"Digestive" Glands

[Davis]

Hi everyone,
I took all my Neps to show my old Botany professors class today. They were covering leaf modifications, and i thought it would be a great opportunity to show off my Neps. and show people how cool plants are!

I couldn't stop myself from dissecting a pitcher and looking at it under first the dissection scope and then the microscope.
It was beautiful! You could even see the huge pits in the cell walls! Unfortunately, these pics do not do it justice! (i took them with my camera phone through the eyepiece of the microscope)

Anyways, I'm assuming that the dark clusters of cells are the glands that secrete the juices that dissolve the prey. But I was wondering if anyone knew what the juices were? Are they acids or enzymes?

~Davis

[Mace]

I believe that the plant does not produce acid in your juice, but rather a series of enzymes, by which one animal died (drowned) degrades rapidly decomposing and releasing liquid andalusia microelements and nutrients (NPK) that the leaf can absorb as if it were a foliar fertilizer.
This would explain some of mosquito larvae, frogs, and other living beings can live in this liquid.

[simonv]

Digging up the past... this is the inside of my new ventricosa. It was an old yellowing pitcher with no liquid in it. I assume that the 'glands' in the sides are normally green and go like this in non-functioning pitchers. It was pretty neat though

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