WEBVTT - Venus Flytraps: Plant or Monster? 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.600 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, 0:00:13.600 --> 0:00:16.000 and there's Chuck and there's Jerry, and the three of 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:19.479 us are easy, breezy, beautiful cover girls and this is 0:00:19.520 --> 0:00:25.480 stuff you should know. How you doing, I'm great, good 0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:28.000 I'm doing. I wanted to be a cover girl. Well 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:34.159 you are now I degree such fantastic. Um. I'm excited 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:37.080 about this one, Chuck. I'm really excited because it's like 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:40.519 a combination of one of our plant episodes with one 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:45.320 of our animal episodes. Yeah it is, isn't it. It's 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:49.280 really hard to not look at a venus fly trap 0:00:49.360 --> 0:00:55.960 in action on a video and not think it's an animal. Um. Yeah, 0:00:56.000 --> 0:01:01.160 I guess so, I guess sure. It's just so like 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:04.800 all you can think of, or all I can think of, 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:08.800 is that thing is like thinking with the brain. Let 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:11.600 me close my mouth and eat this thing. Yeah, I 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:15.520 know what I mean, That's what it looks like for sure. Yeah. 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:17.520 But the thing is, Chuck, is there's like there's a 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:20.880 whole thread of botany. Now there's like a big dispute 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:25.440 in the botanical world about just yes, about just how 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:30.839 much plants think and thinking, and not necessarily in ways 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:33.640 that we would recognize its is thinking, but still having 0:01:33.680 --> 0:01:38.119 intelligence memory um. And one of the things that that 0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:40.840 seems to be kind of emerging as far as studying 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:44.720 venus fly traps goes, is that plants, just like us, 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:48.680 use what are called action potentials, which is electrical transmissions 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:51.560 that cause cells to do different things when they're stimulated. 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:54.440 And that is thinking, like, that's how we think, that's 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:57.600 how neurons fire. So the idea that plants use the 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:01.160 same kind of general principle to do things or to 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:03.600 react to things or respond to things, or to change 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:07.240 the behavior. Buddy, that's thinking in a lot of ways. 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:11.359 What's a vegan to do? I know it does, definitely, 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:14.560 that's a that's a can. They're gonna all end up 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:20.079 breathe atterrians, right, oxygen materians. No, that's the thing. Did 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:22.799 you know that breathe at terrians? I feel like I've 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:26.680 heard of that. It's exactly what it sounds. So they 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:30.240 don't need anything. They just breathe in and drink water 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:32.320 or is that awful limit? I don't even know if 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:36.280 they drink water, probably water. Are they all dead eventually? 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:39.560 I'm sure Okay, but yeah, we'll have to do an 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:41.320 episode on that because I don't know enough about it 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:44.079 to speak on of intelligently. But it is pretty interesting 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:47.560 because I know some people at least try it well. 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:50.839 It sounds like a movement that would probably not gain 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:55.280 much steam, you know, right, because they're too tired to 0:02:55.480 --> 0:02:59.320 prostalytize about it. It sounds like a short stuff. Okay, 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:01.799 there you go, gotcha. I think that's a great idea. 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:04.360 But we're here to talk about the Venus fly Trap, 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:09.920 not the w KRP in Cincinnati. DJ what a great character. 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:14.880 He had a lot of facets played by what was 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:19.679 named Tim something, right, Tim Reid. Wow. Nice. I saw 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:22.079 a lot of WKRAP when I was I did too, Man, 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:25.519 I love that show. It's funny. I remember, I'm already 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:27.400 going on a tangent before you even get started. But 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:29.680 I remember watching that show when I was little and 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:33.679 seeing Johnny Fever where the Grateful Dead t shirts, which 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:35.960 was my first exposure, and they had like the skeleton 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:38.120 and stuff, and I thought they were some kind of 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:40.760 like a metal thing. I did too. I actually had 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:43.080 a couple of other posters and I was like, this 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:45.040 band must be the coolest fan of all time. And 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:47.360 I finally heard them, I was like, this doesn't match 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:52.200 at all, like the best name ever, the best imagery, 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:55.000 and then I just didn't add up. Music didn't fit. 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:58.400 But we're talking about the venus fly trap, the plant 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:02.240 which if you think sure effort of those things that 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:06.080 that's like the one carnivorous plant. No, no, no, there 0:04:06.120 --> 0:04:10.960 are hundreds and hundreds of plants that actually eat other 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:16.960 things by attracting things and capturing and killing them. Uh, 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:20.239 but the venus fly trap gets all the press because 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:23.240 it just it looks like it looks and it's so cool. Yeah. 0:04:23.440 --> 0:04:26.400 I mean a lot of the other plants um like 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:31.039 eat and digest insects or even like some rodents. There's 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:32.919 a kind of picture plant that I saw. It's the 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:36.400 size of a toilet and like, if you're a mouse 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:39.320 and you fall in, that's it for you. Mouse. Um. 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:41.400 But they don't do anything. They just kind of sit 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:44.159 there and hope that something falls in. That. The thing 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:46.720 that makes the venus fly traps so fascinating is it's 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:50.080 one of only two plants in the world that actually 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:54.080 like closes that actually traps and and and it traps 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:58.080 its prey and like, that's just you just don't see 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:00.640 that the other ones the European water wheel, and it 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:03.559 looks like a fern with the very tips of each 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:08.719 fern frond um, kind of like venus fly trap, the 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:11.480 very very small version of it. The Venus fly trap 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:14.920 is just big enough to be like, wow, that's really neat, right, 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:18.720 Like they would never write a character named Audrey after 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:22.440 those ferns and put them in Broadway musicals No and 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:28.080 Audrey two. Technically Audrey two. Yeah, Audrey was the guy 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:31.440 was Seymour's love interest, the girl that he liked, so 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:35.520 he named the plant Audrey two. Can I confess something? Yeah, 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:37.880 I know nothing about Little Shop of Horst. I mean, 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:39.960 I haven't seen in a really long time either, but 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:44.000 I um I went and looked up some stuff on it. Okay, 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:47.920 so you're confessing to um. I saw on a YouTube 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:52.240 video this guy from the Carolinas talking about the Venus 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:54.480 fly trap, and he said a more appropriate name for 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:57.200 them would probably be did you see this guy the 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:02.480 Caro the Carolina spider trap. Because of two things, they 0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:05.760 are basically only found in about a seven hundred mile 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:09.000 area as far as growing wild along the coast of 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:12.440 North and South Carolina, and then he said they really 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:14.919 only eat about five percent of their diet as spiders 0:06:15.000 --> 0:06:17.560 or I'm sorry, as flies. He said, they mostly eat 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:21.080 spiders and ants. Uh. And you can also throw in 0:06:21.440 --> 0:06:24.920 crickets and slugs and some other caterpillary things in there. Yeah. 0:06:25.040 --> 0:06:28.360 I mean, you know, very frequently whatever just kind of 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:32.000 happens to to wander onto the plant itself. But I 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:33.839 mean it'll take what it can get. But I guess 0:06:33.880 --> 0:06:38.159 winged insects and maybe get away faster or more easily. Yeah, 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:40.400 I mean, I get the idea that the flies can 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:43.160 get out of there easier. So it's just I mean, 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:45.960 they're fine to eat flies, and it's harder. Yeah. I 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:48.080 also I saw I saw um. I don't know if 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:49.880 it was in that same video or not. That there's 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:52.920 only an estimated one d and fifty thousand of these 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:56.120 plants in the wild and the entire seven hundred miles 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:59.719 just tiny strip along the coast of North and South Carolina, 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:03.480 and they live in bogs like marshy bogs, sometimes salt 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:08.240 marshes um sometimes pete bogs, but you know, like a 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:12.840 wetland that's like always wet that's that's where they grow. Um, 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:15.040 and they like the sun and they like you humid. 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:17.200 But they can also whether the cold, as we'll see, 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:19.040 because it can get pretty cold in the winter in 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:23.920 North Carolina. So there's really no way around explaining the 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:28.440 origins of the name without it being a little well, 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:31.560 it's just a little dicey because it was named at 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:36.240 a time where, uh, things were different back then, and 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:43.760 they named it because the plant resembled, uh, perhaps a 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:49.520 woman's anatomy. Help me out here. No, I'm really enjoying 0:07:49.560 --> 0:07:52.520 watching your tap dance. Well, I mean, and we've talked. 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:54.960 We may have mentioned it in the folklore episode the 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:59.960 idea of the vagina dentata, which in many different cultures 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:03.800 and nations around the world, there are these folkloric legends 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:10.320 of these women who had teeth and there vagina act 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:13.920 as a trap keep going chuck. And that is where 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:17.840 this name comes from. It's named after Venus, that got 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:21.280 pagan goddess of love because of that plant's resemblance and 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:25.520 because of that folklore. Yes, chee, good job man, I 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:29.320 think you really presented that well right, Um, I wouldn't 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:32.000 name it that today, can I say that? No? They 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:34.600 definitely wouldn't have. People are a lot less uptight when 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:37.120 it comes to s e X you know what I'm saying. Yeah, 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:40.800 it be the Carolina spider trap, that's right. I also 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:43.800 saw that when the it was imported to England for 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:48.360 studies around the mid eighteenth century, UM that it was 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:52.040 popularly called tippity witch. It's that's what they called venus 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:54.400 fly traps in England. I thought it was fun too, 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:57.280 And Charles Darwin said that it was one of the 0:08:57.280 --> 0:09:00.360 most wonderful plants in the world, which I'm mean, that's 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:03.320 a that's a pretty good endorsement coming from him, you know. Oh, 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:07.280 I bet he loves the venus fly trap. Yes, he 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:10.439 really did. And I don't think because he um had 0:09:10.480 --> 0:09:13.840 any kind of sexual proclivities toward it like some of 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:18.440 his other fellow botanists who actually named it that. No. 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:22.000 I think because it's a wonder of natural selection and evolution. 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:26.800 I would say that's why too. One of the other 0:09:27.000 --> 0:09:31.840 things he's like, oh natural selection, yes, um. So one 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:33.800 of the other things about the venus fly trap has 0:09:33.840 --> 0:09:38.120 another name too. It's um it's a taxonomic name. Is 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:42.680 Diane a Musca pula. I think that's right, and that 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:46.559 actually is named after Diana, a different goddess, the Roman 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:51.600 goddess of the hunt, and muscapula apparently means mouse trap. 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:54.400 So the other name thing you could call it besides 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:58.520 Venus fly trap is Diana mouse trap. It's not bad. 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:02.280 It's got a lot of really great names. I mean, tippity, 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:06.199 which it alone is worth, you know, celebrating. I think 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:08.719 Diana mousetrap might be my new hotel check in name. 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:12.960 Oh that's a good one. I like that. But at 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:17.000 any rate, they eat insects and not because they um 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:20.560 just love the taste of spiders or flies. Uh, they're 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:24.280 they're regular plants to They love photosynthesis and they do 0:10:24.360 --> 0:10:27.600 their thing during photosynthesis like all plants do, and take 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:30.280 the energy of the sun and and then convert it 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:33.800 to sugar and oxygen and use that stuff as energy. 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:37.320 But they also need other stuff, just like all plants need, 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:39.840 but they can't get it because of where they live 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:43.320 and that p D. Marshy bog. They need all these 0:10:43.360 --> 0:10:46.960 amino acids and vitamins that their land doesn't provide, and 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:49.480 they get that from these insects. Yeah, because most other 0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:52.080 plants are able to get things like nitrogen from the 0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:57.280 soil and phosphorus and magnesium soul for cassi calcium potassium. Like, yes, 0:10:57.320 --> 0:11:00.319 they need a TP energy and they a word in 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:03.640 the form of carbohydrates like all plants to um, but 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:06.520 there's other nutrients that they need to build sell walls 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:12.040 to produce dna um, to transport water throughout that kind 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:14.120 of stuff. Like you definitely need a lot more than 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:16.520 a TP. And since they can't get it from the soil, 0:11:17.160 --> 0:11:20.880 they have evolved to get it by eating other bugs 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:24.720 or eating bugs or you know, even in some cases 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:29.480 like like those giant pitcher plants like mice, because animals 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:33.160 are really great mobile stores of stuff like calcium in 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:37.600 sulfur and phosphorus and magnesium. That's right, And then that 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:43.480 wet pd acidic soil they must seek purchase elsewhere. And 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:46.280 luckily those little spiders are happy to just crawl in there. 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:50.080 And maybe we should take a little break and we'll 0:11:50.080 --> 0:12:14.120 tell you all about how this trap happens right after this, Okay, chuck, 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:17.720 Before we go any further, I just want to restate 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:20.440 one of the coolest things I've ever heard, that the 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:24.400 venus fly trap and other carnivorous plants couldn't get nutrients 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:26.800 from the soil they grew in, so they learned to 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:31.880 eat bugs to get those nutrients. It's astounding, and it 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:36.040 also makes them so similar to the to the animal world, 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:40.479 because that's why animals eat other stuff, like other animals 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:43.400 or even plants, because we need to get our energy elsewhere. 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:45.679 We don't get it from the soil. So it makes them, 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:49.400 in some weird way akin to us as well. Do 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:52.440 you feel a kinship a little bit? And you know, 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:54.800 I'm a little attracted to it too, like some of 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:59.840 those early botanists, not in a Darwinian way or both 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:03.320 you swing both ways. Okay, I don't, I don't, I don't, 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:06.400 I don't judge. Who knew this podcast would go in 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:09.760 this direction? Right when I saw that first thing about 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:12.800 it being dicey, yes, about the name being I knew 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:16.760 exactly where it's gonna go. Uh. So they are not 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:19.880 the only plant also that attracts things via their smells 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:24.480 or these delicious syrupy SAPs. I mean, if you go 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:26.559 out in your garden on any day and see butterflies 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:29.360 and bees and other insects flying around, they're all going 0:13:29.400 --> 0:13:31.960 to these plants and these plants are using these insects 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:34.439 in one way or the other. They're just not quite 0:13:34.520 --> 0:13:37.400 using them up like venus fly trap does. Yeah, they're 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:40.320 using them to help pollinate. That's why they do that. Yeah, 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:43.719 because they want the bee to fly away. They the 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:46.000 venus fly trap does not want anything to fly away. No, 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:50.160 it says, come here, let me eat you. So here's 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:52.720 what happens. If you look at a venus fly trap, 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:56.120 when it's unfolded and beautiful and has all these little 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:59.160 beads of sweet nectar on it, an insect will land 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:04.400 on that, and on each side of uh what are 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:09.480 they called petals? I saw, lobes, and then like that, 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:11.360 the thing that connects them in the middle is called 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:14.920 the mid rib. The mid rib, not the mid rib. 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:20.000 It's good, you only get it at certain times. The heather. 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:25.000 Right on each lobe, you've got three little trigger hairs 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:29.160 arranged in a little triangular pattern. And these are part 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:33.760 motion detectors and part sort of timers almost, because when 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:36.520 a little fly or a spider or any kind of 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:39.280 insect that's small enough lands in there, and we should 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:41.960 say by small enough we mean ideally about a third 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:45.960 of the size of those two lobes. Can't go much 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:48.440 bigger than that. No, and they're not big there, it's 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:49.960 not a big plan. I saw that they grow to 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:53.080 be about five inches tall. Yeah they're small. Yeah, they're 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:55.640 fairly small. And then each plant will have, you know, 0:14:56.440 --> 0:15:00.400 between five and ten I think um fly traps on it. Yeah, 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:03.200 like if you get your information from Little Shop of Horrors, 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:06.680 you're being the slag um. So you've got these little 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:09.960 trigger hairs and once one of those is is flicked 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:13.120 by a fly leg or an ant leg or a spider, 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:15.440 it's sort of a timer kind of starts, and they've 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:18.640 got about twenty or thirty seconds to dance around that 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:21.520 thing without hitting either that one again or one of 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:24.880 those other trigger hairs. And once it hits the second one, 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:27.640 or hits that first one the second time within that 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:30.600 little timer, that is when the trap closes in a 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:34.280 fraction of a second, the blink of an eye. Oh yeah, 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:36.920 it's super quick. Um. And you know, I think one 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:40.120 of the things that makes it seem animal like is 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:43.240 it's it's really hard to find a nature documentary about 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:47.040 the venus fly trap without some sort of foreboding orchestral 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:51.520 music playing that ground so it really kind of juices 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:54.600 it up a little bit. Uh. But here's the deal is, 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:59.640 they don't they don't know exactly why or exactly how 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:03.440 the mechanism works, since it doesn't have a brain, you know, 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:05.280 they know they trigger that trigger hair and then it 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:09.280 claps shut. But all they've got is a pretty good hypothesis. Yeah, 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:12.800 So what they think happens is that the the um 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:17.520 the lobes stay open um like that you just um 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:21.120 liken it to a mouth, So the mouth is wide 0:16:21.160 --> 0:16:25.600 open on the venus fly trap. By the cells around 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:28.080 that the lobe I guess around the midrib and the 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:31.720 lobe where they connect are basically being crumpled. And then 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:37.320 something about the trigger hairs being stepped on starts to 0:16:38.480 --> 0:16:42.120 um d crumple that still like it starts to release 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:43.520 a little bit of the pressure, and then when that 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:46.600 second hair is triggered, the pressure is fully released. And 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:49.640 they think what happens is through the use of um 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:53.840 of burning a TP for energy, that the the the 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:57.400 water pressure changes in those cells so that they go 0:16:57.480 --> 0:16:59.640 from being crumpled to being plump, and so they're no 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:03.440 longer holding the flower open and the mouth open. So 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:07.080 it just shuts, and all of that is again carried 0:17:07.080 --> 0:17:10.320 out by those action potentials, which starts with the trigger 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:15.359 hair being stimulated, which somehow creates an electro chemical um 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:18.080 transmission that goes through the plant cells to tell it 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:20.399 get ready, get ready because it might happen again. And 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:23.119 when it happens again, it says, okay, release the water, 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:26.800 and then the thing snapshot, which is pretty neat. But 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:30.479 even after that, even after that second stimulation and the 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:35.359 mouth um the mouth closes, that's not the end of 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:38.800 the whole process, Like, that's there's still another third one, 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:40.840 and it has to do with those amazing trigger hairs 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:44.960 as well. Yeah, like this, to me, it's already pretty 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:48.159 remarkable that this plant can do this, and and I 0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:50.640 knew I kind of knew all that stuff, But this 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:54.040 is when it really floors me, because even before I 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:56.719 got to this part, I started thinking like, yeah, but 0:17:57.160 --> 0:17:59.840 how long does this take into like reset the trap? 0:17:59.880 --> 0:18:02.320 Like what if a what if something kind of floats 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:05.199 through there that's not an insect and it just happens 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:08.680 to trigger two of those hairs, you know, does it 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:10.760 just open right back up? Does it spit it out? 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:13.000 Like oh, I don't want this thing in there. What 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:15.160 if some dumb little kid sticks his finger in there, 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:18.960 it's gonna close of course, because it's triggering the trigger hairs. Yeah, 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:20.679 and you should not do that, by the way. No, 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:23.320 you should totally not do that. But you know that's 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:26.000 why I said, dumb little kid. So what it counts 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:29.520 on is a living thing squirming around in there. Once 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:32.920 it's sort of you know, it's not sealed tight exactly 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:36.160 at the very very beginning. It's it's like shut. Ideally, 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:38.160 they're not getting out, but maybe a fly can slip 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:40.400 out if it's quick enough, or maybe it can work 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:43.200 its way out. But all that's doing is triggering those 0:18:43.200 --> 0:18:48.000 little trigger hairs again. And that's the signal basically that like, no, no, no, 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:50.879 you've got a living thing in here. It's not a 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:53.280 something that fell off a tree or whatever that you 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:56.639 don't want. So now is the time where you really 0:18:56.680 --> 0:19:00.240 really close down and locked down tight. Yeah, it's the 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:03.320 thing's been inside scirming because like you're saying, it's it's 0:19:03.320 --> 0:19:05.720 like it's got alive one here. One of the other 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:09.960 things that just I found absolutely astounding, Chuck, is when 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:14.160 the when the venus fly trap seals shut, when it's like, Okay, 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:17.280 I've got a bug in here, and I want to 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:20.080 go ahead and start eating it. The little things that 0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:23.960 look like teeth, the cilia, they lace together and form 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:27.000 an air tight seal. And there's a couple of reasons 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:29.560 for this. One. It keeps the bug from escaping, which 0:19:29.560 --> 0:19:32.359 it couldn't really get out after the second the second 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:35.639 hair was tripped, like, it forms a cage. But then 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:38.840 after it squirms around inside that cage, then it seals tight, 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:41.520 air tight, and that's it for the bug, by the way, 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:45.399 um and it keeps the bug inside. It also keeps 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:49.560 um uh bacteria from entering because this is not a 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:53.080 fast process what's about to happen. It takes the course 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:57.760 of days before it's completed, and in that time bacteria 0:19:57.800 --> 0:20:01.080 can enter through any like hole in that seal. And 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:03.720 so the seal prevents bacteria from getting in and rotting 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:08.480 the bug and in turn rotting them the venus fly trap, 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:10.600 causing the poor little fly trap to turn black and 0:20:10.640 --> 0:20:13.000 fall off. So I saw it takes about an hour 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:17.320 or two to fully seal. Uh. It takes about Remember 0:20:17.359 --> 0:20:19.199 I said earlier, like what if something just happens to 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:20.840 go how long does it take to reset the trap. 0:20:21.520 --> 0:20:25.679 That takes about twelve hours if there's a uh twig 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:28.399 or something. But I was looking for a kind of 0:20:28.400 --> 0:20:32.080 a fun word for a that's not sexual. How about 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:38.440 a a twitter like a false alarm? But my mind 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:40.439 just keeps going to dirty places. Well, like, why I 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:42.440 have no idea false alarm? Let's just call it? No? 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:44.240 Know what? What were you going to think? That was dirty? 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:45.840 What were you thinking that was dirty? I can't I'll 0:20:45.880 --> 0:20:47.640 tell you later. I guess I can't say it out loud. 0:20:48.200 --> 0:20:51.000 I kind of figure this out. Oh, oh, I know. 0:20:51.200 --> 0:20:54.879 To me, let's just say it's a false alarm about 0:20:54.920 --> 0:20:58.480 twelve hours, and then the entire digestive process can take 0:20:58.520 --> 0:21:01.479 a week or more. Yeah, Like, if there is an 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:03.960 actual bug in there, it takes about a week to 0:21:04.000 --> 0:21:06.720 digest it. It doesn't sound like a pleasant way to 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:08.840 go for a bug to be trapped in a venus 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:12.000 fly trap, because after that seal is completely sealed, w'd 0:21:12.000 --> 0:21:13.439 you say, it takes about a couple of hours an 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:16.200 hour or two for that seal to be airtight. Yes, 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:18.960 the whole time that bug is still alive, chuck, and 0:21:19.000 --> 0:21:22.240 it's still just sitting there flipping and flopping against those 0:21:22.280 --> 0:21:25.399 trigger hairs. And this is the other service that the 0:21:25.400 --> 0:21:28.959 trigger hairs provide that I referred to earlier, that when 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:32.320 they're stimulated again after this thing is sealed, what they're 0:21:32.320 --> 0:21:34.960 doing is telling the venus fly trap, Okay, this thing's 0:21:35.000 --> 0:21:38.600 about this size. Um, it's not a big thing. It's 0:21:38.640 --> 0:21:41.919 about medium size. So I only need to release, you know, 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:46.000 a little bit of digestive enzymes. And this is a 0:21:46.160 --> 0:21:52.320 really great adaptation because it's really energy um intense to 0:21:52.480 --> 0:21:56.760 produce digestive enzymes. UM. So the fact that it just 0:21:56.840 --> 0:22:00.439 kind of dolls out just as enough to dissolve whatever 0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:03.720 is in there, whatever size insect is in there, is 0:22:03.720 --> 0:22:07.760 pretty astounding. And it judges this somehow, some way, in 0:22:07.800 --> 0:22:12.080 a mindless sort of way, by how much those trigger 0:22:12.119 --> 0:22:15.439 hairs are tripped while the thing is is squirming around 0:22:15.480 --> 0:22:19.359 in the ceiling um fly trap. It's just awesome that 0:22:19.440 --> 0:22:22.199 it can do that. Yeah, I mean, and this this 0:22:22.320 --> 0:22:24.920 jumps to the end a little bit. But the reason 0:22:24.960 --> 0:22:26.600 it does that is because it can only do that 0:22:26.720 --> 0:22:30.000 so much. Um. They do. They do recycle what they 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:33.000 can from those juices at the end of the process. 0:22:33.080 --> 0:22:36.440 But I get the feeling like each With each opening 0:22:36.520 --> 0:22:40.880 and digestion and manufacturing of those enzymes and recycling of 0:22:40.880 --> 0:22:43.600 of what they can of those enzymes, it just gets 0:22:43.640 --> 0:22:46.160 a little bit less and a little bit less, until 0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:50.200 eventually the lobes uh can't do their job anymore. And 0:22:50.280 --> 0:22:52.680 then they just stay open and say, all right, I'll 0:22:52.720 --> 0:22:55.200 just be a regular plant and soak up the sun. 0:22:55.320 --> 0:23:00.320 I'm just gonna photosynthesize. Brother. I showed my daughter this 0:23:00.359 --> 0:23:02.480 morning when before she left for school, I was watching 0:23:02.480 --> 0:23:04.920 these videos. It's like, oh man, she's gonna love this. 0:23:05.880 --> 0:23:09.000 And she watched it and got really sad about the fly. 0:23:09.640 --> 0:23:12.120 That's sweet, and it's because of the way they shoot these. 0:23:12.160 --> 0:23:15.200