The Lethal Speed of the Venus Flytrap

The gift of a Venus flytrap led researcher, Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan, to wonder how a plant was able to move so fast. The leaves of the plant can close on an insect in one-tenth of a second. Mahadevan, who studies ordinary physical phenomena, devised an experiment to reveal the mechanics behind the feat.

By marking the leaves and using high-speed video to film the flytrap's motion, researchers were able to design a mathematical model to help explain the leaves' rapid movement. The flytrap stores elastic energy in its opened hinged leaves. When the leaf is triggered, the tension is released and the leaf snaps shut.

Link: Snaring secrets of the Venus flytrap from the Harvard University Gazette

Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 2:47 PM on February 22, 2005

Want to talk about this weblog entry? As of August 22, 2006, all new entries and most older entries are cross-posted to the UBC Botanical Garden Discussion Forums for discussion (you might need to use the search function to find the thread you are looking for).

This is an effort to reduce the amount of time spent dealing with spam (the forums are very good at stopping spam, the weblog commenting system is not so good).

Older entries already containing comments remain open for discussion.