Triantha Occidentalis the new Carnvorous Plant Discovered in North America

From Alaska to California, and inland to Montana, Triantha occidentalis can be found in wetlands and bogs. It produces tall blooming stems with sticky hairs that attract small insects like gnats and midges throughout the summer. The scientists discovered that the plant gets more than half of its nitrogen from these ensnared insects, which is a pleasant bonus in its nutrient-deficient environment.

This is the 12th documented separate development of carnivory in the plant world, and it’s the first time it’s been discovered in the Alismatales order, which includes mostly aquatic flowering plants. It’s also only the fourth known case of carnivory in monocots, one of the primary categories of flowering plants.

The lead author Qianshi Lin, said, “What’s particularly unique about this carnivorous plant is that it traps insects near its insect-pollinated flowers. On the surface, this seems like a conflict between carnivory and pollination because you don’t want to kill the insects that are helping you reproduce.” Lin and Sean Graham of UBC led the research, which included Givnish and Cecile Ané, a botany and statistics professor at UW–Madison. The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on August 9, 2021.Graham had previously led an investigation into the genomes of Alismatales when his team discovered that Triantha had lost a gene that is frequently absent in carnivores. Triantha appeared to be an excellent candidate for being the next carnivore in the plant kingdom, given its affinity for catching insects and its proximity to other known carnivorous plants.

Triantha surroundings seems to be suited to carnivory as well. For plants, the carnivorous lifestyle is so energy-intensive that plenty of water and light appear to be required for it to evolve. Lin fed fruit flies labelled with the stable isotope nitrogen-15 to Triantha in field trials, allowing him to trace the nutrient as it entered the plant. Ané assisted Lin in analysing the results of the experiments.