenthes Public Officer - Kirk Hirsch Brisbane Coordinator - Brent Jones [email protected] [email protected] OCTOBER 2nd October 2020 - AUSCPS meeting - Canberra - The world of carnivorous plants. Website Manager - Marina Chong Brisbane Coordinator - Vacant 9th October 2020 - AUSCPS meeting - Sydney featuring Summer growing Drosera NOVEMBER 6th November 2020 - AUSCPS meeting - Canberra - Nepenthes; Sarracenia display Social Media Coordinator - Glen Moss Canberra Coordinator - Barry Bradshaw 13th November 2020 - AUSCPS meeting - Sydney - Sarracenia and Darlingtonia [email protected] TBA - VCPS annual show, Collector’s Corner, Melbourne TBA - Triffid Park open day Merchandise Manager - David Colbourn Canberra Coordinator - Chris Duffy [email protected] DECEMBER TBA- VCPS annual show, Collector’s Corner, Melbourne 4th December 2020 - AUSCPS meeting - Canberra - Christmas Party Events Coordinator - Jeremy Aitken Canberra Coordinator - Robert Little 11th December 2020 - AUSCPS - Sydney - Annual Show JANUARY Seed Bank Manager - Ian Woolf Library Manager - Glenn Carson 1st January 2021 - AUSCPS meeting - Canberra [email protected] [email protected] 8th January 2021 - AUSCPS meeting - Sydney featuring Dionaea (VFT) NEWS VFT COMPETITION The AUSCPS is sponsoring a competition to find the largest VFT trap this season. The $20 in 2020 competition is being hosted on Facebook and is open to residents of Australia. Entrants Due to our strong financial position, we are able to reduce the cost of membership to the need to post a picture of their largest trap with a ruler in front of it. The largest trap will Society. From 2020 membership (electronic) will now be $20. Those wishing to receive be measured from the base of the widest teeth on each trap. The winner will receive a the printed journal as part of their membership are still required to pay $35 per year due $50 Bunnings Gift Card. Competition closes on 31/5/2020. To enter, simply post a photo to the cost of printing and postage. Those that have already paid their 2020 of your trap to the competition post on our Facebook Page, or email your photo to memberships (and beyond) will receive a refund via cash or cheque. [email protected] where it will be uploaded. ROYAL EASTER SHOW CARNIVOROUS PLANT COMPETITION Entry to the 2020 Carnivorous Plant Competition at the Sydney Royal Flower & Garden Show is open now. Entries close on Wednesday the 4th March. The show runs from 3rd April to the 14th April 2020. Judging of the carnivorous plants takes place on Monday the 13th April. The AUSCPS is sponsoring the event again this year and we have doubled the prize money with 1st place winners receiving $40 and runner-up receiving $20. There are eight categories again this year, detailed below: MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL 1st $40, 2nd $20 each Class unless otherwise specified. Membership of the Australasian Carnivorous Plant Society Inc. (AUSCPS) is due now. Membership to the Society is $20 per calendar year, or $35 if you require printed CLASS 601 - Dionaea (Venus Fly Trap), single plant, in pot not exceeding 200mm. journals with your membership. The AUSCPS is a not for profit organisation that CLASS 602 - Drosera (Sundew), single species, in pot not exceeding 200mm. promotes the conservation and cultivation of carnivorous plants in Australia and abroad. CLASS 603 - Nepenthes, single species, minimum 3 pitchers, in pot not exceeding 350mm. CLASS 604 - Nepenthes, single hybrid plant, minimum 3 pitchers, in pot not exceeding 350mm. CLASS 605 - Sarracenia, multiple crown single species, minimum 3 pitchers, in pot not exceeding 200mm. Membership entitles you to two editions CLASS 606 - Sarracenia, multiple crown single hybrid plant, minimum 3 pitchers, in pot of our journal, Carniflora Australis, 12 not exceeding 200mm. editions of our monthly newsletter, CLASS 607 - Australian Native single carnivorous plant, single species, in pot not Carniflora News, subsidised seed from exceeding 200mm. our seed bank, discounts on books and CLASS 608 - Carnivorous Plant, other, single species, in pot not exceeding 200mm. other merchandise, access to our free library and access to sell plants at fairs (S6080) - CHAMPION CARNIVOROUS PLANT. All first prize winning Carnivorous and events attended by the Society. A Exhibits are eligible. membership form is attached to this newsletter with instructions on how to More information may be found at: make payment. https://www.myras.com.au/res/onlineshowentries/Login.aspx?dir=FlowerGarden.aspx FIELD GUIDE OLD BUD DEPOT MARKETS The Field Guide to the Carnivorous The AUSCPS will be holding a stall at the Old Bus Depot markets in Canberra on the Plants of Sydney and the Blue 9th February 2020. There will be a good range of plants for sale from our members at Mountains was released on the 13th the stall. More information may be found at https://obdm.com.au December and is now available for sale. The RRP is $15. Members may purchase the guide for $10 (limit of 2 COLLECTORS PLANT FAIR copies per member). The guide may be The CPF is fast approaching and will be held at the Hawkesbury Racecource, purchased from meetings and events, Clarendon on the 28-29th March 2020. This is a great venue to buy those hard to find and will also be for available on eBay. plants. The AUSCPS will be holding a stall with a huge variety of CPs for sale from our Sales have been strong with orders from members. Visit http://www.collectorsplantfair.com for more information. around the county and internationally. REQUEST FOR JUDGES AT THE ROYAL EASTER SHOW The AUSCPS has sponsored the carnivorous plant competition at the Sydney Royal Easter Show for the past few years and has also provided judges for the event. Judges are circulated every two years to maintain fair and unbiased judging. We are in need of more judges. The Royal Agricultural Society will offer training and pay for entry, parking and lunch on the day of judging. If you are interested in being a judge at the Sydney Royal Easter Show please contact David at [email protected] PLANT OF THE MONTH 2020 will see $10 Bunnings gift cards offered to winners of the Plant of the Month segment at both the Sydney and Canberra meetings. Each meeting has a theme Genera or topic, so bring your best plants along to the meetings to be in the chance to win. FUND RAISING RAFFLE The AUSCPS is holding a fund-raising raffle. The prize is a copy of Redfern Natural History’s limited edition Cephalotus - the Albany Pitcher Plant. Tickets are $2 each or three for $5. Sales will be available at our meetings or online via PayPal. Just use the payment instructions on our membership form and indicate the purchase is for raffle tickets. The raffle will be drawn at the Sydney meeting on the 14th February 2020. RECOMMENCEMENT OF THE LIBRARY The Society has a vast collection of journals from around the world along with a selection of books about carnivorous plants. As such we are bringing back our library available to members on a trial basis. It is expected the library will visit our branches
Recommended publications
  • Foraging Modes of Carnivorous Plants Aaron M
    Israel Journal of Ecology & Evolution, 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/22244662-20191066 Foraging modes of carnivorous plants Aaron M. Ellison* Harvard Forest, Harvard University, 324 North Main Street, Petersham, Massachusetts, 01366, USA Abstract Carnivorous plants are pure sit-and-wait predators: they remain rooted to a single location and depend on the abundance and movement of their prey to obtain nutrients required for growth and reproduction. Yet carnivorous plants exhibit phenotypically plastic responses to prey availability that parallel those of non-carnivorous plants to changes in light levels or soil-nutrient concentrations. The latter have been considered to be foraging behaviors, but the former have not. Here, I review aspects of foraging theory that can be profitably applied to carnivorous plants considered as sit-and-wait predators. A discussion of different strategies by which carnivorous plants attract, capture, kill, and digest prey, and subsequently acquire nutrients from them suggests that optimal foraging theory can be applied to carnivorous plants as easily as it has been applied to animals. Carnivorous plants can vary their production, placement, and types of traps; switch between capturing nutrients from leaf-derived traps and roots; temporarily activate traps in response to external cues; or cease trap production altogether. Future research on foraging strategies by carnivorous plants will yield new insights into the physiology and ecology of what Darwin called “the most wonderful plants in the world”. At the same time, inclusion of carnivorous plants into models of animal foraging behavior could lead to the development of a more general and taxonomically inclusive foraging theory.
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  • Status of Insectivorous Plants in Northeast India
    Technical Refereed Contribution Status of insectivorous plants in northeast India Praveen Kumar Verma • Shifting Cultivation Division • Rain Forest Research Institute • Sotai Ali • Deovan • Post Box # 136 • Jorhat 785 001 (Assam) • India • [email protected] Jan Schlauer • Zwischenstr. 11 • 60594 Frankfurt/Main • Germany • [email protected] Krishna Kumar Rawat • CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute • Rana Pratap Marg • Lucknow -226 001 (U.P) • India Krishna Giri • Shifting Cultivation Division • Rain Forest Research Institute • Sotai Ali • Deovan • Post Box #136 • Jorhat 785 001 (Assam) • India Keywords: Biogeography, India, diversity, Red List data. Introduction There are approximately 700 identified species of carnivorous plants placed in 15 genera of nine families of dicotyledonous plants (Albert et al. 1992; Ellison & Gotellli 2001; Fleischmann 2012; Rice 2006) (Table 1). In India, a total of five genera of carnivorous plants are reported with 44 species; viz. Utricularia (38 species), Drosera (3), Nepenthes (1), Pinguicula (1), and Aldrovanda (1) (Santapau & Henry 1976; Anonymous 1988; Singh & Sanjappa 2011; Zaman et al. 2011; Kamble et al. 2012). Inter- estingly, northeastern India is the home of all five insectivorous genera, namely Nepenthes (com- monly known as tropical pitcher plant), Drosera (sundew), Utricularia (bladderwort), Aldrovanda (waterwheel plant), and Pinguicula (butterwort) with a total of 21 species. The area also hosts the “ancestral false carnivorous” plant Plumbago zelayanica, often known as murderous plant. Climate Lowland to mid-altitude areas are characterized by subtropical climate (Table 2) with maximum temperatures and maximum precipitation (monsoon) in summer, i.e., May to September (in some places the highest temperatures are reached already in April), and average temperatures usually not dropping below 0°C in winter.
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  • Reports Ecological Analyses of Relationships Between Essen- and Frost 1991, Ellison and Gotelli 2002)
    Ecology, 86(7), 2005, pp. 1737±1743 q 2005 by the Ecological Society of America PREY ADDITION ALTERS NUTRIENT STOICHIOMETRY OF THE CARNIVOROUS PLANT SARRACENIA PURPUREA AMY E. WAKEFIELD,1 NICHOLAS J. GOTELLI,1,3 SARAH E. WITTMAN,1 AND AARON M. ELLISON2 1University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont 05405 USA 2Harvard University, Harvard Forest, P.O. Box 68, Petersham, Massachusetts 01366 USA Abstract. The carnivorous pitcher plant Sarracenia purpurea receives nutrients from both captured prey and atmospheric deposition, making it a good subject for the study of ecological stoichiometry and nutrient limitation. We added prey in a manipulative ®eld experiment and measured nutrient accumulation in pitcher-plant tissue and pitcher liquid, as well as changes in plant morphology, growth, and photosynthetic rate. Prey addition had no effect on traditional measures of nutrient limitation (leaf morphology, growth, or pho- tosynthetic rate). However, stoichiometric measures of nutrient limitation were affected, as the concentration of both N and P in the leaf tissue increased with the addition of prey. Pitcher ¯uid pH and nitrate concentration did not vary among treatments, although dissolved oxygen levels decreased and ammonia levels increased with prey addition. Ratios of N:P, N:K, and K:P in pitcher-plant tissues suggest that prey additions shifted these carnivorous plants from P limitation under ambient conditions to N limitation with the addition of prey. Key words: carnivorous plants; ®eld experiment; K:P ratio; N:K ratio; N:P ratio; nitrogen; nutrient limitation; phosphorus; Sarracenia purpurea; stoichiometry. INTRODUCTION many species alter production or morphology of car- nivorous organs in response to nutrient input (Knight Reports Ecological analyses of relationships between essen- and Frost 1991, Ellison and Gotelli 2002).
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  • Outline of Angiosperm Phylogeny
    Outline of angiosperm phylogeny: orders, families, and representative genera with emphasis on Oregon native plants Priscilla Spears December 2013 The following listing gives an introduction to the phylogenetic classification of the flowering plants that has emerged in recent decades, and which is based on nucleic acid sequences as well as morphological and developmental data. This listing emphasizes temperate families of the Northern Hemisphere and is meant as an overview with examples of Oregon native plants. It includes many exotic genera that are grown in Oregon as ornamentals plus other plants of interest worldwide. The genera that are Oregon natives are printed in a blue font. Genera that are exotics are shown in black, however genera in blue may also contain non-native species. Names separated by a slash are alternatives or else the nomenclature is in flux. When several genera have the same common name, the names are separated by commas. The order of the family names is from the linear listing of families in the APG III report. For further information, see the references on the last page. Basal Angiosperms (ANITA grade) Amborellales Amborellaceae, sole family, the earliest branch of flowering plants, a shrub native to New Caledonia – Amborella Nymphaeales Hydatellaceae – aquatics from Australasia, previously classified as a grass Cabombaceae (water shield – Brasenia, fanwort – Cabomba) Nymphaeaceae (water lilies – Nymphaea; pond lilies – Nuphar) Austrobaileyales Schisandraceae (wild sarsaparilla, star vine – Schisandra; Japanese
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  • The First Record of the Boreal Bog Species Drosera Rotundifolia (Droseraceae) from the Philippines, and a Key to the Philippine Sundews
    Blumea 61, 2016: 24–28 www.ingentaconnect.com/content/nhn/blumea RESEARCH ARTICLE http://dx.doi.org/10.3767/000651916X691330 The first record of the boreal bog species Drosera rotundifolia (Droseraceae) from the Philippines, and a key to the Philippine sundews F.P. Coritico1, A. Fleischmann2 Key words Abstract Drosera rotundifolia, a species of the temperate Northern Hemisphere with a disjunct occurrence in high montane West Papua, has been discovered in a highland peat bog on Mt Limbawon, Pantaron Range, Bukidnon carnivorous plants on the island of Mindanao, Philippines, which mediates to the only other known tropical, Southern Hemisphere Drosera location in New Guinea and the closest known northern populations in southern Japan and south-eastern China. Droseraceae A dichotomous key to the seven Drosera species of the Philippines is given, and distribution maps are provided. Malesia Mindanao Published on 15 March 2016 Northern Hemisphere - Tropics disjunction Philippines INTRODUCTION Drosera rotundifolia L. (the generic type) is a temperate, winter dormant species that is widespread in the Northern The Philippines are rich in carnivorous plants, with about 47 Hemisphere, from Pacific North America across large parts of species known from the islands, most of which belong to the northern America and Europe to Siberia and the Kamchatka pitcher plant genus Nepenthes L. This genus has more than 30 Peninsula, South Korea and Japan. It is the Drosera spe- species in the Philippines, all except Nepenthes mirabilis (Lour.) cies covering the largest range, spanning the entire Northern Druce endemic to the country. Most species occur on Mindanao Hemisphere from 180° Western Longitude to about 180° East, and Palawan, while several are confined to a single highland however, not forming a continuous circumboreal range (Diels or even mountain peak (Robinson et al.
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  • Deletion of Cephalotus Follicularis from Appendix II
    Prop. 11.6 CONVENTION ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN ENDANGERED SPECIES OF WILD FAUNA AND FLORA A. PROPOSAL Deletion of Cephalotus follicularis from Appendix II. B. PROPONENT Commonwealth of Australia (Environment Australia) C. SUPPORTING STATEMENT The monotypic genus Cephalotus is an insectivorous plant endemic to south western Australia. It occurs on wetland margins throughout the southwest corner of Western Australia. This portion of Western Australia has a high rainfall and as a result there are extensive areas of suitable habitat, especially on the south coastal plain. Within its range are large areas of government owned forests, National Parks and other reserves where the species is common and is likely to occur in vast numbers. The species is easily propagated from small segments of rhizomes and, as a result, it is commonly traded and is widely cultivated. Morphological variation in wild populations is not evident. As the species is easily propagated, it is unlikely that cultivated stocks are derived from wild collections. Cephalotus follicularis has been identified by the CITES Plants Committee under the Ten Year Review as a candidate for deletion from Appendix II as there has been no recorded trade in wild taken specimens since the species was listed. The proposal received full endorsement of the 5th meeting of the CITES Plants Committee in Mexico, May 1994. 1. Taxonomy 1.1. Class Magnoliatae 1.2. Order Rosales 1.3. Family Cephalotaceae 1.4. Genus/species Cephalotus follicularis Labillardière 1806 1.5. Common name Western Australian pitcher plant; Albany pitcher plant 2. Biological data 2.1. Distribution The area of distribution ranges over 400 km from NW to SE and corresponds with the meso- mediterranean climate of the extreme south western part of Australia.
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  • Carnivorous Plant Responses to Resource Availability
    Carnivorous plant responses to resource availability: environmental interactions, morphology and biochemistry Christopher R. Hatcher A doctoral thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University November 2019 © by Christopher R. Hatcher (2019) Abstract Understanding how organisms respond to resources available in the environment is a fundamental goal of ecology. Resource availability controls ecological processes at all levels of organisation, from molecular characteristics of individuals to community and biosphere. Climate change and other anthropogenically driven factors are altering environmental resource availability, and likely affects ecology at all levels of organisation. It is critical, therefore, to understand the ecological impact of environmental variation at a range of spatial and temporal scales. Consequently, I bring physiological, ecological, biochemical and evolutionary research together to determine how plants respond to resource availability. In this thesis I have measured the effects of resource availability on phenotypic plasticity, intraspecific trait variation and metabolic responses of carnivorous sundew plants. Carnivorous plants are interesting model systems for a range of evolutionary and ecological questions because of their specific adaptations to attaining nutrients. They can, therefore, provide interesting perspectives on existing questions, in this case trait-environment interactions, plant strategies and plant responses to predicted future environmental scenarios. In a manipulative experiment, I measured the phenotypic plasticity of naturally shaded Drosera rotundifolia in response to disturbance mediated changes in light availability over successive growing seasons. Following selective disturbance, D. rotundifolia became more carnivorous by increasing the number of trichomes and trichome density. These plants derived more N from prey and flowered earlier.
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  • Carnivorous Plant Newsletter V42 N3 September 2013
    Technical Refereed Contribution Phylogeny and biogeography of the Sarraceniaceae JOHN BRITTNACHER • Ashland, Oregon • USA • [email protected] Keywords: History: Sarraceniaceae evolution The carnivorous plant family Sarraceniaceae in the order Ericales consists of three genera: Dar- lingtonia, Heliamphora, and Sarracenia. Darlingtonia is represented by one species that is found in northern California and western Oregon. The genus Heliamphora currently has 23 recognized species all of which are native to the Guiana Highlands primarily in Venezuela with some spillover across the borders into Brazil and Guyana. Sarracenia has 15 species and subspecies, all but one of which are located in the southeastern USA. The range of Sarracenia purpurea extends into the northern USA and Canada. Closely related families in the plant order Ericales include the Roridu- laceae consisting of two sticky-leaved carnivorous plant species, Actinidiaceae, the Chinese goose- berry family, Cyrillaceae, which includes the common wetland plant Cyrilla racemiflora, and the family Clethraceae, which also has wetland plants including Clethra alnifolia. The rather charismatic plants of the Sarraceniaceae have drawn attention since the mid 19th century from botanists trying to understand how they came into being, how the genera are related to each other, and how they came to have such disjunct distributions. Before the advent of DNA sequencing it was very difficult to determine their relationships. Macfarlane (1889, 1893) proposed a phylogeny of the Sarraceniaceae based on his judgment of the overlap in features of the adult pitchers and his assumption that Nepenthes is a member of the family (Fig. 1a). He based his phy- logeny on the idea that the pitchers are produced from the fusion of two to five leaflets.
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  • Giant Cephalotus of Unknown Origins
    Giant Cephalotus of unknown origins Dick Chan • P.O. Box 2252 • Pasadena • California 91102 • USA • [email protected] Introduction I have been growing Cephalotus follicularis for over 20 years. Initially, I was obsessed with grow- ing specimen-type Cephalotus of different clones and to prove once-and-for-all that this was not a difficult plant to grow. Countless plants have met their demise as I experimented with various meth- ods of cultivation. For those that have survived and flourished, I noticed one plant in particular that grew larger, more vigorous, and had a different pitcher/leaf morphology than Cephalotus ‘Hummer’s Giant’ and the typical Cephalotus. However, I do not believe this plant to be just a better-grown speci- men of ‘Hummer’s Giant’. Through the years, I have given and sold this plant to individuals calling it the “Bubble Giant”, however, I have not received nor heard any feedback as to the well-being of those plants. So, for those reading this article and have received this plant from me, I would appreciate seeing some photos. For the remainder of this article, this plant will be referred to as the “unknown”. Origins During my initial spark-of-entry into the hobby, I started collecting Cephalotus cuttings, plants, stems, and leaves from anyone who had the plant and was willing to give or sell a piece to me. Be- cause of that activity, this plant is of an unknown origin because of the feverish pace by which I went about amassing what I had hoped would become a genetically diverse collection of plants.
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  • Testing Darwin's Hypothesis About The
    vol. 193, no. 2 the american naturalist february 2019 Natural History Note Testing Darwin’s Hypothesis about the Wonderful Venus Flytrap: Marginal Spikes Form a “Horrid q1 Prison” for Moderate-Sized Insect Prey Alexander L. Davis,1 Matthew H. Babb,1 Matthew C. Lowe,1 Adam T. Yeh,1 Brandon T. Lee,1 and Christopher H. Martin1,2,* 1. Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599; 2. Department of Integrative Biology and Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720 Submitted May 8, 2018; Accepted September 24, 2018; Electronically published Month XX, 2018 Dryad data: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.h8401kn. abstract: Botanical carnivory is a novel feeding strategy associated providing new ecological opportunities (Wainwright et al. with numerous physiological and morphological adaptations. How- 2012; Maia et al. 2013; Martin and Wainwright 2013; Stroud ever, the benefits of these novel carnivorous traits are rarely tested. and Losos 2016). Despite the importance of these traits, our We used field observations, lab experiments, and a seminatural ex- understanding of the adaptive value of novel structures is of- periment to test prey capture function of the marginal spikes on snap ten assumed and rarely directly tested. Frequently, this is be- traps of the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula). Our field and labora- cause it is difficult or impossible to manipulate the trait with- fi tory results suggested inef cient capture success: fewer than one in four out impairing organismal function in an unintended way; prey encounters led to prey capture. Removing the marginal spikes de- creased the rate of prey capture success for moderate-sized cricket prey however, many carnivorous plant traits do not present this by 90%, but this effect disappeared for larger prey.
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  • The Microbial Phyllogeography of the Carnivorous Plant Sarracenia Alata
    Microb Ecol (2011) 61:750–758 DOI 10.1007/s00248-011-9832-9 PLANT MICROBE INTERACTIONS The Microbial Phyllogeography of the Carnivorous Plant Sarracenia alata Margaret M. Koopman & Bryan C. Carstens Received: 6 November 2010 /Accepted: 15 February 2011 /Published online: 24 March 2011 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 Abstract Carnivorous pitcher plants host diverse microbial Introduction communities. This plant–microbe association provides a unique opportunity to investigate the evolutionary process- The integration of ecosystem genetics, phylogenetics, and es that influence the spatial diversity of microbial commu- community ecology has provided important insights into nities. Using next-generation sequencing of environmental the diversity, assembly, evolution, and functionality of samples, we surveyed microbial communities from 29 communities [1–5]. By exploring ecosystems in an evolu- pitcher plants (Sarracenia alata) and compare community tionary framework, investigators can measure genetic composition with plant genetic diversity in order to interactions across variable temporal and spatial scales explore the influence of historical processes on the and gain insight into fundamental processes such as food population structure of each lineage. Analyses reveal web dynamics and nutrient cycling [1, 3, 4]. Studies that there is a core S. alata microbiome, and that it is integrating these fields initially focused on the genetics of similar in composition to animal gut microfaunas. The plant species that supply a variety of important resources spatial structure of community composition in S. alata and environmental structure to other organisms in the (phyllogeography) is congruent at the deepest level with ecosystem [6]. An intriguing extension of these studies, the dominant features of the landscape, including the and an important opportunity for community geneticists, is Mississippi river and the discrete habitat boundaries that to further investigate community level responses to host– the plants occupy.
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  • Insectivorous Plants”, He Showed That They Had Adaptations to Capture and Digest Animals
    the Strange, the Ugly, and the Bizarre . carnivores, parasites, and mycotrophs . Plant Oddities - Carnivores, Parasites & Mycotrophs Of all the plants, the most bizarre, the least understood, but yet the most interesting are those plants that have unusual modes of nutrient uptake. Carnivore: Nepenthes Plant Oddities - Carnivores, Parasites & Mycotrophs Of all the plants, the most bizarre, the least understood, but yet the most interesting are those plants that have unusual modes of nutrient uptake. Parasite: Rafflesia Plant Oddities - Carnivores, Parasites & Mycotrophs Of all the plants, the most bizarre, the least understood, but yet the most interesting are those plants that have unusual modes of nutrient uptake. Things to focus on for this topic! 1. What are these three types of plants 2. How do they live - selection 3. Systematic distribution in general 4. Systematic challenges or issues 5. Evolutionary pathways - how did they get to what they are Mycotroph: Monotropa Plant Oddities - The Problems Three factors for systematic confusion and controversy 1. the specialized roles often involve reductions or elaborations in both vegetative and floral features — DNA also is reduced or has extremely high rates of change for example – the parasitic Rafflesia Plant Oddities - The Problems Three factors for systematic confusion and controversy 2. their connections to other plants or fungi, or trapping of animals, make these odd plants prone to horizontal gene transfer for example – the parasitic Mitrastema [work by former UW student Tom Kleist]
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