News Plants

A well-known wildflower turns out to be a secret carnivore

Triantha occidentalis sets a deathtrap for small insects just beneath its flower

a yellow and white Triantha occidentalis flower

This wildflower, Triantha occidentalis, growing in Cypress Provincial Park in British Columbia, Canada, has sticky hairs on its stem that it uses to trap and digest small insects.

Danilo Lima

By Jaime Chambers

- More than 2 years ago

Read another version of this article at Science News Explores

Gleaming, gluey, deathtrap hairs have betrayed the secret identity of a well-known wildflower: It’s a carnivore.