So this post is a little indulgent; I
want to show our collection of carnivorous plants. As I mentioned
earlier, one of the first things that sparked my love for plants
comes from when I was little (about 7 or 8). In one of our school
book orders we had a book covering several types of carnivorous
plants. I loved that book to death (until I lost it). It's been so
long ago now that I don't remember what plants it covered, but to the
best of my recollection, it talked about sundews, cobra lilies,
butterworts, flytraps, and bladderworts. I thought it was amazing to
think that some plants “ate” like animals. As a plus, some of
them even moved! To an 8 year old, it's pretty amazing to think of
plant moving fast enough for us to observe. Today I'll be talking
about our current collection, as well as growing tips and thoughts
about certain plants in relation to ease of growing, usefulness as a
bug trap, etc.
Let's begin with easy plants and move
to harder. Remember that this listing is going to be somewhat
subjective. I might have an easier time growing certain plants than
others, and a harder time than others for “easy” plants.
One more thing to note. These plants
all have very specific water and soil requirements. The reason that
carnivorous plants are carnivorous is due to a lack of nutrients in
the soil that they grow in. They do not consume for proteins or
fats, they consume only for the minerals that are absent in their
soil. By growing a carnivorous plant in soil that has added
nutrients (like regular potting soil) you will kill the plant. Most
of these grow in bogs or other very unique places that have no
minerals in the soil due to constant flow of pure water. Whenever
you repot, you need to get a special mix of soil first. Either buy
it premixed or mix it yourself, but look it up beforehand or you will
regret it. When watering, remember too that most of the plants on
this list require “pure” water. The dissolved solids need to be
less than 50 parts per million(ppm). In Oregon, where I live, this
isn't usually a big issue, most water sources are already less than
50.
Sarracenia
Sarracenia are a superbly easy and
useful plant to grow. They are native to the United States and
Canada. Often when you hear the term pitcher plant, this is what
people think of (or perhaps Darlingtonia). They form trumpet shaped
leaves from a rhizome, ranging from clusters of ground pitchers to
pitchers that grow to 3 or 4 feet. You should absolutely do research
about the variety that you're thinking about bringing home. They
require full sun (which means at least 6 hours of direct sunlight
every day) and need to be in standing water at all times. Let me
clarify with standing water: however tall your pot is, the water
should come up about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way up the side of the pot.
These plants are very, very simple to grow, I have one plant, S.
leucophylla. It's a gorgeous plant, sadly it doesn't look quite as
well due to it going dormant for the year, but during the growing
season it is beautiful. Sarracenia also catch a lot of bugs. No
carnivorous plant will completely take care of your bug problems, but
these will capture hornets, flies, grasshoppers, mayflies, and
anything else that decides that it needs to see what's down the
rabbit hole. They also have some of the most unique looking flowers
of any plant I've seen.
 |
| Sexy Sarracenia flower (photo credit to Noah Elhardt and Petr Dlouhy; taken from Wikipedia) |
Venus Flytraps (Dionaea muscipula)
Flytraps seem to be everyone's
favorite, since they have moving parts. They are likewise very easy
to grow, and grow in the same habitat as Sarracenia. The same
restrictions apply here, low ppm water, full sun, and keep the pot in
standing water, halfway up the side. They do not catch as many
insects as Sarracenia, but do very well. Kids love them, their
moving traps look like little mouths. It's important to know that
each trap can only work about 6-10 times before it falls off, and it
take a lot of energy for the trap to function. If you do have
children, just don't let them set off the traps constantly, it will
hurt the plant over time. It's also important to note that the way
most people see Venus flytraps for sale in stores is actually about
the worst possible way that you can grow them. The plants do poorly
in terracotta pots and do not grow well indoors, furthermore they do
not require high humidity to grow. If you do get a flytrap this way,
you should slowly acclimate it to lower humidity by cutting holes in
the plastic pot cover, adding about one a week until the inside and
outside humidity is the same. They should also be set outdoors in
standing water like the Sarracenia.
Sundew (Drosera sp.)
Sundew (temperate) are the most
successful carnivorous plant in the world, they live on every
continent except for Antarctica. This means that it is especially
important to know where your sundew is from. Their care will change
slightly depending upon where they are native to. In terms of
temperate sundews, treat them like Sarracenia and flytraps, full sun,
standing pure water. They, like the Sarracenia, are excellent bug
catchers. I once overheard someone saying they were like fly paper.
They trap their prey with sticky “dew” that they excrete from
special hairs on their leaves. When a caught bug squirms, they
generally get caught in more hairs, which slowly pull them down to
the surface of the leaf where they are digested.
Butterworts (Pinguicula sp.)
Butterworts (temperate) are a bit
different in care to the others. They, like the sundew are found
nearly everywhere, but they have wide, almost succulent leaves. They
don't care for sun quite as much as the other plants, are more
permissive of water with greater than 50 ppm, and don't need to be in
as much water either. It is important to know whether or not your
butterwort is temperate or “tropical”, as they have slightly
different needs, most specifically in soil. Most are tolerant to 2-4
hours of direct sunlight per day, followed by bright or dappled light
for the rest of the day. I imagine that properly tuned shadecloth
would produce great results as well. I only have one temperate
variety, the primrose butterwort, Pinguicula primuliflora. It's a
bit temperamental and very sensitive to fungal infections, which is
why you should let the soil get almost or slightly dry before you
water it. They are tolerant of drier conditions. For me, it seems
like keeping it in a water tray and “bottom” watering it is the
best method, filling it up just enough for the soil to become moist
at the top. You can top water it, just be careful to drain it's water tray afterwards. You do not want them sitting in water like the other
three, doing so will kill the plant. If there is excess water in the tray after watering, it'd be good to empty it. In the photo above, only the lower left is temperate, the others are all "tropical".
Next time I will cover the “tropical”
carnivorous plants that I have: Nepenthes, Cephalotus, tropical
sundews, tropical butterworts, and Heliamphora.
As a side note, I apologize for my long
absence. This has been a very intensive and busy term of school. As
winter break approaches, my posts should become more regular. Thanks
for the understanding!
For awesome carnivorous plants, check
out Sarracenia Northwest! At the time of my writing, their cold
hardy plants (Sarracenia and flytraps) are all on sale. Much of the
information I've given today I've learned from them.
Wikipedia is another, always wonderful
resource, here are their pages for the plants I've covered today:
All the photos here are mine, except
where noted. They are all under the Creative Commons
Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
