Monster Plant

Flesh-eating “monster plant” can become extinct as seeds can’t be stored in doomsday vault, scientists have warned.

16:49 23 March 2016

Scientists have warned that carnivorous “waterwheel” is set to go extinct and claim nothing can be done to save it. The creepy carnivorous underwater plant is a type of deep sea Venus fly trap that catches its prey in a set of jaws which snap shut in just 10 milliseconds.

 

Adam Cross of the University of Western Australia said: "Our data suggests that in natural seed banks, seeds would be lost to fungal attack very rapidly - in between six and 12 months.

 

"This means they are unlikely to persist between seasons."

 

The plant feasts on mosquito larvae and water fleas. When these creature swim into it, the waterwheel’s tiny hairs are triggered causing its jaw to snap shut at an incredible speed. The closing of its jaw is one of the fastest examples of plant movement in the entire animal kingdom.

 

The doomsday vault or the Global Seed Vault is found on the Norwegian island of Svalbald, 800 miles from the North Pole. It contains more than 860,000 samples of seed collected from all over the world.