What on Earth is a Triggerplant?

     Author: Douglas W. Darnowski

Triggerplants (Stylidium spp.; Stylidiaceae) are amazing plants from Australia (and a very few from a few other places). They have a freaky pollination mechanism which works like a pulvinus, where male and female parts are fused into an organ called a column. This can whip through an arc and smack a pollinating insect in the head, transferring pollen. On top of that, they're carnivorous, using a totally different mechanism! The mechanisms of both the pollination and the carnivory are explained, with a little humor along the way.

Co-written by Mary Saner of Chestertown Maryland. Cowritten, filmed, and performed by the submitter. The submitter is co-founder of triggerplants.org and a botanist teaching at a regional campus of Indiana University.