Insects have plenty to beware when it comes to carnivorous plants. Add an acid-loving fungus to that list of dangers.
Sundew plants have tentacle-like leaves that curl around and entrap flies and other insects in a sticky secretion called mucilage (SN: 5/16/18). As stuck prey suffocate in mucilage or die from exhaustion, the plant produces enzymes that dissolve the bodies into nutrients later absorbed by the leaves.
But plant enzymes alone aren’t the whole story. A fungus called Acrodontium crateriforme has a helping hand in the digestive process, researchers report in the October Nature Microbiology. A. crateriforme produces additional digestive enzymes and makes the leaf’s environment more acidic, which
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