True or False: The Venus Flytrap plant has muscles like a mammal?

woodardr

False: The mechanism by which the trap snaps shut involves a complex interaction between elasticity, turgor and growth. In the open, untripped state, the lobes are convex (bent outwards), but in the closed state, the lobes are concave (forming a cavity). It is the rapid flipping of this bistable state that closes the trap, but the mechanism by which this occurs is still poorly understood. When the trigger hairs are stimulated, an action potential (mostly involving calcium ions) is generated, which propagates across the lobes and stimulates cells in the lobes and in the midrib between them. Exactly what this stimulation does is still debated: cells in the outer layers of the lobes and midrib may rapidly secrete protons into their cell walls, loosening them and allowing them to swell rapidly by osmosis and acid growth; alternatively, cells in the inner layers of the lobes and midrib may rapidly secrete other ions, allowing water to follow by osmosis, and the cells to collapse. Both, either or neither of these mechanisms may play a role. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_Flytrap Feb 23 06, 10:42 AM

BOB501

I think the term muscle only applies to fauna not flora. Feb 23 06, 5:15 PM

gmackematix

Sounds nasty. Thigmonasty. Feb 23 06, 6:11 PM