Expert: Christopher Littrell - 1/13/2008

Question
hello, I am doing an extra credit report for science and Venus fly traps and i was wonder if you could give me a few main things i should write about. I'm not asking for you to write my report maybe you could just give topics people want to know about and the I could elaborate about those topics. thanks for all the help you can give me.

Answer
Hello Justine,

Your right that I should not give too much information to you since it is your report, however; I can ask some questions from the standpoint of someone that might not understand carnivorous plants so you can get a handle on what you need to work on.

1. Are carnivorous plants really carnivorous? In other words, do they actually eat meat and does that mean they need less of everything else?

2.  Why do they trap and digest insects?

3.  What adaptations are important distinctions that set them apart from normal, non-carnivorous, plants?

4.  Do they have to have prey to survive?

5.  How many species are there and what kinds of environments do they live in?

6.  Why are several species becoming rare or even close to being endangered?

7.  What makes people think that carnivorous plants are hard to grow? Is their some secret about them or are they really that hard to raise?

Some great sources of information would be this question and answer forum as you can go back through a lot of the old answers for information. That would be considered researching available sources.

Any books on carnivorous plants that you can find at the library and online would be very helpful too. Sarracenia Northwest has a site full of great information and an Ebook.

Make sure you cite and reference your sources like your English teachers probably showed you to do.

I hope this helps you out with some pointers on what you need to write about and how to go about it.

Christopher