Plants are Cool

 Plants have adapted as they compete for resources, space, light, food and water, temperature, weather/seasons, a balance of nutrients, try to reproduce and battle predators. They have found ways to create toxins, hunt prey, deceive other animals and more. The movement and growth of plants takes place slowly so we do not always notice them. Bristlepines are the oldest living things on earth. Bamboo is the fastest growing plant, growing to 30 meters in 90 days. 

Forest canopies restrict the growth of plants below them. Some plants have adapted to ways to climb larger trees as scaffolding to reach the tree above the canopy so they can get enough light to flower. Some plants grow in the tops of other plants. Sundews, Venus flytraps (I have one which is flowering), and other plants catch prey. Sundew use a sticky dew like substance to hold prey and roll over prey to harvest the insects for nitrogen. Venus Flytraps envelop prey in mouth like leaves that trap the prey in cages. We had pitcher plants in Oregon when I was a child, and I saw it capture prey in vase like folds along the stalk. Some plants adapt to coexist with pollinators like bats, insects and birds to help transfer pollen to ensure that the plants are pollinated. 

Some plants use defense mechanisms that poison, drown or trap predators like caterpillars and insects. Milkweed creates a unique defense mechanism that uses a sticky substance to drown and trap monarch caterpillars so only 1/3 of caterpillars make it past the first day. Caterpillars that live carefully cut off the main veins supply of latex to the leaf so they can eat without being harmed. The Heliconia has bright red leaves with tiny flowers on them. It guards nectar and the purple -throated harib hummingbird is the only bird that can get at it. The plant rations it, and forces the bird to make multiple visits to multiple flowers which it will force the bird to defend from predators as well as be a pollinator. 

Some plants find neat ways to transfer seeds, such as the Brunzigia, which creates a flower stalk that when tried will roll across the windy landscape when pushed by the air, widely dispersing the seeds. Some plants give their seeds wings.  Some defend themselves from weather conditions (and sometimes predators) with resins and the shapes of their leaves. Mangroves find ways to survive in high levels of salt water by using specialized roots with pores that help to provde the plant with respiration and filter salt. Extra salt is released by leaves which help to contribute to the ocean ecosystem as a food source. To react to seasons, broad plants develop leaves that shed in autumn, and pine trees develop antifreeze in their waxy needles.

Works Cited

Attenborough, David, W.W., D.D. December 2009. Plants. In P. Spillenger, Paul. Life. Britain: British Broadcasting Corporation.