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Carnivorous tomatoes???

Great!And when I tell my friends they'll probably say"They are a new species?"HAhhaahahahah...I can imagine their faces
 
thats awesome Thanks for sharing Brian

daren
 
That's a really enlightening article. That has lots of potential ramifications. I pity the taxonomists!
 
Interesting article but are the protective hairs all that makes them "carnivorous"?

It seems quite a bit of a stretch to say that since something is dead on the ground near a plant that makes it "carnivorous". Almost every plant is bound to have something dead near it rotting in the soil making it more nutritious, this would make every plant "carnivorous" if we go by this model.

Are you SURE these Kew people are accredited botanists? :poke:


:D
 
I was just about to post this article too! Very intresting but it has been hypothesized before in many CP book's. Nice to know they are doing more studies!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091204103747.htm

Some other intresting articles on CP's there too!


Are you SURE these Kew people are accredited botanists?

Swords,
They are one of the formost leading experts in botanical science! In fact they are one of the first nursery to bring CP's into cultivation! It is still just a hypothesis, but if normal plant and animal matter helps fertilize the plant wouldn't be in the plants benefit to "capture" and drop more matter near it's roots? It also could be more of a defence response then a preditory one.
 
Great. Now we should give them a name like Tomatoeii. lol.
 
Swords,
They are one of the formost leading experts in botanical science! In fact they are one of the first nursery to bring CP's into cultivation! It is still just a hypothesis, but if normal plant and animal matter helps fertilize the plant wouldn't be in the plants benefit to "capture" and drop more matter near it's roots? It also could be more of a defence response then a preditory one.

lol I was just being silly. I have a number of books from Kew Publications, orchid books by Philip Cribb, the Taylor Utricularia book and so on.

I just think it's a bit of stretch comparing apples to oranges or in this case Nepenthes to Tomatoes. I can respect the idea that the hairs may indeed be there to stop/trap very small insects but to say that the bug trapped in the hairs and then eventually (if ever) falling to the ground and rotting in the soil is the same as an actual carnivorous trap is a little goofy to me. For one there are no digestive enzymes, just natural decay in the soil.
 
Cool, but I don't think it should be called carnivorous. It sounds more like a positive side effect of killing pests and the goal is to kill, not to eat.
 
  • #10
Agreed! Also impossible to prove! My personal opinion is it's going to be a defence factor and nothing else.

lol I was just being silly. I have a number of books from Kew Publications, orchid books by Philip Cribb, the Taylor Utricularia book and so on.

I just think it's a bit of stretch comparing apples to oranges or in this case Nepenthes to Tomatoes. I can respect the idea that the hairs may indeed be there to stop/trap very small insects but to say that the bug trapped in the hairs and then eventually (if ever) falling to the ground and rotting in the soil is the same as an actual carnivorous trap is a little goofy to me. For one there are no digestive enzymes, just natural decay in the soil.
 
  • #11
I read that article a few days ago...God, how sad! Now every plant that has hairs or kills stuff with poison is carnivorous. This is more of an insult than something cool to talk about, IMHO.

In order to be carnivorous, the plant has to produce enzymes to digest the prey. This does not mean 'Let the prey be washed off and fall to the ground, then decompose over the course of a few days, then be absorbed by the roots of the plant a few weeks later....otherwise we could say that Ibicella is just as carnivorous as a VFT or another carnivore.
 
  • #12
Would apple trees absorbing the nutrients of their own fallen rotting apples be cannibals?
 
  • #13
Maybe the ICPS could start a petition that this reclassification is preposterous and uses the term carnivorous in the broadest sense possible. By extension of the theory every plant that grows in soil is a possible "carnivore". Of course according to the persons in the book Orchid Fever it seems to be Kew who holds all the botanical aces (and authorities) at their beck and call so it's rather like trying to fight the Monarchy.
 
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