Triantha occidentalis

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Triantha occidentalis
Triantha occidentalis.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Alismatales
Family: Tofieldiaceae
Genus: Triantha
Species:
T. occidentalis
Binomial name
Triantha occidentalis
Synonyms [1]
  • Asphodeliris occidentalis(S.Watson) Kuntze
  • Tofieldia glutinosa subsp. occidentalis(S.Watson) C.L.Hitchc.
  • Tofieldia glutinosa var. occidentalis(S.Watson) C.L.Hitchc.
  • Tofieldia occidentalisS.Watson

Triantha occidentalis, the western false asphodel, is a species of carnivorous flowering plant in the genus Triantha from the family Tofieldiaceae within the order of the Alismatales. It is found in the Pacific Northwest. [2] It was recognised as a carnivorous plant in 2021, a rare occurrence within the Monocot clade. [3]

Botanical history

Triantha occidentalis was described by Sereno Watson in 1879 as Tofieldia occidentalis, and reassigned to Triantha by R. R. Gates in 1918. [4] [5] The carnivorous behavior of the plant was discovered in 2021 by a group of scientists from the University of British Columbia and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. [6] [7]

Range

The native range of Triantha occidentalis is from Southeast Alaska to Central California. The range includes the US states of Alaska, California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming and the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. [1]

Carnivory

Triantha occidentalis is a carnivorous plant; the flower stems are covered in a sticky substance, and have tiny hairs that produce a digestive enzyme, a phosphatase. The sticky substance is able to trap small insects, which are digested by the enzyme from the hairs, allowing the plant to absorb their nutrients. [8] [6] Other carnivorous plants have insect traps well away from flowers, in positions where pollinating insect such as bees and butterflies are not affected; T. occidentalis's sticky flower stems are only able to trap smaller insects such as fruit flies. [6] [9] It was not suspected that T. occidentalis, which grows near urban centers, was carnivorous until it was found to have a genetic deletion sometimes seen in carnivorous plants, prompting investigation. The plant is, as of 2021, the only one known to trap insects this unsuspected way, but it has been suggested that there may be more. [8] [9]

Subspecies

The following subspecies are accepted: [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pitcher plant</span> Carnivorous plant

Pitcher plants are several different carnivorous plants that have modified leaves known as pitfall traps—a prey-trapping mechanism featuring a deep cavity filled with digestive liquid. The traps of what are considered to be "true" pitcher plants are formed by specialized leaves. The plants attract and drown their prey with nectar.

<i>Drosera</i> Genus of carnivorous flowering plants in the family Droseraceae

Drosera, which is commonly known as the sundews, is one of the largest genera of carnivorous plants, with at least 194 species. These members of the family Droseraceae lure, capture, and digest insects using stalked mucilaginous glands covering their leaf surfaces. The insects are used to supplement the poor mineral nutrition of the soil in which the plants grow. Various species, which vary greatly in size and form, are native to every continent except Antarctica.

<i>Sarracenia</i> Genus of carnivorous plants

Sarracenia is a genus comprising 8 to 11 species of North American pitcher plants, commonly called trumpet pitchers. The genus belongs to the family Sarraceniaceae, which also contain the closely allied genera Darlingtonia and Heliamphora.

<i>Byblis</i> (plant) Genus of carnivorous plants

Byblis is a small genus of carnivorous plants, sometimes termed the rainbow plants for the attractive appearance of their mucilage-covered leaves in bright sunshine. Native to Australia and New Guinea, it is the only genus in the family Byblidaceae. The first species in the genus was described by the English botanist Richard Anthony Salisbury in 1808. Eight species are now recognised.

<i>Roridula</i> Insect-trapping shrublet from South Africa

Roridula is a genus of evergreen, insect-trapping shrubs, with two species, of about 1⅓–2 m. It is the only genus in the family Roridulaceae. It has thin, woody, shyly branching, upright, initially brown, later grey stems, with lance- to awl-shaped leaves crowded at their tips. The star-symmetrical flowers consist from the outside in of five, green or reddish, free sepals, alternating with five white, pink or purple, free petals. Further to the middle and opposite the sepals are five stamens with the anthers initially kinked down. These suddenly flip up if the nectar-containing swelling at its base is being touched. The center of the flower is occupied by a superior ovary. The leaves and sepals carry many sticky tentacles of different sizes, that trap insects. Roridula does not break down the insect proteins, but bugs of the genus Pameridea prey on the trapped insects. These later deposit their feces on the leaves, which take up nutrients from the droppings. The species can be found in the Western Cape province of South Africa. They are commonly known as dewstick or fly bush in English and vlieëbos or vlieëbossie in Afrikaans.

<i>Drosera capensis</i> Species of carnivorous plant

Drosera capensis, commonly known as the Cape sundew, is a small rosette-forming carnivorous species of perennial sundew native to the Cape in South Africa. Because of its size, easy-to-grow nature, and the copious amounts of seed it produces, it has become one of the most common sundews in cultivation, and thus, one of the most frequently introduced and naturalised invasive Drosera species.

<i>Stylidium</i> Genus of plants

Stylidium is a genus of dicotyledonous plants that belong to the family Stylidiaceae. The genus name Stylidium is derived from the Greek στύλος or stylos, which refers to the distinctive reproductive structure that its flowers possess. Pollination is achieved through the use of the sensitive "trigger", which comprises the male and female reproductive organs fused into a floral column that snaps forward quickly in response to touch, harmlessly covering the insect in pollen. Most of the approximately 300 species are only found in Australia, making it the fifth largest genus in that country. Triggerplants are considered to be protocarnivorous or carnivorous because the glandular trichomes that cover the scape and flower can trap, kill, and digest small insects with protease enzymes produced by the plant. Recent research has raised questions as to the status of protocarnivory within Stylidium.

<i>Arum</i> Genus of flowering plants in the family Araceae

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Protocarnivorous plant</span> Carnivorous plant that can not digest prey

A protocarnivorous plant, according to some definitions, traps and kills insects or other animals but lacks the ability to either directly digest or absorb nutrients from its prey like a carnivorous plant. The morphological adaptations such as sticky trichomes or pitfall traps of protocarnivorous plants parallel the trap structures of confirmed carnivorous plants.

<i>Pinguicula vulgaris</i> Species of flowering plant in the bladderwort family Lentibulariaceae

Pinguicula vulgaris, the common butterwort, is a perennial carnivorous plant in the bladderwort family, Lentibulariaceae.

<i>Roridula dentata</i> Species of carnivorous plant

Roridula dentata is a protocarnivorous plant native to the Western Cape province of South Africa.

<i>Pinguicula longifolia</i> Species of carnivorous plant

Pinguicula longifolia, commonly known as the long-leaved butterwort, is a perennial carnivorous subalpine plant of the Central Pyrenees, found on both sides of the border. It catches its prey by using its modified leaves that lie on the ground and have “densely covered stalked glands that bear a droplet of sticky mucilage on its top.” The need to capture arthropods is driven by the lack of nutrients present in the soil. P. l. subsp. longifolia obtain their nutrition primarily from flying insects, mainly diptera, which replenished the carnivorous plant with nitrogen. P. l. subsp. longifolia grows in wet shady areas and on vertical or overhanging limestone walls. It has been found at altitudes between 700 – 1900 meters. In the spring, the winter buds open and the first carnivorous leaves present themselves. These leaves are then followed by the flowers in early summer. Throughout summer the leaves can grow up to 14 cm in length and have glands present on both sides of the leaves, which is highly characteristic of P. l. subsp. longifolia. More carnivorous leaves arise throughout summer, and when the conditions become unfavourable, around autumn, a protective winter casing composed of scale like leaves is produced, in the centre of the rosette, called the hibernacula, also known as the plant bud. The leaves halt production and the old leaves wither and decay; P. l. subsp. longifolia is now ready for the winter dormancy. There must be optimal growth during the summer for P. l. subsp. longifolia, otherwise they produce weakened hibernacula which rot very easily.

<i>Dudleya blochmaniae</i> Species of succulent plant

Dudleya blochmaniae is a summer-deciduous succulent plant known by the common names Blochman's liveforever or Blochman's dudleya. This species of Dudleya survives part of the year with no aboveground presence, surviving as underground corm-like roots in deciduous months. It is characterized by white, star-shaped and spreading flowers that emerge after sufficient rainfall. It is found along the Pacific coast of the California Floristic Province, from the vicinity of San Luis Obispo in California to Punta Colonet in Baja California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carnivorous plant</span> Plants that consume animals

Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans, typically insects and other arthropods, and occasionally small mammals and birds. They still generate all of their energy from photosynthesis. They have adapted to grow in waterlogged sunny places where the soil is thin or poor in nutrients, especially nitrogen, such as acidic bogs. They can be found on all continents except Antarctica, as well as many Pacific islands. In 1875, Charles Darwin published Insectivorous Plants, the first treatise to recognize the significance of carnivory in plants, describing years of painstaking research.

<i>Drosera uniflora</i> Species of carnivorous plant

Drosera uniflora is a species in the carnivorous plant genus Drosera that is native to southern Chile, Argentina, and the Falkland Islands. It is a tiny sundew with a solitary white flower as its name would suggest. Stalked glands on its leaves, which secrete sticky mucilage at the tips, are used to capture and hold insect prey, from which the plant derives the nutrients it cannot obtain in sufficient quantity from the soil. It was formally described in 1809 by botanist Carl Ludwig Willdenow.

<i>Triantha</i> Genus of flowering plants

Triantha is a small genus of flowering plants in the family Tofieldiaceae, first described as a genus in 1879. False asphodel is a common name for plants in this genus.

<i>Pinguicula</i> Genus of flowering plants in the family Lentibulariaceae

Pinguicula, commonly known as butterworts, is a genus of carnivorous flowering plants in the family Lentibulariaceae. They use sticky, glandular leaves to lure, trap, and digest insects in order to supplement the poor mineral nutrition they obtain from the environment. Of the roughly 80 currently known species, 13 are native to Europe, 9 to North America, and some to northern Asia. The largest number of species is in South and Central America.

<i>Pinguicula lutea</i> Species of carnivorous plant

Pinguicula lutea, commonly known as the yellow butterwort, is a species of warm-temperate carnivorous plant in the family Lentibulariaceae. It grows in savannas and sandy bog areas of the Southeastern United States.

<i>Drosera pulchella</i> Species of carnivorous plant

Drosera pulchella, a type of pygmy sundew , is a species of carnivorous plant native to southwestern Australia. As their common name suggests, they are a small species that usually 15 to 20 millimeters wide. They typically grow in clusters that completely cover an area like a patch of moss. The namesake sticky dew at the ends of their leaves is designed to trap insects so that the plants can absorb nutrients as the insect decomposes.

Pinguicula hemiepiphytica is a tropical carnivorous plant species native to the cloud forests of Oaxaca, Mexico. It was first identified in 1991 and is one of the few epiphytic species in the genus.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Triantha occidentalis (S.Watson) R.R.Gates". Plants of the World Online. Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Archived from the original on 9 August 2021. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  2. "Triantha occidentalis in Flora of North America @ efloras.org". www.efloras.org. Archived from the original on 2021-08-09. Retrieved 2021-08-09.
  3. Qianshi Lin, Sean W. Graham: A new carnivorous plant lineage (Triantha) with a unique sticky inflorescence trap. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) Vol. 118, No. 333, 9. August 2021.
  4. "Triantha occidentalis (S.Watson) R.R.Gates". Global Biodiversity Information Facility . Archived from the original on 2021-08-09. Retrieved 2021-08-10.
  5. "Triantha occidentalis (S. Watson) R.R. Gates". Tropicos . Archived from the original on 2021-08-10. Retrieved 2021-08-10.
  6. 1 2 3 Lin, Qianshi; Ané, Cécile; Givnish, Thomas J.; Graham, Sean W. (2021-08-17). "A new carnivorous plant lineage (Triantha) with a unique sticky-inflorescence trap". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 118 (33): e2022724118. Bibcode:2021PNAS..11822724L. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2022724118 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   8379919 . PMID   34373325.
  7. Lauren M. Johnson (10 August 2021). "An insect eating plant has been identified on North America's Pacific coast for the first time in 20 years". CNN. Retrieved 2021-08-11.
  8. 1 2 Greenfieldboyce, Nell (August 9, 2021). "This Sweet White Flower Is Actually A Sneaky Carnivore, Scientists Discover". NPR.org. All Things Considered. Archived from the original on 2021-08-09. Retrieved 2021-08-10.
  9. 1 2 Elbein, Asher (2021-08-09). "This Flower Hides a Secret: It's Actually a Carnivore". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2021-08-10. Retrieved 2021-08-10.