In the wild, it's eat or be eaten.

Each living thing is on a mission to survive another day—including plants. And the measures they take can be downright deadly for those that come too close. Science writer and plant expert Rebecca E. Hirsch gives readers a look at a meat-eating plant that traps unsuspecting mammals, an African tree that enlists armies of biting ants as bodyguards, and an Australian shrub with prickly, poison-filled leaves that have been known to land humans in the hospital. But don't get too close or . . . OUCH!