Excess nutrients

[t9gear]

When carnivores plants digest their food, is there ever any excess nitrogen/nutrients that the plant don’t need? And if so does that specific plant release the nutrients into the soil, maybe for the surrounding plants to use ?



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[hcarlton]

Whatever the plant needs it will extract from its prey, and the rest will either blow or be washed away when the trap opens or (in the case of pitchers) dies off. The soils they grow in do not hold nutrients well, so even anything that might fall into the soil won't stay there long.

 

[Grey Moss]

There isn't any specific mechanisms for a carnivorous plant to do that besides accumulating biomass and eventually dieing, releasing its nutrients into the soil that way. If there are any exploitable nutrients left over in their prey after the plant is done digesting it it just rots or molds over.