2026-05-29 秋田県立大学
図1：閉合運動は葉のサイズにより変化する
＜関連情報＞
- https://www.akita-pu.ac.jp/kenkyuseika/kenkyuseika2026/9343
- https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0349246
ハエトリソウ葉の閉合運動におけるサイズと曲率の制約条件 Size–curvature constraint in the closing motion of Venus flytrap leaves
Michiko Hirata,Zichen Kang,Hiroki Asakawa,Hiraku Suda ,Masatsugu Toyota,Yuji Ohashi,Satoru Tsugawa
PLOS One Published: May 26, 2026
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0349246
Abstract
Among carnivorous plants, the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) is known for its rapid (<1 s) trap closure. Although buckling instability, hydrostatic pressure, and hydroelastic coupling have all been proposed to be involved, the nature of this process and the relationship between trap size and curvature remain elusive. Here, we monitored the closure of Venus flytraps and performed micro–CT scanning and 3D reconstruction, revealing that increasing angular velocity was correlated with higher values of a non-dimensional shape index. Based on these experimental data, we constructed a geometric model of the trap that takes leaf orientation into account. We found that leaf curvature is dependent on leaf size, a relationship we denote as a size–curvature constraint. We further propose a curvature design derived from differential deformations of a two-layer model of the leaf, which could be a powerful tool to control the curvatures of soft and bending surface structures in the field of biomimetics.
