CARNIVOROUS PLANTS
This native coastal North Carolina plant snaps shut on its prey using tiny trigger hairs inside its leaves.
What is the Venus Flytrap?
Located in California, "Hyperion" holds the world record as the tallest living one of these trees.
What is a Coast Redwood?
This green pigment absorbs sunlight so plants can turn carbon dioxide and water into energy.
What is chlorophyll?
Succulents, including all cacti, store this resource in their thick stems and leaves to survive dry periods.
What is water?
The sharp, modified leaves found on cacti that discourage animals from eating them while reducing water loss.
What are spines?
Pitcher plants trap insects inside a deep cavity filled with this digestive substance.
What is liquid (or digestive enzymes)?
The general term for trees that keep their leaves year-round rather than dropping them in the autumn.
What is evergreen?
Tiny microscopic openings, usually on the undersides of leaves, that let plants exchange gases with the air.
What are stomata?
Monstera deliciosa earned this cheese-inspired common nickname due to the holes that naturally form in its leaves.
What is the Swiss Cheese Plant?
Poison ivy causes an itchy allergic reaction due to an oily organic resin named this.
What is urushiol?
These carnivorous plants get their sticky name from the glistening, glue-like drops covering their leaves.
What are Sundews?
This famous, ancient tree species is often called a "living fossil" because its leaf structure has remained virtually unchanged for over 200 million years.
What is the Ginkgo Biloba?
This specialized vascular tissue transports water upwards from the roots throughout the plant, unlike phloem, which moves sugar.
What is xylem?
Gel harvested from the leaves of this soothing succulent is commonly applied to cool down sunburns.
What is Aloe Vera?
Some plants produce secondary metabolites like caffeine or nicotine to serve this specific natural function against insects.
What is an insecticide (or pest deterrent)?
The Amorphophallus titanum is nicknamed the "corpse flower" because its massive bloom produces a smell resembling this.
What is rotting flesh (or a decaying corpse)?
These tropical trees feature specialized roots that grow above ground to breath in oxygen-poor swamp water.
What are Mangroves?
The plant hormone group primarily responsible for encouraging cells to stretch, causing plants to bend toward light.
What are auxins?
Sansevieria is popular for low-light homes, but it's more commonly known by this humorous, sharp-sounding name.
What is Mother-in-Law's Tongue (or Snake Plant)?
The desert-dwelling Welwitschia mirabilis survives centuries in extreme drought with only this many true leaves that continuously grow over its entire lifetime.
What is two?
Aquatic carnivorous plants known as bladderworts use this physics mechanism to suck in prey in under a millisecond.
What is a vacuum (or negative pressure)?
Named "Methuselah," a tree belonging to this specific pine species in California is considered one of the oldest living individual organisms on Earth.
What is a Bristlecone Pine?
Plants use this process to move water from roots to leaves, where it eventually evaporates into the air.
What is transpiration?
This Mexican desert plant features thick leaves with sharp spines and is the core ingredient distilled to create Tequila.
What is the Blue Agave?
This chemical phenomenon occurs when a plant releases biochemicals into the soil to prevent competing plants from growing nearby.
What is allelopathy?