• Baaahb@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    16
    ·
    12 days ago

    Flowering plants use life to spread genetics. No reason to be carnivorous if there’s no reason for animals to crawl all over you

  • xia@lemmy.sdf.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    12 days ago

    I remember watching this farmer make a case otherwise, that ordinary bramble (?) is specialized to ensnare and trap fluffy sheep, providing chemical nutrients to the bush.

    • Redfox8@mander.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      12 days ago

      There’s tonnes of blackthorn and a lot of sheep in the UK and I’ve never heard it to be problematic. Sheep ate pretty dim, but bramble is definitely not thorny/spiney enough to get caught bar the odd occasion. I’m sure I heard about a shrub (African maybe) that sheep can get completely ensnared in and die, but can’t find it!

  • ZWQbpkzl [none/use name]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    12 days ago

    This seems obvious: Non flowering plants haven’t evolved ways to attract pollinators prey. What non-flowering plants deliberately attract animals?

  • Redfox8@mander.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    12 days ago

    Because they live in environments lacking in the nutrients that can be gained from invertebrates (e.g. in highly acidic soil). This allows them to compete better against other plants. I guess non-flowering plants don’t need the same nutrients so can go without. Only a beginnner+ at ecological botany so someone here can surely explain better knowing lemmy!

  • BodyBySisyphus [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    12 days ago

    If you go out in a bog and look around, most of the plants there are angiosperms. The non-angiosperms are mainly mosses (capable of surviving on atmospheric deposition, not really producing the sorts of complex structures that can be adapted for carnivory like leaves and roots), ferns, and horsetails. “Why no carnivorous ferns?” seems like an interesting question but it’s also kinda like “Why no flowering ferns?” Because you need structures (leaves, glandular trichomes, or roots) that can be exapted for a new purpose and flowering plants seem to have the most plasticity.