Eli5:how and why some plants have become carnivorous? And do those plants still require water and sun or is meat the only source of growth for them?
In: Biology
They evolved to live in soil with very little nutrients. They still need water and sunlight, but they have to get the stuff that isn’t carbon, oxygen and water from *somewhere*, and that fly over there can double as drone delivered UberEats if the plant plays its cards right.
It’s not the sun they lack, it’s the nutrients from the soil. Soil is usually full of a rich mix of different minerals and plants evolved to use these minerals alongside photosynthesis and water to produce energy, grow and reproduce. Carnivorous plants use other biological means to gain those nutrients that are missing from the soils. They still need the sun and water.
Carniverous plants dont “eat” animals so much as “compost” them. They dont eat meat for energy, they disolve them for the nitrogen they are made of, making a fertilizer. the energy containing bits are just in the plants way and get wasted.
they do this because they live in a low nitrogen environment.
as for how they evolved, without intermediate species, we can only guess. pressumably some plants started by entraping insects by accident, and just started getting better at it.
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