R[ule]ice is a carnivorous plant

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https://phys.org/news/2026-05-rice-fall-armyworm-caterpillars.html

Rice plants and Venus flytraps share something in common that was not scientifically documented until recently. Using a faint smell to lure caterpillars into a trap, rice plants killed early-stage fall armyworm larvae by trapping them in a spikelet, the part at the end of a rice panicle where individual grains develop.

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Tired: “are figs vegan?”

Wired: “is rice vegan?”

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Wait, what do figs do?

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Eat wasps

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edited

More accurately, wasps (sometimes) get stuck in figs and die, getting wholly consumed.

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Balakrishnan was in her second year of graduate studies at the University of Arkansas, and many of her experiments had produced “non-significant” results. Over time, students in Kariyat’s lab jokingly dubbed those ambiguous outcomes the “Devi Effect.”

“And then she produced what is probably the most fun data we’ve ever had in the lab,” Kariyat said.

that must be a great feeling

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