Carnivorous plants and conservation – the role of carnivorous plant enthusiasts

Abstract

Carnivorous plants and their unique habitats face various threats, most of them being anthropogenic. About 25% of the known 860 carnivorous plant species are threatened or face extinction. Two of the threats are predominantly caused by “carnivorous plant lovers”. The actions include 1) sale and trade of plants that have been illegally collected from the wild, a threat that has continuously increased in the past years and 2) planting of exotic carnivorous plant species into pristine habitats of native species. This article illustrates these problems and shows causal connections and the legal situation, which are apparently not known to everyone. A long-term solution can only be found if carnivorous plant lovers recognize and stop their misconduct. This article aims at closing knowledge gaps and to inform about the problem of threats to wild carnivorous plant populations by carnivorous plant lovers.

Replicated radiations in the South American marsh pitcher plants (Heliamphora) lead to convergent carnivorous trap morphologies

“…The wider angle, roughly the mean estimated in uncrowded conditions (Figure 6), leads to evenly spaced pitchers in the mature rosette (Figure 7A, B). Mature rosettes typically comprise five active pitchers (e.g., Butschi et al, 1989; Wistuba et al, 2005; Wrazidlo, 2019; Golos, 2020), and we added a sixth pitcher to demonstrate how a new pitcher would overlap with an older inactive pitcher (Figure 7B). Furthermore, we envisioned how a clonal cluster of rosettes emerging from the rhizomes of a single plant could fill a confined space, such as a depression in the rock substrate (Figure 7C).…”