All species › Lamiales
Lamiales | Lamiales
Lipbloemigen | Lamiales
One of the largest orders of flowering plants, with the mints, snapdragons, olives and plantains. The flower is usually two-lipped and the ovary two-celled. Carnivory arose here at least three times independently, producing the widest range of trapping methods of all. This guide covers the flypaper traps that stand above ground: those of Byblis and of the butterworts. The underground eel traps of Genlisea and the bladder traps of the bladderworts are left out.
Families in this order
- Rainbow plant family | Byblidaceae8 speciesOne genus with a handful of species in Australia and New Guinea. The narrow leaves are covered in stalked glands that refract the light, so the plant seems to glitter in the sun. The trap is entirely passive: nothing moves, and that is exactly what separates it from the sundews it resembles at first glance.
- Bladderwort family | Lentibulariaceae122 speciesThe largest carnivorous family, with over four hundred species in three genera that each catch differently: the butterworts with a sticky leaf whose margin slowly curls over, Genlisea with underground eel traps lined with inward-pointing hairs, and the bladderworts with bladders under negative pressure that fire in a thousandth of a second. Only the butterworts catch above ground, and only they appear in this guide.