Behaviour of plants

Plants need light, air, water, and nutrients to live. Roots absorb the nutrients that are in the ground and water. Tiny creatures called bacteria turn these nutrients into food that the plant can use. But some places don’t have a lot of these nutrients. So some plants adapt. They follow a different plan for survival. Their strategy is to eat insects to live!

The stink lily gets its name from its smell. The flower stinks like rotting meat. The smell attracts flies to the plant—and then tricks them! When a fly crawls on the flower, pollen sticks to the fly. Then the fly takes the pollen and leaves it on the next plant it visits. That’s how the stink lily makes new plants.

The Venus flytrap attracts insects with a sweet odor. When an insect lands on an open leaf, the leaf closes and traps the insect. Then the plant slowly digests the insect over a period of eight to ten days.