Venus fly trap - The Private Life of Plants - David Attenborough - BBC wildlife

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Watch a selection of the best classic and contemporary British shows on demand, including full length episodes of 'The Private Life of Plants'.

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In this clip, David Attenborough looks at how this well known carnivorous plant captures its prey.

Animals dont eat it;
it eats animals.

And there's one right here.

Watch.

This is Venus's flytrap.

It shapes its traps
from the ends of its leaves.

One or two hairs on their
surface act as triggers.

Here comes a meal.

Touch the hair
and the trap is sprung.

There's now no escape.

The beetle's struggles stimulate the plant
to close the trap even more tightly.

It now produces digestive acids from
glands on the inner surface of the leaf,

which first kill and then
dissolve its victim's body.

Growing in the same Carolina swamp,
there's another carnivorous plant.

These are the trumpet pitchers.

They, like the Venus's flytrap,

find so little nutriment in this
impoverished water-logged soil

that they supplement it
with the bodies of animals.

Their traps are also
formed from leaves,

but leaves that have
been folded lengthways

to make a vertical tube
which fills with water.

(birds chirping,
insects buzzing]

These spectacular trumpets
may look like flowers,

but, of course,
they're not.

Though in a sense,
this bright yellow top to them

serves the same
purpose as a petal.

It's an advertisement
of a delicious reward.

And the reward itself
is under here.

Sweet nectar.

But if an insect
comes to collect it,

and strays into the
mouth of the trumpet,

then it's doomed.

(Dramatic music,
animal noises)

The inside of the throat
of the trumpet

is covered with microscopic
downward-pointing spines.

As long as it stays on the rim,
the ant is alright.

But if it strays off it...

it falls into a pond
of water and drowns.

The tiny corpse dissolves

and the marsh pitcher
absorbs the resulting soup.

And where one ant goes,
others are likely to follow.

(dramatic music continues)

The marsh pitcher
attracts other animals too.

This frog may be hoping to eat some
of the insects before the pitcher does,

but if it loses its footing,
the plant will eat it.