Bottlegrass, also known as Cordyceps, (scientific name: Sarracenia) is an insectivorous plant of the genus bottlegrass in the family bottlegrass, with a total of 9 species and numerous subspecies, varieties and artificially cultivated varieties. Botrytis also contains two other species, cobra Botrytis and sun botrytis, which are herbs. The leaves of bottle grass are very strange and interesting. Some are tubular, some are trumpet shaped, and others are pot shaped. People take the name of "bottle" and collectively call them bottle grass. Please see the details below.
Basic information of bottle grass basic information of bottle grass origin distribution of bottle grass: bottle grass is a carnivorous plant, native to the east coast of the United States, Texas, the Great Lakes region and southern Canada. Most species occur only in the southeastern United States (only purple bottle grass occurs in low temperature areas).
Growth habits of bottlegrass:
In general carnivorous plants, bottlegrass usually lives in wet places for many years. Nitrate based nutrients are continuously washed away by water, or can not be used because of low soil pH value; The bottle grass can attract prey, so it has a more competitive advantage than other plants.
Bottle grass is a perennial herb. It grows bottle like leaves from the growth point of underground stem. The leaves are divided into insect tonic leaves with insect tonic function and sword leaves without insect tonic function. The opening of the tonic leaf is upward and facing the center. The shape is vertical tubular (also bottle shaped and horn shaped), and a cover extends from the entrance above the bottle. There are usually "lips" around the bottle mouth, which will secrete honey and smell. The cover itself will also produce honey, but the amount is small.
Morphological characteristics of bottlegrass:
No matter what kind of bottle grass, its bottle shaped tube can be divided into 3 ~ 5 areas: the first area is the bottle cap, the second area is the lip and bottle mouth, and the third and fourth areas (some species are combined) and the fifth area (only purple bottle grass has the fifth area) are the main body of the bottle. These areas have specific functions and conform to their morphological characteristics.
Most of the flowers of bottle grass have fragrance. These fragrance are changeable, but they are usually strong and even pungent. Especially yellow bottle grass has a strong smell and smells a bit like cat urine.
Close up of bottle grass predation trap
Growth cycle of bottle grass:
The bottle began to grow at the end of flowering until late autumn. In late autumn, the bottle began to wither, and the plant grew sword shaped leaves (or leaf petioles) without insect tonic function. Due to the reduction of insects in winter and the cold weather, it also reduces the metabolism and other functions of plants. At this time, it is not cost-effective to spend energy on growing insect leaves. Sword leaves are a more economical choice.
Principle of bottle grass predation:
The leaves of bottlegrass evolved into funnel-shaped traps and produced enzymes to decompose the fallen prey (high sex bottlegrass and Cobra bottlegrass don't have much liquid inside; Dwarf bottle grass and sun bottle grass will fill the bottle with rain, but the digestive juice is not as much as pitcher grass; The way to decompose insects will be mentioned later).
Insects are attracted by the smell secreted by the mouth of the bottle and the gland of the bottle cap. In addition, after the back of the bottle is irradiated by the sun, it shows the light like painted glass, which will also lure insects to go. The smooth bottle mouth makes it easy for insects to fall into the bottle, and the dead insects are decomposed into nutrients for bottle grass. Not all bottle grass bottles contain water. Only purple bottle grass deliberately makes the bottle contain rain. In fact, other kinds of caps will prevent rain from entering the bottle and flying prey from escaping from the bottle.
Basic information of bottle grass