2012/01/09 by Caio Guilherme Pereira, Daniela Peres Almenara, Carlos Eduardo Winter +3 · 4 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Neuroscience · #Photoreceptor and optogenetics research #Plant Diversity and Evolution #Plant and Biological Electrophysiology Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.1073/pnas.1114199109
openalex publication_date 2012/01/09 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
The recently described genus Philcoxia comprises three species restricted to well lit and low-nutrient soils in the Brazilian Cerrado. The morphological and habitat similarities of Philcoxia to those of some carnivorous plants, along with recent observations of nematodes over its subterranean leaves, prompted the suggestion that the genus is carnivorous. Here we report compelling evidence of carnivory in Philcoxia of the Plantaginaceae, a family in which no carnivorous members are otherwise known. We also document both a unique capturing strategy for carnivorous plants and a case of a plant that traps and digests nematodes with underground adhesive leaves. Our findings illustrate how much can still be discovered about the origin, distribution, and frequency of the carnivorous syndrome in angiosperms and, more generally, about the diversity of nutrient-acquisition mechanisms that have evolved in plants growing in severely nutrient-impoverished environments such as the Brazilian Cerrado, one of the world's 34 biodiversity hotspots.