Genetic evidence suggests that carnivory developed by co-opting and repurposing existing genes which had established functions in flowering plants

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnivorous_plant

Because the flowers attract food in the form of insects. I must be missing something here.

Flowering plants use life to spread genetics. No reason to be carnivorous if there's no reason for animals to crawl all over you

Because they have fallen to the corruption of slaanesh

I'm sorry but who says that all of the good botany questions have been answered??

We just haven't found the carnivorous trees yet. Those poor, poor squirrels...

While all of these answers are mostly true, you have to go back in time. Darwin called it the abomniable mystery. Flowering plants and insects co-evolved rapidly roughly 150 MYA. So prior to flowering plants, there were few plants and insects and they were mostly generalists. The rapid expansion and explosion of insect diversity is deeply entangled with the explosion of diversity in angiosperms.

Carnivory in plants is ALWAYS the secondary option, usually as a result of poor soil quality. Typical pollination via flowering bodies is the go to.

Flowers already attracted insects. The evolution of flower into carnivorous flower is a smaller leap than a tuba or leaf into carnivory as they would also have to evolve to attract the prey.

Is it vegan if you eat carnivorous plants?

Could it be because most plant species are flowering plants?

Because they live in environments lacking in the nutrients that can be gained from invertebrates (e.g. in highly acidic soil). This allows them to compete better against other plants. I guess non-flowering plants don't need the same nutrients so can go without. Only a beginnner+ at ecological botany so someone here can surely explain better knowing lemmy!

I remember watching this farmer make a case otherwise, that ordinary bramble (?) is specialized to ensnare and trap fluffy sheep, providing chemical nutrients to the bush.

Since when has carnivory been a word, what the hell

Where are my plants that impregnate human females through their vines used as tentacles, as promised by hentai?

This seems obvious: Non flowering plants haven't evolved ways to attract pollinators prey. What non-flowering plants deliberately attract animals?

Ultimately it's more about trapping and consuming live animals, I don't really care if they actually chew.