With bright colors, deceptive shapes and sweet aromas, carnivorous plants lure insects only to trap and devour them. Nothing about them is accidental. Their beauty is the prelude to a deadly trap.
Carnivorous plants are found on every continent except Antarctica. They use photosynthesis to generate energy, like most plants, but they also trap and digest insects to get key nutrients — such as phosphate, nitrogen and potassium — that are often missing from the poor soils of swamps, bogs and tropical rainforests where they typically grow.
Hundreds of these captivating plants were on display this weekend at Bogota’s botanical garden in an exhibit called “Let yourself be trapped.”
