I owe thanks to Dr Andrej Pavlovič for being a patient guinea pig with my first press-release (you can find it on Science Daily) and to Lizzie Shannon-Little at OUP for helping put it out. It’s good timing because another paper by Pavlovič on carnivorous plants and photosynthesis is now a year old – which makes it free to access.

Feeding enhances photosynthetic efficiency in the carnivorous pitcher plant Nepenthes talangensis is a good partner paper to Trap closure and prey retention in Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) temporarily reduces photosynthesis and stimulates respiration. They both cover the costs of carnivory. I can see why a Venus Flytrap has a cost, there’s movement as the lobes shut on the prey, but I had expected pitcher plants to be much more passive. They just sit there don’t they?