are brambles "carnivorous " ?

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are brambles "carnivorous " ?

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dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46209
Location: yes

Posted: Sun Dec 17, 23 3:23 pm Post subject: are brambles "carnivorous " ?

several weeks after a minor spiking it was necessary to remove the core of the, admittedly tiny, festering lesions. i eat blackberries.

i have seen sheep dead due to tangling, and then used as fertilizer over a few years

the argument for carnivorous is plausible

they do distribution of seed via digestion of the pulp and a mobile eating vector that cannot digest seeds

i could become convinced by the concept of the spines not just being defensive, the bits with good spines are not great eating and plenty of beasts eat the soft delicate bits with little trouble from the spines, apart from tangling or long term deep wound issues

NorthernMonkeyGirl

Joined: 10 Apr 2011
Posts: 4630
Location: Peeping over your shoulder

Posted: Sun Dec 17, 23 9:35 pm Post subject:
Tomato hairs capture flies, don't they? Given that brambles can root from where the tips touch, I wonder if they benefit from catching (on me! ) and getting dragged a bit further away from the mother plant? I find rose thorns to be far more grippy though.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15967

Posted: Mon Dec 18, 23 8:40 am Post subject:

I think brambles and even worse, blackthorn, use their thorns as defence but unfortunately they can cause septic punctures. Hedgelayers are always very careful about blackthorn as that can cause quite a lot of trouble with septic cuts.

As far as sheep are concerned, I think the general opinion of them is they can find any way known to man, and a few known only to sheep, to get themselves into trouble, so if not rescued, die rather easily.

There are some ideas that toothwort, Lathraea squamaria, may trap insects underground and use them as food for themselves and the host plant, but otherwise I think it is really confined to known carnivorous plants.

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