27 January 2005
Plant movements: a touch of Venus
The Venus flytrap takes just 100 milliseconds to snap up its prey, one of the fastest movements in the plant kingdom. The biochemical response of the trigger hairs to stimuli and the way that an action potential propagates across the leaves are well known. Less well understood is the mechanism of post-stimulation closure of the trap. Using high-speed video, microscopy and force measurements, the rapid closure mechanism is now shown to result from a mechanical buckling instability. The geometry of the doubly-curved leaf provides a mechanism that can first store, then release elastic energy.
How the Venus flytrap snaps
YO�L FORTERRE, JAN M. SKOTHEIM, JACQUES DUMAIS & L. MAHADEVAN
Nature 433, 421–425 (2005); doi:10.1038/nature03185
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