Most of us are pleased to find any kind of wildflower. We enjoy its fragrance and perhaps take a picture of it. Many of them seem so delicate that we are careful not to step on them or handle them roughly. But among these wild plants and flowers are some with very strange ways.
One of them is the three-foot-tall pitcher plant. Sometimes these are sold in garden stores. The top of this plant is open like a pitcher, and a puddle of sweet nectar at the bottom attracts many insects. The insects crawl down to feast on the nectar but soon find they are trapped and unable to escape. They die there and become food absorbed into the plant.
Another is the sundew. This one has sticky flowers on which crawling or flying insects are trapped and gradually absorbed into the plant’s system. There are various species of the sundew, and they can be found growing on every continent except Antarctica.
Bladderwort plants grow in ponds and use a different way of trapping. When a water bug or even a small minnow bumps into one, that part of the plant flies open and the victim is sucked inside where it cannot escape. It then becomes part of the food supply of the captor plant.
Then there is the huntsman’s cap. An insect is attracted by its sweet smell and alights on its top. The insect finds it so slippery that it slides down to the bottom where rainwater has collected. It soon drowns and decomposes, becoming food helpful to the plant.
Other plants don’t eat insects; God has designed them to keep insects away. They produce chemicals that chase the insects off or may even kill them. Among these plants are marigolds, some varieties of mushrooms, and goldenrod that discourage insect visitors by burning holes in their bodies with its chemicals. Even cucumber plants give off odors that send cockroaches scurrying away.
These are exceptions to the general nature of plants. Most plants need insects, such as ants, bees, butterflies and moths, to pollinate their flowers so that seed-bearing pods, fruit or berries will develop. But as we consider the insect-eating plants with ways that are strange to us, we are reminded in our opening Bible verse that they are all among the wonders of God’s creation. Each one serves a real purpose in His order of things.
God has a purpose for your life too. He invites you to come to Him through faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus, who gave His life on Calvary to be a Saviour to all who will trust in Him. One happy purpose for those who trust in the Lord Jesus is to serve and honor Him. Do you trust in Jesus?
ML-09/14/2014