Scientists have discovered that the traditional way of preserving plants - using seed banks - won't work for the waterwheel.
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| The waterwheel catches its own food Pic: Creative Commons |
An underwater plant which catches its own food and fascinated Charles Darwin could be on the brink of extinction - because its seeds cannot be stored.
The waterwheel plant acts like an aquatic Venus flytrap by capturing water fleas and mosquito larvae, but may soon die out due to habitat destruction.
Now scientists have discovered that the traditional way of preserving under-threat plants - using seed banks - is not working for the waterwheel.
A seed bank is a place where seeds are stored in case reserves elsewhere are destroyed.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway is known as the doomsday vault because its contents could have to be used to replenish the Earth in the event of a huge disaster.
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| Charles Darwin was fascinated by the plants |
But after just a year in storage almost 90% of the stored seeds were no longer viable, with most of them being destroyed by fungi.
Adam Cross, from 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 seeds' resistance to storage could be down to their coats - which have a honeycomb-like arrangement that helps them to float.
But this may allow strands of fungi to enter more easily, increasing the risk of attack.
The waterwheel is the only aquatic plant that uses jaw-like traps to catch prey.
The traps on its tips are some of the fastest moving in the plant kingdom, closing in just 10 milliseconds when prey lands on them.
Charles Darwin's experiments on the plants were the first to show it was adapted for capturing water fleas and mosquito larvae.
Source : Here