Selective insectivory in Nymphaea nouchali Burm. f.

Abstract

Carnivorous plants comprise roughly 0.24 percent of the flowering plants, or 640 species represented in 12 families. Yet they are regarded as miracula naturae. Over fifty percent of these taxa are represented in a single family, namely Lentibulariaceae. Carnivorous plants are generally insectivorous, and carnivory in flowering plants is generally found in taxa that are adapted to nutrient-deficient habitats. The extra nutrients such plants acquire by special ways serve merely as supplements. The origin and evolution of carnivorous plants is a mystery in the phylogenetic tree of angiosperms, they often appear without a clear linkage. Here, we report that Nymphaea nouchali Burm. f. (a cultivar of var. cernua), a large aquatic member of the family Nymphaeaceae, indulges in a primitive form of insectivory and represents the missing evolutionary link. To the best of our knowledge, an insectivorous flower was not reported in flowering plants before.