One plant even generates heat to explosively launch its seeds. Researchers have turned up contraptions that kick like a soccer player or throw like a lacrosse player. Frame-by-frame analyses, along with high-resolution lenses, at long last offered a detailed look at what gives plants their speed.Įmerging evidence now points to a surprising variety of mechanisms. A little more than a decade ago, scientists began using high-speed digital cameras and computer modeling to home in on plant motion. Modern researchers can study rapid plant movements with a precision that Darwin would envy. Still, he understood that the shape of its leaves played some role in how speedily they could trap prey. Darwin never fully unlocked the plant’s secrets. He even tested how the plants’ traps reacted to drops of chloroform. He prodded others with objects as fine as human hairs. In his 1875 book Insectivorous Plants, he described tests he conducted on this curiosity. Of all plants, he described the Venus flytrap as “one of the most wonderful in the world.” The most dynamic plant movements have long captivated scientists. In contrast, some plants have found a way to shoot their seeds into the environment at speeds of tens of meters (more than 100 feet) per second. Roots crawl through the soil at only about 1 millimeter (0.04 inch) per hour. It spans an equally huge spectrum in terms of speed. Plants have evolved a broad range of approaches to movement. And within seconds of being touched, the aptly named touch-me-not ( Mimosa pudica) folds its compound leaves.
Sundews (genus Drosera) have sticky tendrils that curl around prey. Also known as the dynamite tree, it can fling seeds the length of an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Consider the explosive sandbox tree ( Hura crepitans). Plants exhibit plenty of impressive actions. The snapping jaws of the Venus flytrap ( Dionaea muscipula) are perhaps the most famous example. Many also have the capacity to move rapidly. To describe something boring, we say it’s “like watching grass grow.” But such phrases offer a naïve view of the plant world.Īll plants grow, a rather slow form of motion. We tend to picture plants as largely unmoving - rooted in one place until they die. Yet some plants, she notes, “can move so fast you can’t catch them with the naked eye.” She’s a botanist at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. “We don’t think plants move,” says Joan Edwards. But this fly will never leave this death trap. This blur of movement lasted only a tenth of a second. Two leaves have snapped shut like a huge pair of botanical jaws. All at once, the pink surface closes in from both sides. As the fly continues to stroll along, it grazes a second hair. It’s sticking up from the surface like a slender sword. As it explores the scenery, the fly unknowingly brushes a small hair. Somewhere in the wetlands of South Carolina, a fly alights on a pink surface.
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