WEBVTT - Why did Venus Flytraps Develop a Taste for Meat? 0:00:02.200 --> 0:00:02.960 Guess what, mango? 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:03.800 What's that? Well? 0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:05.840 So, did you ever have a venus fly trap as 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:06.200 a kid? 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:10.320 I did not. I mean my cousins Froshni and Rohan, 0:00:10.400 --> 0:00:12.840 who are so cool, they had one. 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:17.400 But yeah, all the cool kids had one. It's true, 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:19.120 you know. I think one of the things I remember 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:22.079 most about it was how impossible it was to convince 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:24.799 my friends not to keep making it close up like 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:26.960 this one that I had. And it was just something 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:30.720 too satisfying about like taking a pencil or something like 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:32.560 that and triggering it to close up. 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:35.120 Yeah, I feel like every kid who's been around one 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:37.760 is guilty of like trying to feed it something they shouldn't. 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:41.000 Well, And I was recently reminded of a little display 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:43.559 of these carnivorous plants that one of our teachers had 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:45.560 put out in front of her classroom. This was back 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:48.040 in third grade, and you know, there was some venus 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:51.000 fly traps and pitcher plants, of course a few others, 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:55.240 and it was weird how problematic this display became because 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:58.520 you had this one group of kids that just couldn't resist, 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:01.640 and so every day, at or any time they were outside, 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:04.840 they would try to find anythings to feed the plant 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:08.160 like insects, whatever they could find, and things got a 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:10.360 little out of hand when one day the teacher found 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:13.240 a matchbox car inside one of the picture plants. 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:17.800 I had no idea. I didn't think mashbox cars tasted 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:18.560 like meat. 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:22.800 Well me either, but apparently they did. But it really 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:25.080 did show just how impossible it is for a group 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:28.040 of kids to resist feeding these plants that they saw 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:30.959 as just being so exotic. And you know, keep in mind, 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:33.039 this was I think a year or two after the 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:35.520 remake of Little Shop of Horrors had come out, so 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:38.880 you know, this idea of a ferocious flesh eating plant 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:41.920 was it was kind of already in kids' minds, and 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:45.240 it actually led to the bigger problem, which was that 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:47.200 some of the older kids in the school were telling 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:49.800 some of the kindergarteners that these plants were going to 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:52.920 eat them. Of course, and it only took a couple 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:56.360 of kindergarteners who simply refused to walk past the display 0:01:56.520 --> 0:01:59.720 to put it to an end, and the display disappeared 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:02.720 as quickly as it went up. Or else, I guess 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:04.640 it just got moved to the science plat, but either way, 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:07.320 it was no longer in the hallway for kids. 0:02:07.040 --> 0:02:09.720 To say, poor kids. But you know, even if you're 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:12.480 horrified by the plants, like, there is something so fascinating 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:14.880 about them, right yeah, And it's what made us. 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:17.000 Want to tackle today's topic, you know, to talk about 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:19.560 things like the plant that Darwin described as the most 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:22.600 wonderful plant in the world, or to think about which 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:26.040 animal actually likes to spend its nights inside a picture plant, 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:28.560 and of course which state is the only one with 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:33.120 an official state carnivorous plant. There's so much to bid into, 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:57.400 so let's dive in. Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:00.240 part time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always by 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:02.480 my good friend mangesh hot Ticketter and on the other 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:05.639 side of the soundproof glass tending to his own venus 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:08.200 fly trap but trying to feed it. Is that a 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:11.320 slim It is a slim gym Oh wow, that's our 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:13.040 friends and producer Tristan McNeil. 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:15.640 I know I already told him I don't think it's 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:17.480 going to eat a slim tom, Tristan, but he just 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:19.600 looked me in the eye and said, meat is meat. 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:24.520 Kind of a weird catchphrase there, Tristan, But I mean 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:26.840 this is something that a lot of people are actually 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:29.840 curious about is what types of meat do Venus fly 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:30.840 traps preferred? 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:32.920 You know, yeah, so usually of course they go for 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:35.480 insects and spiders, though I did read that some fly 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:38.920 traps will occasionally catch a small frog for dinner. And 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:41.840 there are also these carnivorous pitcher plants and the Philippines 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:43.880 that are big enough to digest rats and shrews. 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:46.200 Wow, so that's actually true, then, is that something that 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:46.960 happens often? 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:50.560 Not exactly, so, frogs and rodents are pretty big meals 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:54.240 for carnivorous plants. Basically, it's like a I don't know, 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:57.200 like if if human ate an entire cow or something, right, 0:03:57.400 --> 0:04:00.360 it's not something that we do very often, just because 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:02.600 of how much time and energy it takes to digest 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:03.640 something that huge. 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:06.280 Yeah, I don't need an entire cow every day. I 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:08.600 feel like that's just more of a sometimes food for 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:11.960 special occasions, the full cow. But I mean, seriously, though, 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:14.600 how amazing is it that there are plants that can 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:17.800 actually eat animals? I mean, it's kind of terrifying, but 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:19.120 it's also pretty incredible. 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:21.400 Yeah, It's one of those things that always measures to 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:24.080 amaze me. And creep me out, like every time I 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:27.000 think about it. You know, it also just seems so 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:30.720 unplant like. Uh, it feels like, you know, a plant 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:33.920 that hunts and traps and kills and digests the meal. 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:37.480 Like those aren't plant activities. I don't mean to stereotype, but. 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:39.920 And that's why today's show was such a fun one 0:04:39.920 --> 0:04:42.680 to put together, because so much of what we found 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:46.239 out was just completely unexpected. So today we'll be answering 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:48.760 all sorts of bizarre questions that most of us have 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:52.400 never thought to ask, things like why did carnivorous plants 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:55.880 evolve a taste for meat? The venus fly traps really 0:04:55.960 --> 0:04:58.960 know how to count? And how come Thomas Jefferson was 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:02.440 so obsessed with meat eating plants. There's a lot to 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:04.280 cover today, but where do you think you want to start? 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:06.600 Mango, So, one of the things we should probably get 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:08.720 out of the way right up front is why carnivorous 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:10.320 plants eat meat in the first place. 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:13.200 I think it's clearly because they're evil. We talked about 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:15.640 the timing of the movie Little Shop of Bars. If 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:18.320 that's scientifically speaking, I think that is the answer, right. 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:20.760 Yeah, So, you know, one weird thing is I've never 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:23.400 seen that movie as strange as it is, but uh, 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:27.120 and I know it's beloved. But you know, for actual 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:30.400 carnivorous plants, meat isn't really what they're after. Like, they 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:32.640 don't capture live prey for the thrill of the hunt 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:36.159 or whatever, or for the taste for that matter. You know, 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:37.680 as you can guess, they're just doing it as a 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:41.360 way to obtain important nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus. 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:43.240 I mean, but it feels like there's got to be 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:45.680 an easier way to get those nutrients, Like why not 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:48.520 just absorb them through their roots like those nice, you know, 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:50.160 peaceful plants that are out there. 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:53.120 Yeah, that's right. I mean, it is kind of an 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:55.640 extreme measure when you think about it, but they had 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:58.320 to develop that way because carnivorous plants tend to live 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:01.000 in places where the soil is really thin and poor 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:04.040 in nutrients, so they might think of like a swamp 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:06.760 or a bog. And since the plants can't get what 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:09.040 they need from the soil alone, they get it by 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:12.440 digesting this live prey. Basically, the nutrients that come for 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:15.080 the prey help the plant grow faster and increase their 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:16.000 reproductive odds. 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:19.000 All right, So if the meeting and trait was an 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:22.520 evolutionary response to poor soil, then where did the carnivorous 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:25.440 plants first come from? Because I'm just curious which part 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:29.240 of the world had soil so bad that the plants 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:31.880 were having to figure out, like how to eat flies 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:34.480 and stuff like that, just to figure out how to survive. 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:37.640 Yeah, I mean, carnivorous plants are native to places all 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:39.479 over the world. In fact, you can find them on 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:43.640 every continent but Antarctica. And it's interesting because it suggests 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:47.640 that throughout history plant species have evolved carnivorous tendencies again 0:06:47.640 --> 0:06:50.480 and again. In fact, that they've done it no less 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:54.000 than nine times according to researchers, And any place in 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:56.839 the world that had lousy enough soil basically became this 0:06:56.920 --> 0:07:00.000 breeding ground for carnivorous plants. And today they're actually about 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:02.720 six hundred unique species worldwide. 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:05.080 Oh wow, So you're saying that each of those six 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:07.600 hundred can be traced back to one of you know, 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:09.280 ten or so common ancestors. 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:12.440 That's right, because even though several different plant species hit 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:14.480 upon the idea of eating meat, they came up with 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:18.240 totally different, like kinds of traps for sourcing that meat. 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:22.080 You know, we're probably most familiar with venus fly traps, 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:25.440 which have those spring trap jaws and that they used 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:28.400 to snare their prey. But uh, you know, other carnivorous 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:31.480 plants have their own strategies. There's there's the sundew plant, 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:34.200 which uses a bunch of sticky tentacles to like grab 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:38.440 passing bugs. And there's something called the butterwort, which has 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:41.760 this broad, flat leaf and and that kind of acts 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:44.600 as like a fly paper, so an insect gets stuck 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:47.040 in place, and then the leaf glands cover the bug 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:50.040 and digestive mucus, and you know, all the nutrients are 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:51.440 then absorbed straight into the leaf. 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:54.200 Oh a nightmare. It's like being chained to a wall 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:57.440 while the wall eats you. It's just not something pleasant 0:07:57.440 --> 0:07:57.840 to think about. 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:00.320 The wall is drifting this gross goole over you're at 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:04.160 the same day. You know. As memorable as the butterwarts 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:07.440 trap is, my favorite carnivorous plant is the pitcher plant, 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:10.160 and they're probably the second most known next to the 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:13.480 flat traffs. They have these specialized leaves that use color 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:17.000 and also scent to draw insects to their picture, like organs, 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:20.160 and then thanks to all these downward facing hairs on 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:23.240 the leaves, the insects aren't able to crawl back out. Instead, 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:26.560 they just slip into this deadly enzyme bat that slowly 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:27.280 digests them. 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:28.920 Well, I can see why that's your favorite. I mean, 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:31.280 who doesn't love the old dunkem in a tub of 0:08:31.320 --> 0:08:33.000 acid routine? And it's impressive. 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:36.640 Yeah, But I mean I get that it's gruesome, but 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:39.840 I kind of like how well designed it is, right, Like, 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:42.840 it's super tricky. And you know, picture plants can be 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:45.480 gross too. They don't actually have a way of expelling 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:48.600 their waist, so as the plant gets older, it's picture 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:52.120 just kind of fills up with all these indigestible insect 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:56.280 parts until it kind of becomes this big bug graveyard. 0:08:56.880 --> 0:09:00.360 And while the picture plants acid bad sounds like kind 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:03.160 of bad. The thing is like all carnivorous plants rely 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:05.880 on some kind of chemical cocktail to digest their prey 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:09.440 fly traps, inject it into the chambers where they trap 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:13.280 their prey butterwarts, as we mentioned, secrete it through their leaves. 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:15.480 And in fact, there was a study last year out 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:18.079 of the University of Buffalo and it shows just how 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:21.959 similar this technique is across species. Basically, it proved that 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:25.319 different carnivorous plants, including ones that were only distantly related, 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:28.600 all use the same molecular recipe for digestive fluids. And 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:31.160 that's despite the fact that some of these plants are 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:34.600 native to different continents and evolved separately over the course 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:35.520 of millions of years. 0:09:35.600 --> 0:09:37.720 Oh wow, that's interesting. So I guess they took fluid 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:40.480 samples and compared them across species or something. 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:43.560 Yeah, exactly, and they found that all the plants relied 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:46.320 on similar enzymes. But what was even more amazing was 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:49.640 that the enzymes aren't unique to carnivorous plants. They're actually 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:51.920 used by non carnivorous plants as a way to fight 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:52.720 off pathogens. 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:55.120 All right, so then when the carnivorous plants kind of 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:59.360 adapted and repurposed the enzymes for use in digestion, But 0:09:59.600 --> 0:10:01.200 I mean, how did that work? Exactly? 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:04.760 The example I came across is this polymer called kitan, 0:10:05.320 --> 0:10:09.480 and apparently it's what the cell walls of fungi are 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:12.440 made from. So plants obviously don't want a bunch of 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:14.480 fungi growing on their roots and choking the life out 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:17.120 of them, So they produce this special enzyme to break 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:20.800 the kitan down and keep these funguses at bay. But 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:24.640 in the case of carnivorous plants, that enzyme has been 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:29.680 repurposed to eat away like insect exoskeletons, and that also 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:31.920 happens to be made of kitan. So it's a pretty 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:35.160 wild case of plants kind of reprogramming their existing genes 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:38.040 to suit this more meat loving lifestyle. Huh. 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:41.120 All right, so maybe all carnivorous plants share this same 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:43.680 gross bond, But I still think you need to convince 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:45.680 me a little bit more about picture plants. 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:47.560 You're really on this is. 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:50.480 That we know that flooded graveyard you described has to 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:53.280 make them like fifty times grosser than the other meat 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:55.280 eaters that are out there. It's just kind of weird. 0:10:55.400 --> 0:10:57.120 Well, what if I told you that a pitcher plant 0:10:57.160 --> 0:10:59.679 is actually a cradle of life? 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:03.319 You'd just be making up words? What do you mean 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:03.600 by that? 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:05.760 So one of the things I'm surprised to learn is 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:08.840 that there are actually some species of super tiny frogs 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:12.040 that lay their eggs in the safety of a picture plant, 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:15.160 and then when they hatch these baby tadpoles spend their 0:11:15.160 --> 0:11:17.920 first weeks of life swimming in that murky water, right 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:20.280 up until they're old enough to sort of hop out 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:23.240 and strike out on their own. You know. There's also 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:26.040 a mammal in Borneo that just likes to cozy up 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:29.960 to pitcher plants. It's called the common wooly bat, and 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:32.640 apparently one of its favorite places the sleep is snuggled 0:11:32.720 --> 0:11:33.880 up inside a pitcher plant. 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:37.280 Wait, it actually sleeps inside the picture, Like, why would 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:39.680 it want to sleep in a bunch of dead bug water? 0:11:39.720 --> 0:11:41.040 What's the incentive there? 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:44.120 Well, that's what makes this particular species so special, So 0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:47.200 it actually grows two different kinds of pictures. The first 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:50.040 is your standard bug catching picture. It's close to the ground, 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:53.280 it smells sweet, and it's filled with these digestive fluids. 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:57.080 But the second type of picture is designed especially for bats. 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:00.839 It's higher up, it's dry inside, and its shaped almost 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:03.520 like a little reflector dish so that the bats can 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:04.920 easily spot it with their sonar. 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:08.520 Huh, Well, what's so special about bats? Like why would 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:10.800 the plants kind of roll out the red carpet just 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:11.320 just for them? 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:14.240 I guess it's that the plants are actually after the 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:17.200 guana or you know, the bat waste, and every time 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:20.240 the bats spend the night, they relieve themselves and leave 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:22.880 nutrients for the plants to absorb. So it's kind of 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:25.800 like a bat hotel where everyone just pays for the 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:26.760 room with feces. 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:31.520 Oh, a disgusting business model, but whatever works. But I mean, 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:33.120 I think you sort of brought me around on the 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:35.839 picture plants. They are pretty enterprising, I have to give 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:36.480 you that they are. 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:38.520 And you know, picture plants aren't the only ones either. 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:42.080 You know, carnivorous plants in general have this alien kind 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:44.200 of cleverness about them, where when you look at the 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:47.959 level of ingenuity and precision on you know, how they 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:51.439 display their traps, it's kind of easy to forget you're 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:54.360 dealing with a plant and not some kind of intelligent animal. 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:56.040 Yeah, I know what you mean, And you know, I 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:58.400 think the venus fly trap would probably be a good 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:00.800 example of the kind of we have, the kind of 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:03.280 intelligence that you're talking about. So what do you say 0:13:03.320 --> 0:13:05.679 we take a closer look at what makes those tick? 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:07.719 Yeah, and that sounds great, But first let's take a 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:23.640 quick break. 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:26.120 You're listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking about 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:29.880 the cutthroat world of carnivorous plants. You know, despite their 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:33.040 violent tendencies, meetating plants have had their fair share of 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:36.319 admirers over the years. You know. Charles Darwin, for instance, 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:39.520 was a big fan of carnivorous plants, and honestly, maybe 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:42.440 too big of a fan. He wrote an entire book 0:13:42.480 --> 0:13:44.719 about them, and at one point he even declares the 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:47.880 venus fly trap to be the most wonderful plant in 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:50.480 the world. He also went to bat for the plants 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:53.720 against scientists who weren't as enthusiastic about meat eating plants 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:56.840 as he was. Like, you remember those sundew things that 0:13:56.880 --> 0:14:00.480 you mentioned earlier, the plants with the sticky tentacles. Well, 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:03.720 apparently Darwin knew a botanist who didn't think sundews were 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:06.800 anything to ride home about. So Darwin sent a note 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:09.520 to the guy saying, quote, you are unjust on the 0:14:09.559 --> 0:14:12.600 merits of my beloved sundw. It is a wonderful plant, 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:15.760 or rather a most sagacious animal. I will stick up 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:18.000 for the sund to the day of my death. 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:21.280 I mean, it does sound like he was really smitten. 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:24.360 And it's funny because Thomas Jefferson had a similar fascination 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:26.600 with flat traps, though I don't think he ever got 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:28.480 to study them up close the way Darwin did. 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:31.200 Yeah, that's true, but I mean it's not for lack 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:33.360 of trying. I was actually looking into this a little 0:14:33.400 --> 0:14:36.400 and it turns out that Jefferson had an especially tough 0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:39.800 time tracking down his own venus fly traps. It's a 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:42.360 little weird because you have to consider that some venus 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:46.800 flytrap species are actually native to the Carolinas. In fact, 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:49.160 this is a little bit random. But North Carolina is 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:53.000 the only state to select an official state carnivorous plant, 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:54.960 and that is, of course, the venus flytrap. 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:58.040 What a great fact, you know, it is very smart 0:14:58.040 --> 0:15:00.360 of North Carolina to have snapped up that the first 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:06.320 round of the carnivorous plant draft exactly. But did you know, 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:08.760 I want to talk about Jefferson more. Did he ever 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:09.960 get his hands on a fly trap? 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:12.840 Well, we actually don't know for certain. I mean, what 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:15.840 we do know is that Jefferson started a letter campaign 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:18.880 back in seventeen eighty six, and he was requesting that 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:22.640 multiple people send him either fly trap seeds or fully 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:25.040 grown plants as soon as possible. I guess this was 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:28.320 an urgent matter, and unfortunately, the plants were so hard 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:31.040 to come by and the postal service was so unreliable 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:33.720 back then that Jefferson didn't actually get his hands on 0:15:33.720 --> 0:15:36.920 the seeds until a full eight years later. So on 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:39.920 January eighteen oh four, President Jefferson wrote a letter to 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:43.000 Timothy Bloodworth saying, I thank you for the seed of 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:45.240 the fly trap. It is the first I have ever 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:47.920 been able to obtain, and shall take great care of it. 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:50.320 So he finally got it. Then, Yeah, he definitely. 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:52.920 Got some seeds in eighteen oh four, but unfortunately the 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:56.320 trail goes cold after that until like eighteen oh nine 0:15:56.480 --> 0:15:59.640 or so, and Jefferson writes his last mention of fly 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:03.600 trap in this manuscript that's about gardening, and it's it's 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:06.280 kind of an ominous but a little bit confusing of 0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:09.840 an entry. So he simply wrote, sewed seeds of Diania 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:13.080 mascupula in a pot. They were several years old. 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:17.280 So I'm guessing nothing came of that, but it's kind 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:20.760 of amazing that he didn't bothered, Like, after what eight 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:22.840 years he was asking for these seeds, he finally got them, 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:24.880 and then he didn't bother them to plant them for 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:28.480 like another five years. Like, yeah, I'm kind of questioning 0:16:28.480 --> 0:16:29.880 his commitment to the plants. 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:32.960 I guess, so it feels a little odd, But you 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:34.920 might want to excuse him because he probably got a 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:37.760 little bit busy with the whole Louisiana purchase thing, got 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:40.880 a little distracted. But you know, one thing that Jefferson 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:43.600 and Darwin would both have liked is a recent study 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:46.440 that showed that the venus fly trap actually knows how 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:47.120 to count. 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:50.160 So what does that mean exactly? Like, what is it counting? 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:52.520 Well, actually a few things, but I feel like we 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:55.480 got to backup just a little bit to understand how 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:59.280 the fly trap functions. So, for starters, each plant has 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:03.240 multiple each of which is made of these specialized leaves 0:17:03.280 --> 0:17:07.080 covered in these tiny sensory hairs. And so the leaves 0:17:07.080 --> 0:17:09.640 of the trap, as we mentioned, secrete this sweet smelling 0:17:09.720 --> 0:17:13.000 nectar to help lure in those hungry insects. And when 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:16.160 one of these visitors brushes against the plant's sensory hairs, 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:19.280 the trap can actually snap shut within a tenth of 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:22.919 a second. So then after the digestive period that lasts 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:26.320 a week or longer, the trap reopens and the husk 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:29.480 of the insect blows away, while the process starts all 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:33.200 over again. So each trap catches about three bugs before 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:36.240 it wears out and then really has to be replaced. 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:39.320 But again, since the plant uses multiple traps at once, 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:40.920 they never have to miss a meal. 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:43.240 I like how poetic that sounds. The husk of the 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:47.960 insect blows away. Beautiful, But you know it also sounds 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:52.040 like the system kind of runs like clockwork. But I'm 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:54.119 kind of curious still, where does the counting come in? 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:57.800 Well, clockwork actually isn't a bad analogy, because the actions 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:01.000 of the fly trap are basically mecanic. I mean, their 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:04.360 movements aren't directed by any kind of consciousness or anything 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:06.800 like that. But it doesn't mean there isn't some sort 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:10.240 of calculation that's going on. So, for instance, fly traps 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:12.280 can actually count the number of times that their prey 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:14.919 comes in contact with the sensory hairs that are on 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:18.320 its leaves, and each of those touches brings about its 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:22.320 own unique reaction. So in the very first touch, for example, 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:24.879 the plant actually does nothing. And this makes sense if 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:27.200 you think about it, because you know, a single touch 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:29.200 could be a false alarm. You could have a rain 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:31.600 drop or a falling leaf or you know, bait from 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:35.040 a slim gym or something like that, but essentially something 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:38.439 that wouldn't be worth the energy of closing the trap. 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:42.040 So instead the plant waits, and it waits on that 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:46.000 second signal, and if one arrives within the next twenty seconds, 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:49.439 then the trapped spring shot on what is hopefully this nice, 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:52.720 juicy cricket or something. So it really is pretty amazing 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:54.840 how it does function like clockwork. 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:57.440 That's fascinating. So the first touch kind of sets off 0:18:57.440 --> 0:18:59.560 this kind of internal timer in the plant, which is 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:00.479 pretty wild. 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:03.560 Yeah, but the plant actually doesn't even stop there. I mean, 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:06.480 it keeps on counting. So after the trap is sprung, 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:09.680 the prey is still alive and it keeps on struggling, 0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:12.679 and as it does so, it bumps into the trigger 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:16.080 hairs even more so. The third and fourth touches send 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:19.879 these electrical impulses to help prepare the trap for digestion. 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:22.639 Then the fifth touch tells the gland cells and the 0:19:22.680 --> 0:19:26.680