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Lauren Bennett
Lauren Bennett
Introduction
Introduction
Did you know there are actually 155 different carnivorous plant species? North Carolina is home to a huge variety including the unique bog sundew which you can find in your own backyard in many areas of coastal North Carolina. This bright pink/red colored plant may be small and hard to spot, but it packs a punch to the unsuspecting insect. Typically only a few inches in diameter, this carnivorous plant has beautifully spiky leaves that grow in a distinct rossette from the base of the plant as seen in the first picture. The tiny hairlike spikes on each of the leaves are trichomes and produce a bead of liquid that attracts insects and also acts as an anesthetic for subduing their prey. These hidden treasures can be found in sandy peat bogs and bloom between May and August with a tall stem stalk with small white/pink flower on the end, as seen in the second and third pictures. The flowering stems do not actually have trichomes and so leave all the insect harvesting to the leaves at the base.
Picture 1: Tauscher, Joseph Allan https://www.wildflower.org/gallery/result.php?id_image=28875Picture 2: Cressler, Alan, https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=DRCA2Picture 3: ©Erica Asai. United States, FL, Columbia Co, Osceola National Forest. April 1, 2007.https://plants.usda.gov/java/largeImage?imageID=drca2_003_ahp.jpg
Want to learn more? First, check out this video on how to spot the sundews and where to find them.
Taxonomy
Taxonomy
The scientific name for the bog sundew is Drosera capillaris with more commonly seen names of bog or pink sundew. The full classification of this plant can be seen in the table on the right. The bog sundew is one of 155 species of carnivorous plants within the family Droseraceae that also includes venus flytraps and the aquatic carnivorous plant, the waterwheel plant (Król et al., 2012). There are 152 species within the Drosera genus and most grow in bogs with poor soil conditions and have leaves that manifest in the basal rosette.
Niche and Habitat
Niche and Habitat
As seen by the green portions on the map to the left, the bog sundew can be found all throughout the southeastern US from Texas over to Florida and up o Virginia in mostly coastal regions. This sundew, like most others of its genus, are typically found in sandy peaty soils which means the soil is poor in many essential nutrients. As its name signifies, the bog sundew is common in acidic boggy regions. These acidic bogs containing bog sundew are often found in the transitional zones between wet pine savanna and pocosin vegetation. Wet pine savanas in coastal North Carolina are characterized by longleaf pine canopies with a highly diverse grassy understory and wetland regions for portions of the year while pocosin vegetation is characterized by wetland shrub vegetation (NC Wildlife Resources Commission, 2020).
Though the bog sundew is still acts as a producer in this environment because photosynthesis is still happening within its cells, it is also considered a consumer! As the plant captures prey with its trichome, it releases enzymes to break down the nutrients within the prey. Bog Sundew typically capture ants and knats and other small invertebrates. Rather than digesting the prey, the sundew dissolves the invertebrates to extract nitrates and phosphates that are missing from the nutrient poor soil around it.
Evolutionary History
Evolutionary History
Carnivorous plants are a wonderful example of evolutionary adaptations. The bog sundew is no different. These small plants have evolved the ability to catch and dissolve invertebrate prey in order to gain much needed nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous for growth that are not readily available in the sandy, peaty soil (Petruzzello, 2014). In order to catch their prey, the sundews excrete globs of moisture at the tips of their trichome (plant hairs). These globs first attract insects and then are full of an anesthetic chemical that puts the insect to sleep so the plant can break it down for the nutrients. Check out the video to see the moisture droplets and how the sundew catches its prey!
Environmental Impacts
Environmental Impacts
Though prevalent throughout the southeastern United States in coastal bogs, the bog sundew has specific living conditions that are often threatened. The largest environmental threats to the bog sundew are fires, floods and droughts. Fires damage habitat and he plant itself, floods can bring a deluge of water that disrupts the soil, and droughts can cause the boggy regions to dry up and loose the much needed moisture for plants adapted to wetlands.
Another important environmental factor is the amount of sunlight available. Dense shrubbery and upper canapy can reduce sunlight and decrease the growth of bog sundews. The amount of ground litter, or dead plan material can also limit sundew growth. Removal of that ground litter and clearing of the shrubbery and canopy has been found to increase sundew growth and spread (Brewer, 1998).
Conservation
Conservation
Besides environmental factors, there are a few types of human activity that can impact impact sundew habitats in our region. Historically, the Seminole Native Americans were thought to have collected sundew plants and use the moisture droplets as a local anesthetic to treat ringworm sores (Sturtevant, 1954). Now, the largest threat to the bog sundew plants are pollution and agricultural land. One study on sundew species in Sweden actually found that pollutants that contain nitrates could actually change the diet of sundew plants to be more vegetarion because the soil now had more of the needed nitrogen (Millett et al., 2012). Interesting to think that the carnivorous plants could actually go vegetarian! Another human impact is from agricultural land. As farmers and developers increase cropland area, it can infringes upon local bog habitats which can lead to decreases in available sundew habitat (Jennings, 2011)
©Erica Asai. United States, FL, Columbia Co, Osceola National Forest. March 19, 2007. https://plants.usda.gov/java/largeImage?imageID=drca2_001_ahp.jpg
Friends or Foes?
Friends or Foes?
Though the bog sundew is a plant, some of their most interesting relationships with other organisms in their environment are with animals, and not just their prey! Some scientists have observed a symbiotic relationship between bog sundew and assassin bugs (The National Wildlife Federation, na). The assassin bugs hide on the plant and take advantage of the helpless victims, which would be an example of commensalism where the assasin bug benefits from the left over insect pieces and the sundew is neither harmed or benefited. Another interesting relationship is the competition between the sundew and wolf spiders for invertebrate prey. According to a study in Florida, wolf spiders live in similar habitats and occupy a similar niche to bog sundew and therefore have adapted ways to compete (Jennings, 2010). Wolf spiders have been observed either moving away from regions with large populations of bog sundews or building bigger webs to attract more prey.
Web Resources to Explore
Web Resources to Explore
For more information about the bog sundew and what types of plants share its niche, check out this link. https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/drosera-capillaris/
Want to try growing your own sundews? The link belows gives you tips and ideas for creating your own carnivorous plant nursery. https://carnivorousplantnursery.com/blogs/carnivorous-plant-information/growing-tips-for-sundews
Interesting in learning more about the coastal plain habitats of North Carolina? Check out this link to explore through some of the characteristics and facts about the mentioned bog sundew habitats and other coastal habitats. https://www.ncwildlife.org/Conserving/Habitats/Coast
Check out this link to learn more about all the different kinds of carnivorous plants that can be found in North Carolina https://www.ncwildflower.org/plant_galleries/carnivorous -
See what a student at UNCW is doing to help conserve carnivorous plants at Carolina Beach State Park. https://uncw.edu/features/videos/flytrap.html
Resources
Resources
Brewer J. S. (1998). Effects of competition and litter on a carnivorous plant, Drosera capillaris (Droseraceae). American journal of botany, 85(11), 1592–1596.
Jennings, D. E., Krupa, J. J., Raffel, T. R., & Rohr, J. R. (2010). Evidence for competition between carnivorous plants and spiders. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 277(1696), 3001-3008.
Jennings, D. E., & Rohr, J. R. (2011). A review of the conservation threats to carnivorous plants. Biological Conservation, 144(5), 1356-1363. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2011.03.013
Król, E., Płachno, B. J., Adamec, L., Stolarz, M., Dziubińska, H., & Trebacz, K. (2012). Quite a few reasons for calling carnivores 'the most wonderful plants in the world'. Annals of botany, 109(1), 47–64. https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcr249
Millett, J., Svensson, B.M., Newton, J. and Rydin, H. (2012), Reliance on prey‐derived nitrogen by the carnivorous plant Drosera rotundifolia decreases with increasing nitrogen deposition. New Phytologist, 195: 182-188. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8137.2012.04139.x The National Wildlife Federation. (na). Sundews. Retrieved from https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Plants-and-Fungi/Sundews
North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. (2020). Coastal Plains Habitats. Retrieved from https://www.ncwildlife.org/Conserving/Habitats/Coast
Petruzzello, M. (2014). Sundew. In Britanica. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/plant/sundew
Sturtevant, W. (1954). The Mikasuki Seminole: Medical Beliefs and Practices. Yale University, PhD Thesis, page 211. Retrieved from http://naeb.brit.org/uses/12675/
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