-	-	Footnotes	-	-
Dragon	-	Monsters	-	Dragon 137

Giant man-eating plants, like dragons,
goblins, and other weird creatures, are
staples of modern fantasy fiction and most
traditional legends. In the realm of the
AD&D® game, official ?monster plants?
(such as the hangman tree, the choke
creeper, and the giant sundew) are representative of the genre. Carnivorous plants
are not truly mythical, though the real
ones are not as monstrous as fantasy
works portray them. The following article
explains the ecology of fantasy carnivorous plants based on that of their smaller,
factual cousins.

In the real world, carnivorous plants are
represented by the various species of
sundews, pitcher plants, butterworts,
bladderworts, rainbow plants, waterwheels, pink petticoats, and Venus? flytraps. In the AD&D game, these
carnivorous plants are represented by the
giant sundew  (Monster Manual II,  page
116) and by the giant pitcher plant and the
giant Venus' flytrap (DRAGON® issue #89,
?Creature Catalog,? pages C-14 and C-18).

Most plants with which we are familiar
sustain themselves through the process of
photosynthesis. Chlorophyll, which is
contained in the leaves of the plant and
which gives green plants their color, transforms sunlight into chemical energy. This
chemical reacts with water (which is
absorbed through the roots) and carbon
dioxide (which is taken in through the
leaves) to produce carbohydrates. These
carbohydrates, along with the minerals
and trace elements absorbed through the
root system, are then utilized by the plant
for its growth and development. Mosses,
lichens, mushrooms, ferns, and the like
are considered lower members of the
plant kingdom because they either do not
photosynthesize or lack other characteristics of green plants (such as a proper root
system, reproduction via seeds, fertilization through pollination, etc.).
Carnivorous plants belong in the category of green plants, possessing all the
requirements for classification as such
plus two other traits which take them a

step beyond most such plants: the ability
to self-reproduce without pollination and
(most importantly) the ability to actively
prey on insects and other minute animals
for food.

Carnivorous plants are usually found in
bogs, swamps, and freshwater marshes.
The soil in these environments has a lower
content of minerals and elements than is
acceptable to most green plants. The lack
of nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, and
calcium results from the high acid content
of the water, which may be caused by
frequent rains that leech minerals out of
the soil. In warmer climates, this lack may
be caused by a higher rate of bacterial
decay which also uses up precious materials needed for plant growth. Plants such
as the sundew, pitcher plant, and others
have adapted to these poor growing conditions by evolving means for trapping and
digesting living prey as supplements to
their diets.1

Despite the broad range of some species
of carnivorous plants, they are on the
whole limited by their specialization to
their ecological niches ? acidic bogs,
marshes, and certain alkaline marls. In the
northern temperate and subarctic regions,
sphagnum bogs are a favored habitat.
These bogs are the remains of ancient
glacial lakes which have gradually become
filled with decayed plant and animal
remains. The stagnant waters are overgrown with moss and slowly become more
acidic. The young bog then becomes the
home of pitcher plants, sundews, and
bladderworts, with butterworts growing
along the sandy parts of the shoreline. A
marl bog is formed by the seepage of
spring water over a flat surface that has a
foundation of limestone deposits. This
results in the percolation of calcium carbonate throughout the water, making it
more alkaline than normal and producing
the same mineral-deficient conditions that
exist in acidic bogs. Some pitcher plants
and sundews have adapted to marl bogs.
In more temperate climates, acidic bogs
may develop beside old lakes and sluggish
streams and springheads. The movement
of water under these conditions is too
feeble to prevent stagnation. Here may be
found pitcher plants, sundews, and bladderworts. In still warmer areas, savannah
or grass-edge bogs form in low, flat, or
slightly sloping areas with sandy soil and a
high water table. The predominant vegetation consists of grasses, sedges, and widely
scattered long-needle pines. Under these
conditions may be found pitcher plants,
bladderworts, butterworts, sundews, and
Venus? flytraps.

Besides their restricted habitats (an
especially serious problem for the Venus?
flytrap, which is confined to savannah

bogs), carnivorous plants are threatened
by the encroachment of more common
green plants as the bog matures. By adapting to the mineral-poor conditions of the
bog, carnivorous plants eventually change
the bog by increasing the supply of
nitrates, phosphates, and other minerals
when those plants die and decay. As the
acid level drops and the soil becomes
richer and sweeter, other plants more
accustomed to such growing conditions
move in and crowd out the carnivorous
plants.

All flowering plants normally reproduce
by cross-pollination of their flowers by
insects or the wind.2 Carnivorous plants
normally reproduce by this means, but
they are also capable of reproducing themselves asexually.

For instance during pollination, the
seeds of the Venus? flytrap are black and
pear-shaped when it reproduces. The
Venus? flytrap?s asexual means of reproduction involves a fleshy, white, underground rhizome that elongates annually
and from which new Venus? flytraps may
grow. This underground rhizome also
makes it very difficult for fire and other
natural disasters to completely destroy the
plant. Where temperature conditions are
subject to uneven fluctuations (alternating
warm and cool spring days, for example),
the plant can also reproduce itself by
budding. Through this process, the
flowers of the plant are replaced by miniature plants which take root around the
?mother? and grow normally. As a result,
Venus? flytraps may be found growing in
colonies.

The seeds of the pitcher plant are teardrop shaped and range in color from
brown to pinkish gray. Like the Venus?
flytrap, this plant may reproduce asexually by means of a rhizome; resulting in
colonies of pitcher plants connected to the
mother plant). The giant pitcher plant in
DRAGON issue #89 resembles the Australian pitcher plant, which can also reproduce asexually in a manner similar to that
of the strawberry plant. The pitcher plant,
in this case, possesses a root which acts as
a central node for its thick, branching
roots. Some of these roots form foliage
leaves above ground in the shape of a
rosette. In the fall, a pitcher plant embryo
forms around the center of these rosettes.
As the embryo grows, the runner leaf
stalk lengthens, taking the embryo away
from the mother plant. Soon, the leaf stalk
ceases growing and the embryo plant rests
on soil where it takes root.

The sundew?s seeds are black and elliptical. Sundews living in the northern parts
of the world or in mountainous climes
form hibernacula to survive the winter. A
hibernaculum is a small, tight, spherical

cluster of budlike young leaves that are
hairy in appearance. The butterwort also
shares this feature. Similarly, the hangman
tree?s taproot, which allows it to survive
the winter, may be a further modification
on the use of the hibernaculum.
The trapping season for carnivorous
plants generally runs from spring until the
middle of autumn and the winter dieback.
Trapping methods among the carnivorous
plants fall into either active or passive
traps. Among the active traps are the beartrap variety, used by the Venus? flytrap
and the waterwheel plant, and the trapdoor of the bladderwort. Less complex are
the passive traps used by sundews, butterworts, and rainbow plants; these plants
secrete a type of mucilage to form a sticky
?flypaper? trap to ensnare their victims.
The simplest trap is the passive pitfall used
by the many species of pitcher plants.
The traps themselves are actually leaves
that have been so modified by evolution
that they are now barely recognizable as
leaves. All the carnivorous plants, except
for primitive species of pitcher plant, have
developed digestive glands within these
leaves. These glands secrete a mild
enzyme to aid the breakdown and absorp

tion of nutrients from the plant?s victims.
In the case of the flypaper variety of carnivorous plants, the leaves have also developed glands to produce and secrete the
mucilage used in the trap.
How did these traps evolve, and how do
they work? All plants have tropisms ?
reactions to particular stimuli ? that help
them find water, light, and nutrients;
tropisms also help the plants avoid noxious
substances and conditions. If seeking or
avoiding something, a plant can control
the growth of its cells and alter the direction of such growth by increasing and
decreasing cell growth on either side of
the plant. For example, the mimosa plant
can fold up its leaves whenever certain
insects approach with the intent of eating
the leaves. For most carnivorous plants,
this controlled cell growth is accelerated
to the point where the plant?s movements
are faster than the eye can track.

In the case of the Venus? flytrap, prey is
attracted to the plant?s trap either by the
red color on the inside of the trap-leafs
lobes (which resembles raw meat) or by
the scent of nectar produced by glands
along the edge of each lobe. (All carnivorous plants have nectar-producing abilities

and, except for the waterwheel and the
bladderwort, use scent as a lure.) Within
the trap are six trigger hairs arranged in
triangular groups of three on each lobe.
The victim must brush two of the trigger
hairs or one trigger hair twice in order for
the plant to react. The first brushing of a
trigger hair causes an electrical impulse to
be stored in the leaf tissue, readying the
trap. The second brushing sends a second
impulse that causes the outer cells of the
lobes to grow an additional 25%, thus
causing the trap to close.

This growth spurt is very rapid; closure
time for flytraps has been clocked at onetwentieth of a second. During cool weather, when the plant?s reactions have slowed,
the spikes that fringe the edges of the leaf
lobes help contain the prey until the trap
is fully closed.3 When fully closed, cell
growth in the lobes continues, forcing the
lobes together, pushing the air out of the
trap, and squeezing the prey. To open, the
inner cells of the leaf lobes grow an additional 25%, thus forcing the lobes to move
apart from each other. The traps are capable of opening and closing several times a
day; thus, rapid growth of individual traps
is possible.

Venus? flytraps can survive periodic
flooding, when their traps catch food in
the form of insect larvae, tadpoles, and the
like. A good-sized meal for the plant
results in an overall growth spurt. The
Venus? flytrap is capable of distinguishing
between edible and inedible objects placed
within its traps; it is also able to judge the
size of objects so that it doesn?t waste time
on puny prey or things which it can?t eat
(as is also true for the giant Venus? flytrap).

The same principle of controlled cell
growth permits the sundew to curl its
armlike leaves around insects held helpless
in the plant?s glue. It also allows the butterwort to curl the edges of its trapping
leaves to form a cup to hold digestive
juices used for drowning prey that succumbs to the lure of its sticky surfaces.
Sundews, butterworts, and rainbow
plants, by utilizing their mucilaginous
surfaces to trap insect prey, are merely
taking defenses used by plants a step
further. Consider the South African
roridgula, which has developed a carpet of
sticky hairs over its stems and leaves as a
defense against insect pests. The roridgula
has also developed a symbiotic relationship with species of ambush bugs and
spiders. Both of these creatures make
their homes among the sticky strands of
the plant and feast on insects caught by
the glue.4

The pitcher plant may have been the
first carnivorous plant to evolve because
its method of catching prey is the simplest
of all: a pitfall trap formed by the plant?s
leaves, which have grown together so that

w a t e r   c o l l e c t s   i n   t h e   b o t t o m   o f   t h e   p i t c h e r
and drowns whatever falls in. An intermediate stage in the evolution of the pitcher
plant can be seen in the common teasel
plant, whose cuplike leaves grow together
around the stem, allowing water to collect
and form miniature pools that protect the
plant against insect pests crawling up the
stem. The pitcher plant took this means of
defense and evolved it into a means of
trapping prey.

The more primitive species of pitcher
plant rely on natural decay to break victims down into necessary nutrients for the
p l a n t s   t o   a b s o r b .   O t h e r   s p e c i e s   o f   p i t c h e r
plant have developed digestive glands and
wetting agents in the water inside the trap
which help waterlog the victim and hasten
drowning. There is some speculation
among botanists that the nectar of the
plant may contain a narcotic; this
increases the likelihood that exploring
insects fall in due to drunkenness.5
Fantasy carnivorous plants (i.e., the
hangman tree and others) are higher on
the evolutionary ladder than the common
species of such plants. This higher evolutionary status may range from simple
giantism without drastic departures from

the original plant (as in the case of the
giant Venus? flytrap) to improvements on
the original plant design (as in the case of
the giant pitcher plant which, in addition
to giantism and heightened tropic senses,
has great, long tendrils for snaring and
drawing prey into its stomach).6

The carnivorous plants in the AD&D
game world have further developed alternative methods of catching prey, as is
evidenced by the tri-flower frond, the
man-trap, and the bloodthorn. The triflower frond and the man-trap use their
pollen as both a lure and a drug to entice
and kill their victims, much as actual carnivorous plants utilize their nectar as an
insect lure (and as the pitcher plant might
use narcotic nectar).

The bloodthorn has taken two characteristics of plants ? thorns as a means of
defense, and the principles of capillary
attraction (which enable plants to feed
themselves) ? and has combined these
into a unique means of attacking prey and
feeding on it. Capillary attraction is the
tendency for liquids confined in small
tubes to rise up through the tubes as a
result of surface tension. An example of
capillary attraction is shown by placing a

straw in a glass of water. Surface tension
draws the water up the straw from the
open bottom until a balance is achieved
and the water ceases to rise. If straws of
different diameters are placed in the same
glass, the water will rise higher in narrower straws than in wide ones because of the
differences in surface tension.

Two types of tissues are involved. in a
plant?s use of capillary action and attraction: xylem and phloem. Xylem is the
woody tissue that provides support for the
plant, much in the same way that skeletons provide support for animal bodies.
The cells in xylem, through capillary
action and attraction, absorb the water
and minerals taken in by the roots and
move them up to the leaves for photosynthesis. This process in turn creates the
food material that is transported throughout the plant by the phloem tissues
through capillary action and attraction.
In the bloodthorn, the phloem tissues
connect directly with the plant?s hollow
thorns. When a successful strike is made
by the plant, the liquid blood of the victim
rises into the narrow opening of each
thorn tip and is absorbed by the phloem
cells. By devising a method of feeding
directly on the already-dissolved nutrients
in its victims? life fluids, the bloodthorn
has bypassed the need to develop digestive
glands like other carnivorous plants.

Some of the species of fantasy carnivorous plants have evolved forms of vegetable musculature similar to octopus
tentacles (the giant pitcher plant being the
most obvious example). This has allowed
some plants, such as the giant sundew, to
become mobile and so increase their
chances of survival by allowing movement
from one location to another as an environment becomes unsuitable for them.
The development of musculature in
fantasy carnivorous plants presumes also
the possible development of some form of
nervous system. An increasingly complex
nervous system allows the evolution of
intelligence, such as typified by the semiintelligent giant sundew. Intelligence is a
survival trait; the greater a plant?s intelligence, the greater its chance of continuing
as a species. In AD&D game terms, such
intelligence may rise high enough to permit the development of a moral sense and
an alignment other than the neutrality
typical of lower animals and plants.
Both the hangman tree and the black
willow are, at present, the only carnivorous plants in the AD&D game universe
that deviate from an absolutely neutral
alignment.7 The tendency of both towards
evil in their alignments may be due to the
low level of intelligence ascribed to the
plants (the black willow, though capable of
possessing greater than average intelligence, does not use this intelligence to the

best advantage). Creatures of low intelligence that do not possess the wisdom to
control their impulsive actions tend to act
to satisfy their immediate desires without
consideration for others. This lack of
control can also hinder the efficient application of high intelligence.8
The hangman tree has sufficient intelligence to learn and speak the common
tongue ? albeit haltingly (a feat the black
willow hasn?t yet accomplished).9 Nevertheless, the deception abilities of both the
hangman tree and the black willow are
limited, with the hangman tree using
hallucinatory perfume and the black willow using its aura of drowsiness). Neither
plant uses even small treasure items as a
lure, possibly because they themselves are
uninterested in gold and the like. Even the
killer mimic is smart enough to realize it
has a better chance of attracting prey by
disguising itself as some valuable object.
It is fortunate for adventurers that these
trees, the highest forms of carnivorous
plant presently known, are more cunning
than clever; if it were otherwise, PCs
might encounter these trees more often
and more to their detriment. However,
adventurers should be concerned by the
hangman tree?s development of magic
resistance as a survival trait. If the trend
towards greater intelligence in fantasy
carnivorous plants continues, future species of carnivorous plants may very well
use spells to hunt their prey.

Footnotes

1. Carnivorous plants, because they have
retained their abilities to photosynthesize,
can live a ?meatless? existence; during
these periods, however, their growth is
slower than usual and may even be stunted. As a result, a carnivorous plant that
has gone through some lean times may be
only one-half to three-fourths normal size,
with corresponding reductions in hit dice
and damage.

2. AD&D game carnivorous plants may
still be capable of reproducing this way
through pollination via species of giant
bees, wasps, and so forth, as well as via
the normal smaller species of these
insects. Seeds from carnivorous plants,
though, are best harvested in the fall
season. After the plant is destroyed, PCs
may gather up to 2-20 seeds in perfect
condition, undamaged by the battle. If PCs
employ nonpoisonous means to subdue a
plant peacefully, the number of useable
seeds recoverable may be doubled.

3. In issue #89?s version of the Venus?
flytrap, the ?teeth? that fringe the edges of
the lobes act to trigger the trap and prevent the prey from escaping before the
trap is fully closed.

4. Such a symbiotic relationship might

exist between the AD&D game?s giant
sundew (or other sessile carnivorous
plants) and certain large insects or other
creatures. These creature may lure prey
witthin the plant?s reach in exchange for
scraps from the plant?s feeding; they may
also find a safe home with immunity from
the plant?s attack.

5. The giant pitcher plant may have
retained the narcotic qualities of its nectar.
Thus, those characters who fall prey to
the plant may become unconscious from
the fumes inside the plant?s stomach. Characters should save vs. poison each round
they are inside the plant. Failure results in
unconsciousness lasting until the victim is
either consumed or removed from the
plant. In the latter case, the victim remains
unconscious for an additional 1-6 turns.
After regaining consciousness, the victim
suffers slowed reactions for 3d10 rounds,
with all attacks, defenses, reactions, and
dexterity bonuses at -1.

6. Popular belief has it that certain real
species of pitcher plants are able to close
off the mouths of their traps with their
hooded leaves, preventing victims from
escaping. The giant pitcher plant may have
evolved the ability to actually seal off its
mouth opening. Characters who attempt
to open these coverings must be able to
brace themselves and successfully roll
their  bend bars/lift gates  chances.

7. The zygom also deviates from absolute neutrality due to its evil nature,
although it cannot be rated on a scale of
intelligence. The zygom has been excluded
from discussion for the latter reason.
Furthermore, while the  Monster Manual II
states that the zygom prefers living flesh
and blood for sustenance, it does not
actually hunt prey. Instead, it lives a parasitic existence on any host body it finds.

8. Since both the black willow and the
hangman tree are members of the plant
kingdom, perhaps they cannot truly be
judged by human standards. They prey on
animals (including humans) for food just as
many animals prey on plants for food.
(Such relativistic hairsplitting is best left to
philosophers and sages.)

9. One of the knotlike protuberances on
the hangman tree which usually serves as
a sensory organ for the tree may have
evolved a primitive vocal apparatus. This
may also explain the halting nature of the
plant?s speech, as the tree draws in and
stores air in the knot, later expelling it in
brief blasts of vocalization.