Carnivorous

August 05, 2026

My NYT feed The Morning included a blurb about the vindication of Charles Darwin’s hypothesis about carnivorous plants.  Darwin called Venus flytraps (Dionaea muscipula) “one of the most wonderful plants in the world” and once remarked that he cared more about sundews, plants that sport sticky, flypaper-like traps, “than the origin of all the species in the world.”  Darwin published a treatise on carnivorous plants in 1875 that featured several species he thought could be flesh-eating flora, including the hardy alpine plants (genus Saxifraga) that had sticky hairs.  Darwin tempted two European Saxifraga species with insects during feeding experiments, but he was unable to prove they were carnivorous.  Scientists have now vindicated Darwin’s hypothesis. A team of researchers recently served tiny flies to another Saxifraga species native to China. Their findings were published on Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications revealing the Saxifraga candelabrum does digest and absorb sustenance from trapped prey, expanding evidence of a new family of carnivorous plants.

When I went online, I found Saxifraga candelabrum is a species of flowering plant in the family Saxifragaceae native to northwestern Sichuan and northern Yunnan, China.  Candelabrum is a perennial herb reaching 6 to 15 inches (15 to 38 cm) in height.  The species grows in a variety of habitats, including forests, forest edges, high meadows, and rocky crevices at elevations from 6,600 to 13,800 feet (2,000 to 4,200 m).   The 2026 study found that it is carnivorous, trapping insects in the glandular hairs of its leaves and digesting them.  The plant’s flowers attract tiny flying insects in the dipterid suborder Nematocera (aka gnats) and traps them with their sticky glandular hairs.  Larger flies (order Diptera) are too big to be captured and instead serve as flower pollinators.  The Saxifraga candelabrum can attract, trap, digest, and absorb nitrogen from insects, supporting a prediction made by Charles Darwin more than 150 years ago.

Many plants exhibit carnivorous traits like prey capture, but to be formally classified as carnivorous they must show adaptations for attracting, catching, digesting, and absorbing nutrients from prey.  Hang Sun and colleagues studied Saxifraga candelabrum and field observations and surveys of existing plant samples showed that insect prey was present on the glandular hairs of 43 out of 45 surveyed specimens.  Mature plants displayed an average of 71 trapped insects, predominantly on these hairs.  The authors used fluorescence tagging to identify a digestive enzyme (phosphatase activity) found in carnivorous plants, suggesting that the plant can potentially digest prey.  Small flies (genus Drosophila) labeled with a stable form of nitrogen were fed to the plant to analyze whether it could absorb the prey’s nutrient.  The authors observed a notable rise in labeled nitrogen levels among candelabrum and control plants from another carnivorous species, and no rise in the non-carnivorous controls.  Genetic analysis also found genomic similarities with other independently evolved carnivorous plants.  These findings provide strong evidence to support Darwin’s hypothesis.

THOUGHTS: Carnivorous plants have independently evolved in 14 families of flowering plants and are defined by the trapping and digesting of prey for nourishment.  Being a meat eater allows a plant to live in depleted soil and harsh habitats.  Humans have an even greater advantage as they can eat both meat and plants (omnivorous).  This flexible diet helps us survive when one food source is scarce or when the environment changes.  However, we cannot digest tough plants as herbivores do and are less skilled at catching fast or dangerous prey as carnivores.  Humans have instead learned to adapt to their environment more than being shaped by it.  Now we need to ensure our adaptation does not destroy the environment.  Act for all.  Change will come and it starts with you.