Darwin’s Diary
1. Can plants kill flies? In the summer, I found sundew plants with many insects on them. I decided to examine them more carefully. I examined 12 plants, and I found 31 dead insects, or parts of their bodies.
5. Some leaves caught several insects. The sundew plant catches flies much more often than other insects. I want to do some experiments. I don’t know what I’ll find out.
Experiment 1
10. I put several items in the center of each leaf. The “tentacles” always moved
toward the items. The speed was not always the same. Why?
Experiment 2
15. I found a leaf with a fly on it. The fly could not escape. The fly was on 0ne side of
the leaf. The tentacles on that side closed around the fly and killed it. The
tentacles form the other side of the leaf never moved!
Experiment 3
20. I put a dead fly in the center of a leaf. The next morning, the leaf was closed. It
opened again five days later. There was