Ep. 461 - Litter Trappers Revisited

In Defense of Plants Podcast

In Defense of Plants

Science & Medicine, Natural Sciences

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2024

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Litter trapping plants don't worry about soil, they make their own! Because so many species in the tropics grow either epiphytically or in nutrient poor soil, some of them have turned to alternative solutions. Their anatomy is such that they collect everything from dead leaves to bird droppings. A diverse community of soil microbes and invertebrates can then go to work to create nutrient rich humus. What's more, litter trapping abilities can be found in plants as distantly related as ferns and orchids! Join me as we revisit an interesting discussion with Dr. Scott Zona about his work finding and describing litter trapping plants. This episode was produced in part by Nick, Paul, Charis, EJ, Laura, Sung, NOK, Stephen, Heidi, Kristin, Luke, Sea, Shannon, Thomas, Will, Jamie, Waverly, Brent, Tanner, Rick, Kazys, Dorothy, Katherine, Emily, Theo, Nichole, Paul, Karen, Randi, Caelan, Tom, Don, Susan, Corbin, Keena, Robin, Peter, Whitney, Kenned, Margaret, Daniel, Karen, David, Earl, Jocelyn, Gary, Krysta, Elizabeth, Southern California Carnivorous Plant Enthusiasts, Pattypollinators, Peter, Judson, Ella, Alex, Dan, Pamela, Peter, Andrea, Nathan, Karyn, Michelle, Jillian, Chellie, Linda, Laura, Miz Holly, Christie, Carlos, Paleo Fern, Levi, Sylvia, Lanny, Ben, Lily, Craig, Sarah, Lor, Monika, Brandon, Jeremy, Suzanne, Kristina, Christine, Silas, Michael, Aristia, Felicidad, Lauren, Danielle, Allie, Jeffrey, Amanda, Tommy, Marcel, C Leigh, Karma, Shelby, Christopher, Alvin, Arek, Chellie, Dani, Paul, Dani, Tara, Elly, Colleen, Natalie, Nathan, Ario, Laura, Cari, Margaret, Mary, Connor, Nathan, Jan, Jerome, Brian, Azomonas, Ellie, University Greens, Joseph, Melody, Patricia, Matthew, Garrett, John, Ashley, Cathrine, Melvin, OrangeJulian, Porter, Jules, Griff, Joan, Megan, Marabeth, Les, Ali, Southside Plants, Keiko, Robert, Bryce, Wilma, Amanda, Helen, Mikey, Michelle, German, Joerg, Cathy, Tate, Steve, Kae, Carole, Mr. Keith Santner, Lynn, Aaron, Sara, Kenned, Brett, Jocelyn, Ethan, Sheryl, Runaway Goldfish, Ryan, Chris, Alana, Rachel, Joanna, Lori, Paul, Griff, Matthew, Bobby, Vaibhav, Steven, Joseph, Brandon, Liam, Hall, Jared, Brandon, Christina, Carly, Kazys, Stephen, Katherine, Mohsin Kazmi Takes Pictures, Manny, doeg, Daniel, Tim, Philip, Tim, Lisa, Brodie, Bendix, Irene, holly, Sara, and Margie.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome to the Indefensive Plants podcast
0:03.8	of Inoffensive Plants.com.
0:05.3	What's up? This is your host Matt. Welcome to the show.
0:07.3	How is everyone doing this week?
0:09.4	If you're enjoying the show, there are a lot of great ways to support it.
0:12.4	One of the best ways to help keep it up and running
0:14.4	is to become a patron over at patreon.com slash in defensive plants. Go check it out. There's a bunch of
0:20.0	kickbacks for supporting it with just a small financial contribution each month.
0:24.2	And as I said before, you help keep this show up and running in the process.
0:27.9	So thanks to everyone that's kicked in so far.
0:30.9	But today we are revisiting a really interesting conversation that I had back in 2016, which is kind of weird to think about. But this episode is all about litter trapping plants.
0:43.0	Yes, there are plants out there that actually purposefully trap litter from the canopy and use it.
0:48.0	I don't want to spoil why or what they're doing or how they do it.
0:51.0	There's a lot of different strategies out there, but joining us to talk about this was Dr. Scott Zona.
0:56.0	You've heard him on the podcast before, but I believe this was his first appearance.
1:00.0	So why make you wait any longer?
1:02.0	Dr Zona is a great order of science and this topic is near and dear to his heart so let's just jump right into it.
1:09.0	Without further ado, here's my conversation with Dr. Scott Zona.
1:12.0	I hope you enjoy. Well, it's gray and rainy and drizzly all day to day, so I got my shoes and socks wet so no not a good day what's what's
1:36.8	the temperature it's probably like 75 degrees out there okay Okay, do you think you can make it? I get no sympathy
1:47.2	from you. No, I'm just jesting. I'm just stuck here in East Central Illinois
1:52.0	looking at you know low wind chill.
	...

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