Fastest predatory plant (aquatic)

The fastest carnivorous plants are aquatic bladderworts (genus Utricularia), which use suction-based traps to capture prey such as small crustaceans, insect larvae and even young tadpoles. One species (U. australis, aka the southern bladderwort) has been recorded ensnaring victims within as little as 5.2 milliseconds, though around 9 milliseconds is the more typical timeframe. The deadly traps – which are, in fact, modified hollow leaves a few millimetres across – work thanks to pressure differential. If a creature, such as a water flea, is unfortunate enough to make contact with one of the trigger hairs on the trapdoors’ exterior, the door springs open; this causes water (and the prey along with it) to be sucked in at irresistible acceleration rates as high as 2,800 g! A couple of milliseconds later, before the victim has a chance to react, the trapdoor swings back shut. Entombed, the creature is destined to suffocate from a lack of oxygen before slowly being digested by the bladderwort to obtain nutrients.

With around 240 different species, bladderworts represent the largest group of carnivorous plants and are found in freshwater habitats and waterlogged soils worldwide.

The fastest terrestrial predatory plant recorded to date is the pimpernel sundew (Drosera glanduligera) of southern Australia, which uses “snap tentacles” that can catapult insects such as flies on to its sticky leaves within 75 milliseconds, where they become trapped. The next most speedy carnivorous plant on land is the much better-known Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula); from detection to capture, it takes around 100 milliseconds for this plant’s sensitive hair-triggered snap-traps to catch a fly.

The research into U. australis was conducted by scientists at the University of Freiburg’s Plant Biomechanics Group and Ruhr-University Bochum (both Germany) and the results were published in the journal Scientific Reports on 11 May 2017.