Tomatoes can 'eat' insects

Tomatoes can 'eat' insects

www.telegraph.co.uk

Garden vegetables such as tomatoes and potatoes have been found to be deadly killers on a par with Venus fly traps, according to research

New research shows that they capture and kill small insects with sticky hairs on their stems and then absorb nutrients through their roots when the animals decay and fall to the ground

(visit the link for the full news article)

Move over Venus Fly Traps!

Quite a cool story here. who would have ever thought that their own Tomatoes or Potatoes were actually meat eaters too!!?

Isnt it just amazing that we've only just found this out. Just goes to show that you dont have to be in some deep jungle of Madagascar to find an interesting plant quality!

Its right their in your own garden. ;-)



www.telegraph.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

that is incredible, i would have never thought. thanks op
s&f

Does this rule out veganism now?

You have to wonder about nature and its brilliance. This would serve 2 purposes. One to have nutrients around your root area and two to protect yourself from predators. I just hope they don't evolve enough to start protecting themselves against us. Hmmm...."The Happening" maybe?

www.thehappeningmovie.com...

[edit on 4-12-2009 by Nutter]

reply to post by Nutter

...."The Happening" maybe?

Maybe more like Attack of the Killer Tomatos?

reply to post by Nutter


quite a good movie, but i was disappointed with the ending!

It is a cool discovery. I wonder whats next to be discovered from right under our noses.

reply to post by LordBucket


That was my next choice, but following the OP...i.e. the way the plants kill, IMO is more like the happening. But, I like your thinking anyway.

reply to post by LordBucket


Nice one. Hopefully it will be a while before their evolution reaches this stage!!

Neat! I never really thought about it being a mechanism for "eating" insects. I assumed it was more of a defense mechanism against ants that farm aphids for their sweet sweet honeydew. I just wish I had taken some good photos of the ants killed on my tomatoes, to see if the hairs reacted to the ants presence. Cool stuff.

Im no scientist here, but how much nutrients can a small insect, I would assume no bigger then a flea, could give?

Interesting, but I just feel like it would be useless unless the insects are large.

reply to post by xstealth

We suspect in the domesticated varieties they are getting plenty of food through the roots from us so don’t get much benefit from trapping insects. In the wild they could be functioning in the way that could properly be considered carnivorous

It looks like in the wild they would rely on this much more, but the tomatoes etc probably get most of what they need from our soils as we use Feed, Fertiliser etc.

In the wild I imagine they would have lots of flies around them, so the amount of nutrients must add up .

Originally posted by xstealth
Im no scientist here, but how much nutrients can a small insect, I would assume no bigger then a flea, could give?

Interesting, but I just feel like it would be useless unless the insects are large.

That's like saying a 250 pound man can't get nutrients from a peanut or something.

It all adds up, buddy.

Think. No offense, just deny... ignorance. Relate it to how humans generate small amounts of vitamin D through going out in the sun or whatnot.

reply to post by xstealth


Like Resting says, every little bit counts. That's a few milligrams of protien the plant wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

However this isn't a case of plant carnivory. it's a case of a plant having a defense mechanism. The fact that it litters the nearby ground with dead decomposing bugs is kind of a bonus, rather than the intent.

Now if these hairs were sucking out the gooshy bits of the bugs, THEn we'd have something.

This was really interesting defiantly. I never would of suspected tomato plants to be killing insects for fertilizer. Guess alot of plants must get nutrients from a wide variety of ways.

Yeah but put a hornworm in their midst and see what happens.

Originally posted by EMPIRE
Yeah but put a hornworm in their midst and see what happens.

I was just about to post that. I wish our tomatoes could eat the hornworms too. I finally had to use Seven Dust (I dont like to use chems if possible) to get rid of them for the past two years. There's seems to be more of them (hornworms) recently.

This is something for vegans to think about really. I myself prefer to eat almost vegetarian and alot of vegetarian and vegan dishes. But I am not against meat and do it it here and there. I think it is more healthy to keep it at a minimum, but I do think that it can be healthy as well, for women especially in child bearing age. I do think alot of animals are treated inhumane and I prefer all organic and humane farming, but I don't think that its less cruel to eat only plants than it is to eat meat, I think plants have feelings to, and maybe a mind even. I think its hypocrisy to think animals are more "alive" than plants. And so...with that in mind, I have no choice but to eat to live, and so as long as its humane, I will eat whatever is healthy. It really irks me when vegans neglect the fact that plants are living beings too, and may feel pain at being plucked out of the ground. It should all be about respect, and bless the food, give thanks whatever it is. So tomatoes and potatoes are meat eaters...will vegans still eat them??? I would.

Wow great find, best story of the day for me. Star and Flag incoming.

Thanks for the story.

Peace

reply to post by rubyeyes


'Wanna know about plants having emotions? Put "Clive Baxter plants" into Google. His work was done a couple of decades ago. Not sure if it has been followed up upon or refuted. Interesting story, nonetheless.

reply to post by grantbeed


It just goes to show how little we actually thought we knew about the world!

Funny...