Carnivorous Curiousities

Spring is well and truly here with its longer days, unpredictable weather, and lots of new plant growth! I love watching my carnivorous plants come out of dormancy and start to flourish again. I have a small collection of pitcher plants, sundews, and Venus fly traps. They all live outside except for my Nepenthes (a hanging pitcher plant), which prefers a more humid/tropical environment. They are happy outside because they like to have a period of dormancy over the winter, some species even survive being covered in snow! I love their unusual appearances and find them very easy to look after as their main need is plenty of water, I have them sitting in deep trays which I just keep topped up with rain water. They are swamp plants so they don't like nutrient rich soil, I normally use straight sphagnum moss for small plants and a mix of peat, sand, and perlite for larger pots. Carnivorous plants feed on living insects, another good reason to keep them outside- plenty of food!

 

Three different types of pitcher plants. From left, Sarracenia minor, Nepenthes (indoor), Sarracenia rubra (?) in flower. The plant produces a digestive liquid in the bottom of the pitchers, the sides are smooth so insects fall into the liquid and then cannot escape.

There are around 200 different species of Drosera (sundews) and they have been found all over the world! Sundews secrete a sticky substance along their leaves which bugs get stuck to, then the plant slowly digests them. Some sundews curl up around their prey to ensure it is well stuck. The photo on the left shows a forked-leaf sundew (Drosera binata- native to Australia and NZ) with a moth stuck to it. You can see the little hairs coming off the leaves, with sticky droplets on the end of each one, these hairs also curl towards the prey when they feel movement. Photo on the right shows a different sundew in the front, and a Venus fly trap in the back, after being potted up last Spring.

                               

This is a native spoon-leaved sundew (Drosera spatulata?) I found in a swampy area in Arthur's Pass, it accidently fell into my bag (don't tell DOC 😏). I have had it for nearly 5 years and it has self seeded. It is my smallest carnivorous plant but my absolute favourite!

The most popular carnivorous plant of all is the Venus fly trap (Dionaea muscipula) and it's not hard to see why. This plant is amazing to watch. The leaves are deadly traps for insects. They have tiny hairs inside the leaves that trigger when touched, causing the trap to spring shut and imprison the insect. These traps will change in colour, with more sun over Summer they go a brighter red in the center of the traps. Some of my sundews and pitcher plants also change from green to red with higher light levels.

If you're looking for more information check out www.carnivorousplants.org- The International Carnivorous Plant Society. Or feel free to ask me a question and I'll do my best to give you an answer!