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Are these the longest tentacles ever?

the "fingers" intrigue me. burmannii seems to have those as well. they dont produce mucilage, or not nearly as much as the other tendrils. what purpose do they serve? could it be that they are used for the absorption of nutrients?
 
Bingo.
 
Hi,

i doubt, that these so called "snap tentacles" can absorp nutrients. I think, they are rather used to adhere the prey. These tentacles can move quite fast (especially in D. glanduligera, sessilifolia and burmanii) and are very long, so they are perfect for this work.

Not only D. sessilifolia has such tentacles. Many other do also have them. The interesting thing about it is, that they look quite different in different species! It's worth taking a look at them. Siggi Hartmeyer has done some work in examinig these tentacles on different species. His results are presented on a DVD (you can buy them at him personnaly - i don't know if there is an english version).

I took some real time video of the movement of these kind of tentacels some time ago. Here are the links:

Drosera cuneifolia:
http://www.utricularia.net/sonstiges/DROS81.AVI

Drosera rubrifolia:
http://www.utricularia.net/sonstiges/DROS83.AVI

Drosera intermedia x capillaris:
http://www.utricularia.net/sonstiges/DROS105.AVI

each video is about 9MB.

Christian
 
My understanding was that these long retentive gland curled inward to block the prey from escaping off the leaf. Not sticky, just as a barrier so they couldn’t get off the edge and escape.

This itself is pure regurgitation, by the way
 
i have noticed that my D. burmanni, after a feed, the long tentacles will retract but they produce the sticky stuff for maby a day or so.... they are very fast though and i think Finch is right.
Alex
 
They are sticky though not as much as the regular tentacles.

They act to keep the insect from escaping (as mentioned before) but if an insect is unlucky enough to come in contact with only the retentive gland, it will quickly be lifted to the center of the leaf.

Sticking ants on the retentive glands is fun! :p Well.. not for the ant.
 
yes they are basically almost completely non-stick stalked glands that are used to quickly snare (in the case of really small ants) or block the escape of already captured prey, or at least from what I've observed with my plants.
 
Those videos are very interesting, I've never seen a sundew move without some sort of time lapse... makes me wish that my attempt at germinating sessilifolia seeds had worked. :/
 
  • #10
One-of-The-PYGMY-Sundews Has Incredibly-Long RIBBON-Tentacles ... The-LONGEST "I"ve-Ever-Seen.

There's-R JPEG of It Floating-Around The Internet THART-"I"-'Saw' When-"I" First Got 'Bach'-ON The Net IN-[2008] After Being-OFF For 5-Years so-to-Speak.

"I"-'Reckon' If-You GOOGLE-Imaged ALL-The-Known-Names of Pygmies You'd-'Eventually' Stumble-UPON-It "I"-'Guess'!!!???

"I"-'Wonder' What Its 'Target'-Prey Would-Be so-to-Speak!!!??? >(*~*)<

"I"-'Mean' GLANDULIGERA Can-Support &-'Toss'-ELEPHANTS When-Considered ON-The-Scale-of-Ant-Mandibles & GRANDE-Pianos so-to-Speak!!! >(*U^)<

Perhaps GLANDULIGERA Is-'Not' The-'Fastest'-SUNDEW On-Earth Afteral ... Perhaps THIS-Species With 'Longer' RIBBON-Tentacles-IS So-To-Speak!!!??? >(*~*)< / >(*U^)<
 
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