S


top! Don’t go anywhere near


those trees. T ey’re poisonous. Don’t touch their leaves or bark.


You could get blisters. Don’t eat their fruit. Your throat will swell. You don’t even have to touch one of


these trees to be in trouble. So don’t stand under one when it rains. T e raindrops pick up poison as they hit the tree. Poison in the dripping water will make your skin itch. T e poison comes from sap that


fl ows through the tree’s parts. It can harm you, but it helps the tree. T e sap keeps animals from eating it. Like this tree, all plants use their


parts to survive. Some plants use these parts in deadly ways.


Catching Bugs Most plants have leaves. Leaves have an important job. T ey catch the sun’s energy to make food for the plant. Like other plants, the leaves of


a sundew help make food. Yet a sundew’s leaves also help the plant catch food. A sundew is a carnivore. It eats meat. A sundew has sticky leaves. T ey


curl around insects. T ey trap them. T en the leaves digest the bugs. One kind of sundew has two kinds


of leaves. Its inner leaves are sticky. Its outer leaves aren’t. It’s not safe for an insect to land on


an outer leaf, either. T is leaf moves. It flings the bug into the sticky leaves. T e bug is trapped. T e plant eats it.


12 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORER


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