Image Gallery: Carnivorous Plants

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Crunch!

Bladderwort

(Image credit: Carmen Weißkopf)

The trap of the aquatic bladderwort plant Utricularia vulgaris closes 100 times faster than a Venus Flytrap, according to a 2011 study by Philippe Marmottant and colleagues. The traps are just a few millimeters long, but generate a suction force 600 times that of gravity, trapping tiny aquatic crustaceans and other unlucky prey.

Stephanie Pappas
Stephanie Pappas
Live Science Contributor

Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Live Science, covering topics ranging from geoscience to archaeology to the human brain and behavior. She was previously a senior writer for Live Science but is now a freelancer based in Denver, Colorado, and regularly contributes to Scientific American and The Monitor, the monthly magazine of the American Psychological Association. Stephanie received a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of South Carolina and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.