Pemphigus - Insectivorous Beauty

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Pemphigus can be found all over the world, with the exception of a number of oceanic islands and Antarctica. This beautiful plant is an insectivorous predator: tiny trapping bubbles located on its underwater leaves capture various animals. In 2011, pemphigus was recognized as the world's fastest predatory plant by researchers from Germany and France, as trap bubbles consume their victims in less than a millisecond

Getting to know the plant

Pemphigus is an excellent representative of the genus of insectivorous plants (Pemphigus family). The roots of this insectivorous beauty are generally absent, but it has a huge number of trapping bubbles, each of which is equipped with an opening with a closed valve that opens inward - freely falling into such bubbles, various insects and small aquatic animals no longer have the opportunity to go back and become food for pemphigus. The speedy opening of the predatory valves is facilitated by small aquatic insects moving in the water, tiny crustaceans (daphnia, cyclops), as well as accidental touches of algae. The walls of the trapping vesicles on the inner side are densely covered with glands, divided into four parts. Due to this feature, the pemphigus receives important nitrogen compounds for it, which are few in the aquatic environment.

Pemphigus stems are erect and leafless. Its leaves are dissected into filamentous or linear lobes, and beautiful bright yellow two-lipped flowers are collected in small brushes. Each flower is equipped with a spur containing honey. Pemphigus fruits are unilocular capsules that do not open properly.

During flowering, it will not be difficult to notice this plant - it raises its bright flowers quite high. But when pemphigus does not bloom, it can only be detected in water. In the fall, she, rushing to the bottom of the reservoir, together with other aquatic plants, forms the so-called wintering buds, densely covered with mucus. These buds are quite simple devices: for their formation, the leaves on the tips of the stems, having stopped growing, fold spherically. Further, pemphigus, losing leaves, begins to absorb water and sink to the bottom of a pond or other body of water, dragging along the above-described wintering buds.

Pemphigus is a fairly common plant in shallow ponds, swamps and ditches. There are about 200 species of this beautiful plant on the globe. In Europe, however, you can find only 6 - 8 of its species, and the most common among them is pemphigus vulgaris.

How to grow

Pemphigus reproduces vegetatively. It reproduces on its own and is not at all picky about the parameters of the water, but it is desirable that the water is not overly hard. In summer, the shoots of the plant must be separated. In care, pemphigus is quite unpretentious, the main thing for her is that there is enough light.

You can plant a predatory beauty in the shallow waters of large ponds. There is no point in planting pemphigus in the ground, since it has no roots. And in small reservoirs (and in aquariums filled with cool water) it is very interesting to watch it.

When growing pemphigus in an aquarium, it is important to pay attention to the fact that this plant can be dangerous for a number of carp fish and for fry of labyrinth fish. In general, this carnivorous plant is an excellent additional source of oxygen. In addition, decorative garlands formed by light green long stems floating freely on the water surface look just great.

Naturalists noted a rather interesting feature: in a pemphigus taken from nature and subsequently placed in an aquarium, the trapping bubbles gradually began to decrease and eventually disappeared. However, on the reasons for such a metamorphosis, naturalists did not manage to come to a consensus.