Carnivorous plants: physiology, ecology, and evolution

Carnivorous plants have fascinated botanists, evolutionary biologists, ecologists, physiologists, developmental biologists, anatomists, horticulturalists, and the general public for centuries. Charles Darwin was the first scientist to demonstrate experimentally that some plants could actually attract, kill, digest, and absorb nutrients from insect prey; his book Insectivorous Plants (1875) remains a widely cited classic. Subsequent monographs by Lloyd (1942) and Juniper et al. (1989) summarized and synthesized available scientific data on these remarkable plants. Scientific investigations and understanding of carnivorous plants has evolved and changed dramatically in the nearly 30 years since Juniper et al’s Carnivorous Plants was published, and thousands of scientific papers on carnivorous plants have appeared in the academic literature. In putting together this fourth major work on the biology of carnivorous plants, Ellison and Adamec have assembled the world’s leading experts to provide a truly modern synthesis. The contributing authors examine every aspect of systematics, physiology, biochemistry, genomics, ecology, and evolution of what Darwin called ‘the most wonderful plants in the world,’ and describe the serious threats they now face from over-collection, poaching, habitat loss, and climatic change, which directly threaten their habitats and continued persistence in them. This accessible text is suitable for senior undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers in plant biology, ecology, and evolutionary biology. It will also be of relevance and use to horticulturalists and carnivorous plant enthusiasts.

Introduction : what is a carnivorous plant? / Aaron M. Ellison and Lubomir Adamec -- Biogeography and habitats of carnivorous plants / J. Stephen Brewer and Jan Schlauer -- Evolution of carnivory in angiosperms / Andreas Fleischmann, Jan Schlauer, Stephen A. Smith ... et al. -- Systematics and evolution of Droseraceae / Andreas Fleischmann, Adam T. Cross, Robert Gibson ... et al. -- Systematics and evolution of Nepenthes / Charles Clark, Jan Schlauer, Jonathan Moran ... et al. -- Systematics and evolution of Lentibulariaceae: I. Pinguicula / Andreas Fleishcmann and Aymeric Roccia -- Systematics and evolution of Lentibulariaceae: II. Genlisea / Andreas Fleischmann -- Systematics and evolution of Lentibulariaceae: III. Utricularia / Richard W. Jobson, Paulo C. Baleeiro, and Cástor Guisande -- Systematics and evolution of Sarraceniaceae / Robert F.C. Naczi -- Systematics and evolution of small genera of carnivorous plants / Adam T. Cross, Maria Paniw, André Vito Scatigna ... et al. -- Carnivorous plant genomes / Tanya Renner, Tianying Lan, Kimberly M. Farr ... et al. -- Attraction of prey / John D. Horner, Bartosz J. Plachno, Ulrike Bauer ... et al. -- Functional anatomy of carnivoro…