How did carnivorous plants evolve?
Pinguicula gypsicola Utricularia purpurea A: The evolution of carnivorous plants is not well known. This is not because there is anything really mysterious going on, it is just that carnivorous plants do not have very rigid parts which are likely to get fossilized, nor do they make huge numbers of leaves each season to increase the chance of one being fossilized. I have no doubt there are great fossils of carnivorous plants someplace, but we just have not yet found them. There are some exceptions to this. For example, if you read the relevent entry on the carnivorous plant Aldrovanda vesiculosa, you will see I mention that there is a good fossil record for this plant and its progenitors. Unfortunately, the record is of the seeds. Only one fossil leaf of this plant’s ancestors has ever been found. Several now-extinct species of plants, described from fossil pollen, have been placed in the genus Fischeripollis, in the Droseraceae (i.e., the sundew family). The currently described species
