FOOD FOR PLANTS 
63 
where the pitcher plant lives is very poor in 
nitrogen, so it has to get it in some way. De¬ 
caying animal matter contains a great deal of 
nitrogen and so the pitcher plant captures these 
small animals, waits until their bodies decay, 
and then uses the nitrogen. 
Our second trapper is the sundew. It is a 
pretty, innocent-looking plant that gets its name 
because its leaves glisten in the sun as if they 
were covered with dew. Sometimes they look 
as if the dew had frozen on them. That shiny 
surface, however, is deadly to insects for it is very 
sticky. A fly alights on the leaf and finds his 
legs are caught in the glue. The more he 
struggles to get free, the tighter he sticks, for he 
becomes plastered all over with this sticky juice. 
It catches him just as surely as sticky fly paper 
does. Now the leaf rolls up around him and 
digests him just as if it were a little stomach. In 
this way the plant gets its nitrogen, as we get 
ours by digesting food that contains nitrogen. 
The bladderwort is another trapper. It is a 
floating plant and lives in the water. At the 
Some plants 
have to trap 
part of their 
food 
