Strange Plants

Strange Plants

When we think about plants, we often think of trees, flowers, bushes, and grass. We think about organisms that have stems, leaves, roots, and sometimes flowers. Most plants, such as the ones in this photograph, have roots that grow into the ground.

While most plants have these four basic components, some plants are different. This book is about some of these strange plants.

Plants called air plants live in trees high above the ground near ponds, streams, rivers, and swamps in North and South America. Their roots are not buried in dirt. Instead, the plants grow on tree branches. They take all their nutrients and moisture from the air, through their leaves. They do not live in soil as most plants do.

Can you imagine carnivorous, or meat- eating, plants? Well, there are such plants. They eat insects, spiders, and even some other small animals. Like all plants, they use sunlight and water to make their own food. The animals they “ eat" help them grow better because these plants live in places where the soil doesn't supply enough nutrients.

One well-known meat-eating plant is the Venus flytrap, which lives in moist environments. Its leaves look like traps. The traps have small trigger hairs on the inside. When a critter walks inside a leaf and brushes against the trigger hairs, the leaf snaps shut. The critter is then trapped.