>>14287358idc if this is a bad faith argument, i like thinking about and trying to explain this subject
>Why? The movment part is on the trichomes, ...existing.both move, actually. refer to pic
>Where did "leafs" come from?the apical meristem :)
but in all seriousness, refer to this picture again. see how that leaf on the right is folded? imagine if some mutation caused it to fold along the midrib. the fancy botanical term is "conduplicate"
> Why did the motive cells, which are initially in an almost random 360 degree orientation, move to the highly organized base of these "leafs" and it may look random, but it's pretty uniform. since we already have leaf movement, all we need is a very simple mutant with conduplicative leaves to have something really similar to a flytrap.
>suddenly all move in 2 uniform directions for trapping?the ancestor would probably move in a really simple fashion like drosera. since faster traps are more advantageous, coordinating all of those cells is an extreme waste of energy. thus, it becomes advantageous as well to trap while moving minimally. in flytraps, cells at the "hinge" (midrib of leaf) are inflating really rapidly, causing the whole trap to shut. you'll notice this places the site of the movement very close to the trigger hairs too
>a "transition state" it would be inferior to either final form. this doesn't actually matter. since folding traps allow it access to a new type of prey (i,e, crawling vs flying bugs), it is not longer competing with drosera. this transition state is really the starting point
>Where did the ability to "shut" come from?think the physiology is explained above, but its important to note that virtually all plants "move" in the same fashion. that is, through differential swelling/shrinking of cells in response to stimuli (touch, sunlight, etc)
>But the trichomes are the part that creates movement.trichomes just attract and trap the prey. the whole plant can move.
