Venus Fly Trap--fill me in!

[HAnn521]

(maybe this should also be in "how does it work"...but anyhow)...

Please tell me how a Venus Fly Trap works! Plants are living things, but they have NO intelligence nor do they need any nutrients other than sun and water to survive...so what in the world would a plant want with an insect as supper???

and aside from why, how does it "know" when and what to eat??

Plants are not carnivorous, so why does this plant "eat" other living things??

[Fitzer]

I'm certainly not a botanist but plants need nutrients to grow (hence fertilizer and plant foods), the venus fly trap presumably evolved to utilise a source of nutrients ie. insects which it can get without competing with the other plants that are drawing theirs from the soil. As to the 'knowing' question, it doesn't, you can trigger the closing reflex with a pencil so it's just a response to stimulus.

[woofgang]

everything you ever wnated to know here

[Chessman]

You say plants have no intelligence, (1) they are completely different to warm blooded creatures, (2) Did you know that plants do everything we do, just on a different time scale and in different ways?

[woofgang]

wow. do they watch BB and post on AB?

[HAnn521]

ummm...so Chessman, they give birth to babies, invent, dream, build, imagine and create??

I didn't know plants could do all that!  Where have I been...