Carnivorous plants perform as both producers and consumers. Botanical carnivory has evolved in sunny, moist, nutrient-poor environments, and the primary nutrient supplied by prey is proposed to be nitrogen. There is a trade-off between carnivorous and photosynthetic structures which corresponds to degree of carnivory expression and available nutrients. This study was conducted on the hooded pitcher plant, Sarracenia minor, which is a facultative wetland plant and Florida-threatened species. Sarracenia minor is considered a specialist myrmecophage and ants characterize the majority of attracted and captured prey. Ants not only provide nutritional benefit, but also protection against herbivory. A natural population of S. minor in northeast Florida was selected to test response to prey and fertilizer nitrogen in a press-experimental design. Introduced fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) and ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) were used as prey and fertilizer nitrogen sources, respectively. Treatments included: 1) ant addition; 2) fertilizer addition; 3) ant addition/fertilizer addition; 4) no ants/no fertilizer; 5) control. Treatments were administered biweekly and morphological characteristics and herbivory were measured monthly from April-November 2012. Results indicated no significant treatment effects on plant performance and morphological characteristics, except for a significantly greater number of flowers displayed by the nutrient-deprived group (p < .005). Herbivory by Exyra semicrocea also showed a marginally significant negative effect on the tallest pitchers per ramet. Since nitrogen is primarily stored by pitchers and allocated to new growth in the following growing season, the predictive power of this study may be limited. However, increased flowering rate in the nutrient-deprived group suggests that plants were induced to flower from nutrient stress. Also, a burn at the beginning of the study likely influenced nutrient availability and plant response to experimental treatments. In conclusion, stress may have occurred from both fire and nutrients, and S. minor showed resistance and poor response to nitrogen addition.

Plants and insects are some of the most biodiverse groups in the world and are constantly interacting. One unique interaction that has been observed occurs between carnivorous plants and insects; some plant species are capable of capturing and digesting insects for nutrients. Despite preying on these insects, there are cases where such interactions can been viewed as mutualistic. For instance, a nectar reward is produced by the plant to attract insects, and during visitation insects may fall prey to these plants. Additionally, carnivorous myrmecophytic plants may receive an added indirect benefit in the form of reduced herbivory, since ants have the ability to indirectly protect and drive off herbivores from the plant. However, this type of indirect defensive benefit has been rarely observed in carnivorous plants. To determine the nature of the relationship between carnivorous plants and ants, a predator-exclusion experiment was performed in situ using a natural population of the hooded pitcher plant, Sarracenia minor. The presence of the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, was manipulated in the pitcher plant population to determine if the presence of this non-native ant affects the survival and growth of this carnivorous pitcher plant. From June-November 2014 mean pitcher height and width, number of pitchers, and proportion of pitchers with herbivory present was recorded monthly. Results indicated that pitcher width (p = .042) and the number of pitchers (p = .038) was significantly lower when the presence of S. invicta was reduced. Specifically, the limited presence of S. invicta led to a 21% reduction in mean number of pitchers and a 2.2% reduction in mean pitcher width. This indicated that this non-native ant does provide a direct nutritional benefit for the plant. However, the presence of the ant had no effect on pitcher height and the proportion of pitchers with herbivory present. But, when the proportion of pitchers with herbivory present was compared to a previous native ant study, herbivory proportions where similar or lower when taking the number of ants present into account. This suggests that this non-native ant and native ants equally provide defensive benefits for this native threatened species. Overall, this studied illustrated that carnivorous plants may exhibit similar multiple benefits from a single interaction with a non-native insect that is both prey and provides defense against herbivores.