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Australian Carnivorous Plants N AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HISTORY International Standard Serial Number: 0004-9840 1. Australian Carnivorous Plants N. S. LANDER 6. With a Thousand Sea Lions JUDITH E. KING and on the Auckland Islands BASIL J . MAR LOW 12. How Many Australians? W. D. BORRIE 17. Australia's Rainforest Pigeons F. H. J. CROME 22. Salt-M aking Among the Baruya WILLIAM C. CLARKE People of Papua New Guinea and IAN HUGHES 25. The Case for a Bush Garden JEAN WALKER 28. "From Greenland's Icy Mountains . .... ALEX RITCHIE F RO NT COVER . 36. Books Shown w1th its insect prey is Drosera spathulata. a Sundew common 1n swampy or damp places on the east coast of Australia between the Great Div1d1ng Range and the AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HISTORY 1s published quarterly by The sea. and occasionally Australian Museum. 6-8 College Street. Sydney found 1n wet heaths in Director Editorial Committee Managing Ed 1tor Tasman1a This species F H. TALBOT Ph 0. F.L S. HAROLD G COGGER PETER F COLLIS of carnivorous plant also occurs throughout MICHAEL GRAY Asia and 1n the Philip­ KINGSLEY GREGG pines. Borneo and New PATRICIA M McDONALD Zealand (Photo S Jacobs) See the an1cle on Australian car­ ntvorous plants on page 1 Subscrtpttons by cheque or money order - payable to The Australian M useum - should be sent to The Secretary, The Australian Museum. P.O. Box 285. Sydney South 2000 Annual Subscription S2 50 posted S1nglc copy 50c (62c posted) jJ ___ AUSTRALIAN CARNIVOROUS PLANTS By N . S.LANDER Over the last 100 years a certain on ly one. Nepenthes mirabilis. is found in "carnivorous-plant-mindedness" has developed Australia. in rainforests on Queensland's Cape in the general public. encouraged by stories of York Peninsula. Nepenthes mirabilis. or Tropical fabulous man-eating trees told in popular Pitcher Plant. is also known from southern magazines and newspapers. Such accounts are China. throughout Malaysia and New Guinea. lt invariably accompanied by gruesome illustrations is an undershrub or vine. c limbing by means of which depict flowers as diabolical traps. More tendrils terminating its large leaves. At the end often than not the scenes of these stories are of the tendril there is often a pendulous pitcher. set on mysterious faraway islands. in the depths The pitchers are of various shapes and up to of tropical jungles or even on planets other than seven inches long; they are usually green. often our own. While these blood-curdling tales are with patches and veins of dark red or pink. Two intended for titillation rather than instruction. raised. fringed ribs form a pathway leading to they do contain some measure of truth: there are the thickened corrugated rim of the mouth. plants on earth capable in miniature of much above which is a small spurred lid. From each that writers of fiction may imagine. corrugation on the pitcher rim an inwardly Carnivorous plants are particularly common in projecting "claw" is developed. associated with Australia. where all but one of the six which is a nectar gland. These glands. which are carnivorous-plant families are represented. Two also found on the lower surface of the lid. of these families. Cephalotaceae and provide the lure attracting insects to the rim of Byblidaceae. are unique to this country. the pitcher. Just below the rim is a broad. The trapping mechanisms of carnivorous smooth and waxy zone or "glacis". a sli ppery. plants may be passive or active. Passive traps unwettable surface providing no foothold for an may be of the pitfall or the flypaper type. Active insect. The lower part of the pitcher is the traps may be of the flypaper. springtrap or digestive zone. with numerous disc-like g lands mousetrap types. By "active traps" is meant each in a shallow pit. those w hich possess special movements that are An insect venturing onto the glacis loses its necessary to the capture of prey or that footing and falls into the digestive liquid; the contribute to its capture. slippery surface of the glacis prevents it from cra wling out. Some Malaysian species of Perhaps the most spectacular of the Nepenthes have enormous pitchers credited with carnivorous plants found in Australia are the catching small mammals and birds! Pitcher Plants Nepenthes and Cephalotus. Several organisms are able to make their Nepenthes. the only genus in the family homes within the pitcher. There are spiders Nepenthaceae. has about 65 species. of which which live nowhere else. preying on insects attracted there. Blue-green algae. protozoans. desmids and ciiatoms. rotifers. oligochaetes. NICHOLAS S. LANDER was appointed a botanist at the National Herbarium of New South Wales in 1971 crustaceans and dipteran larvae have been found after graduating B.Sc. from the University of Sydney. amongst the "aquatic flora and fauna" of His work involves identification of Australian native pitchers . plants and research into their classification. Of particular interest to him are the Compositae or "daisy Unti I it is well developed the pitcher lid family" and the various insectivorous families. remains hermetically sealed by a dense pad of interweaving hairs. Even in unopened pitchers there is abundant secretion. Since the liquid dark-red ribs. each curving over into the pitcher Pitcher of Nepenthcs mirabilis Note the throat and ending in a sharply downpointed frmged ribs wh•ch form tooth. Inside. below this formidable array of dark the pathway. the wnauon on the pitcher teeth, is a smooth white ledge also sloping wall. and the spurred lid (Photo S Jaoobsl downwards and overhanging the cavity of the pitcher. On this ledge, as well as on the lid. are nectar glands. Beneath the ledge is the glacis. the upper part of which is covered with digestive glands. In the lower half of the pitcher there is on each side a kidney-shaped, deeply red-coloured "lateral gland mass", the function of w hich is also digestive. The bottom of the pitcher has no glands. but contains the fluid in which the insects are digested. Insects attracted to the pitcher by the nectar at its mouth are guided by the inward and downward projecting ribs on to the glacis. from which they tumble into the digestive fluid below. The unfortunate victims are prevented from escaping by the sloping ledge which, like the mouth of a lobster pot permits one-way traffic only. The prey of the genera Byblis and Drosera is caught in a sticky mass rather like the within unopened pitchers remains sterile it has old -fashioned flypaper rolls that used to be hung been effectively used for bathing sore eyes and from ceilings. Byblis, the only genus in the inflameo skin. family Byblidaceae, is confined to Australia. Cephalotus follicularis, the Western Australian There are two species, Byblis liniflora and Byblis Pitcher Plant. is restricted to the acid. peaty gigantea. The latter is the larger plant and ~s soils in swamplands of the south-west of found in drying flats and sandy swamps 1n Western Australia. lt is the only species in the Western Australia. lt is commonly known as the only genus in the family Cephalotaceae. lt is a Rainbow Plant because of its pinkish-mauve. low rosetted plant with a thick branching iridescent flowers. Byblis liniflora is a much rootstock bearing numerous clusters of pitchers. finer. smaller plant found near watercourses and lt has two kinds of leaves. The conventional swamps in Western Australia. the Northern leaves are oval. shiny. green and fleshy on Territory and Queensland. tapering stalks. The pitcher leaves are often so Byblis plants are covered with nu.merous brightly coloured that they are sometimes glands of two types, sticky glands and dtgesttve mistaken for flowers. Although the actual glands. The sticky glands are on the ends . of flowers, borne on a tall stem. are very smalL long hairs and exude a gluey subst~nce whtch pale green. and lack petals, they have a catches prey. The digestive glands he close to characteristic heavy. sweet perfume. the surface of the stems and leaves. A captured In a shady place the pitchers may be entirely insect. while struggling in the grasp of t~e lo.ng green. but when growing in sunshine they hairs. comes in contact with the d1gest1ve assume brilliant red and purple hues. Up to two glands and is slowly consumed. inches long. they resemble a decorated slipper at One small wingless insect. a capsid or Leaf one end and a lidded jug at the other. The lid is Bug. has made its home on the plant and moves latticed with coloured veins. between which are freely over the sticky glands withou~ becoming patches of translucent tissue rather like window entangled. lt feeds on the plant's captives. of panes. As with Nepenthes, this lid remains In contrast to the passive flypaper trap closed until the pitcher is fully developed. The Byblis is the active flypaper trap of Drosera. The pitcher is strengthened by three broad. raised vanous. spec.1es of Drosera, c?mmanly known asIn rib s fringed with long bristles. The pitcher Sundews present a w 1de vanety of leaf form .. · · h f' hairy mouth is surrounded with twenty-four shiny. all species the leaves are covered Wit 1ne 2 tentacles tipped with sticky red glands. These Leaf of Nepenthes mirabilis. showing the tentacles are active traps which move to ensnare tendril to be an exten· their prey. An insect's slightest struggle not only sion of the mid·rib. Note the elevated path· brings it into contact with other tentacles. but way on the pitcher wall each tentacle transmits a stimulus to others. and formed by two raised ribs. the patterning on in response they, too.
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