Killer plants

Lock up your little brother! Lock up your small pet! Do you want to have a killer plant at your place? Well you can! But we actually call them "carnivorous" or meat eating plants. Why? Because these plants thrive on small insects that they trap and digest.

Carnivorous plants - there are five different types of traps:

1. Pitcher plants trap their prey in a rolled-up leaf that holds a small pool of digestive enzymes or bacteria.
2. Flypaper traps have a sticky mucous to trap the small insects.
3. Snapping traps close their leaves in a snapping motion to trap their prey.
4. Bladder traps suck in prey with a vacuum sucking bladder.
5. Lobster-pot type plants use inward pointing hairs to direct their prey inside them.

* Charles Darwin first wrote about carnivorous plants in 1875.
* The Venus Fly Trap and the Pitcher Plants are the two most commonly known.
* The best environment for a carnivorous plant is a bog.
* Carnivorous plants are very sensitive to tap water that contains minerals and must live on rainwater, or bottled water.
* The biggest killer of carnivorous plants is grey mould which thrives in warm and humid conditions in winter.