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Darwin's carnivore experiment


Chimaera

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Has anyone tried to replicate Darwin's classic experiment on the reason some plants are carnivores?

As far as I can tell he placed items that were carbon rich and nitrogen poor (bread, sugar water) on some leaves of sundew, and some nitrogen rich, carbon poor (meat, his urine) on others, and only the latter caused the leaves to close up showing they needed the nitrates. I tried to with D. capensis but the leaves did not noticeably respond in any case (and only slightly to insects). I assume he used one of the native species. I would like to replicate and photograph this for teaching and general interest.

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