Carnivorous Plant Snaps Shut With 600 Gs

Carnivorous Plant Snaps Shut With 600 Gs
A carnivorous plant that lives in bogs worldwide traps its prey in less than a millisecond, more than 100 times faster than a Venus flytrap can manage, a new study finds. The study is the first to capture a high-speed recording of the plant's traps snapping shut.

Utricularia, a genus of rootless carnivorous plants, is better known by its common name, bladderwort. There are more than 200 species worldwide, living in fresh water and saturated soils. To survive without roots, bladderworts trap and digest tiny organisms, including protozoa and tiny crustaceans. They do so with small bladder-like traps that line their stems.