Carnivorous plants

Carnivorous plants [ Botany ]

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

Plants adapted to attract and capture and digest primarily insects but also other small animals

A carnivorous plant is a plant that obtain some or most of its nutrients (but not energy) by trapping and consuming invertebrate and vertebrate animals (especially insects). Each type of Carnivorous plant seems to have developed its own unique way of capturing prey, This might include a glue-like substance, special hairs, coloured orbs or even a special sweet scent but in general this plants may be subdivided into 2 major groups; those with passive traps and those with active traps. Once the prey has been captured the plants digest and absorb the nutrients. Carnivorous plants usually grow in places where the soil is thin or poor in nutrients, especially nitrogen, such as acidic bogs and rock outcroppings

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Holdfast roots [ Botany ]
Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

Some species of climbing plants develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place.

Climbing plants, like the poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata), and trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans), develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place. Usually the Holdfast roots die at the end of the first season, but in some species they are perennial. In the tropics some of the large climbing plants have hold-fast roots by which they attach themselves, and long, cord-like roots that extend downward through the air and may lengthen and branch for several years until they strike the soil and become absorbent roots.

Major references and further lectures:
1) E. N. Transeau “General Botany” Discovery Publishing House, 1994