Beware the killer veg: How tomatoes are carnivorous and can trap insects for food



Tomatoes are among 325 species that have been classed as carnivorous by the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew

Anyone about to tuck into a bowl of tomato soup, or a hot buttered jacket potato, should stop reading now.



Researchers at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew believe these two members of the nightshade family could be hiding a bloodthirsty secret.



The tomato and potato are among 325 new species suspected of harbouring an appetite for flesh, including the potato, ornamental tobacco plants and petunia flowers.

But unlike the Venus Flytrap, they have no means of digesting their victims. Instead, they catch small insects in sticky hairs on their stems, wait for them to fall to the ground dead, and absorb the nutrients via their root system.



Kew's head of genetics Dr Mike Fay said that the carnivorous ability of many species had gone unrecognised because they were missing many key characteristics associated with meat-eating plants.



He said: 'Widely recognised carnivorous plants number some 650 and we estimate that another 325 or so are probable additions - so an increase of about 50 per cent.'

The scientists made the discovery as part of an assessment of carnivorous plants in honour of the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth.

Darwin had been fascinated by such plant species and even fed them meat in research for his book Insectivorous Plants, published in 1875.

Although cultivated varieties of tomatoes and potatoes no longer have need of such gruesome fertiliser, they still have those killer hairs. So if you're going down to the greenhouse today - be very careful.