Today I have been taking leaf cuttings from one of my Pinguicula. There's a step by step guide on my Instagram @simplyindoorgardens
My Dionaea muscipula (Venus Flytraps) are looking really great now that the warm weather has kicked in!
Dionaea muscipula - Venus Fly Trap (‘Red Blush’)
A picture from last summer, but I like the colours. The plant was about an inch or so in size.
It’s the middle of winter here in Colorado and I’m really ready for Flytrap Season Again! It is about the time for repotting all my VFTs and is great time of year to pick up a few new varieties! (at Colorado Springs, Colorado) https://www.instagram.com/p/B6qmmyslrZW/?igshid=hikrh51jvpq8
SPeaking of venus fly traps I still love that people have actually bred some cultivars into having more cartoonish jagged teeth
In June I traveled to the coast with a visiting friend. While hiking at the Carolina Beach State Park, we ran into a local who asked if we had seen any carnivorous plants during our hike. Venus flytraps are endemic to the area, but they are threatened due to poaching. We hadn’t seen any yet. He suggested we check out what he described as “the carnivorous plants near Whole Foods.” We were only there for a day trip and still had plans to swim in the ocean, so at first we didn’t pay much attention to his vague directions. Later in the day, we decided to check it out anyway - after a Google hunt, we discovered the place he was talking about, the Stanley Rehder Carnivorous Plant Garden. It was an whimsical little garden tucked away behind an elementary school, lush with a variety of carnivorous plants. It’s definitely worth checking out if you’re ever in the Wilmington, NC, area.
Mid season Flytrap growth! About 100 different verities on this bench. . . . .#dionaeamuscipula #venus #plant #garden #flower #greenhouses #botanical #carnivorousplants #carnivorousplant #colorado #colospgs #coloradosprings #venusflytrap #flytraps #dionaeamuscipula #dionaea #muscipula #plants #californiacarnivores #carnivorousplantsofinstagram #venusflytraps #vft #greenhouse #plantsofinstagram #jeremiahsplants (at Colorado Springs, Colorado)
Springtime Sarracenia pitcher plant flowers. Many people erroneously call the tubular, carnivorous leaves of pitcher plants “flowers”. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard “Oh, those plants with the long tube flower things?” when discussing Sarracenia. In fact, the flowers of these plants are spectacular and one of the highlights of spring for me. These North American natives have flowers that range from white (S. alata), yellow (S. flava, minor, alata), pink (S. rosea), and red (S. leucophylla, rubra, psittacina, purpurea). Hybrids oftentimes produce flowers with color intermediate between their parents, producing beautiful colors of orange and rose.
Assorted Pinguicula in flower this evening. Note the winter rosettes and dead leaves from last year’s foliage.
Cold stratification: how to germinate Sarracenia seeds
I wanted to start 2016 with a new project and with spring only a few months away I figured it would be a great time to try and germinate some seeds! I was able to buy Sarracenia flava and Venus flytrap seeds as well as some unknow Sarracenia hybrids (SH05, SH23 and OR09). I’m hoping the ‘OR’ means it’s an oreophila species.
Sarracenia leucophylla, White top pitcher plant in habitat, variant B, Conecuh National Forest, Covington County, Alabama, US | ©Brad Wilson
Sarracenia leucophylla (Ericales - Sarraceniaceae) is found in wet savannahs in the southeast USA, from northeastern Florida to eastern Mississippi.
S. leucophylla pitchers are green with the top quarter being white with red or green veins. Pitchers produced in the spring are narrower and not as white as pitchers produced in the fall. Under extremely warm conditions, this species may produce phyllodia (pitcherless leaves) in the middle of the summer. The flowers are deep red.
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My beautiful p. moranensis with it’s cute winter rosettes! It has about five crowns at the moment so I’ll definitely separate them all soon and repot them! For now I just enjoy looking at it haha.
very nice
Cobras are waking up 🐍 #darlingtonia #carnivorousplant #pitcherplant #seedling #southbaytraps #indoorgarden #botany #botanicalgarden #macrophotography #macrogardener #naturephotography #native #california #carnivorousplants #southbaytraps #losangeles (at SouthBay Traps)
Photo by: Patrick Hollingsworth
This is the bladder trap of an aquatic bladderwort under a microscope. Believe it or not, this is a modified leaf! It creates a vacuum inside the tiny balloon shaped leaf. The long guide hairs help swimming creatures find their way to the mouth, which is darker in this photo. When something approaches, the mouth opens and the sides of the bladder pop out sucking the unfortunate victim in at 1/5000 of a second! It’s one of the fastest most complicated things in nature and it is still not clearly understood!
Sundew Catapults Prey into Trap
Drosera glanduligera is a species of sundew, a group of carnivorous plants that use sticky tentacles to ensnare their prey. This is species is unique in that it has extremely fast ‘snap tentacles’ which literally fling their prey into their sticky traps.
Sundews have evolved the ability to digest insects as an adaptation to their nutrient poor habitats. Once a prey is caught in the glue-like secretions, it either dies from exhaustion or asphyxiates from being smothered in dew. The plant then secretes enzymes which break down the insect, allowing the plant to absorb its nutrients.
All species of sundew are able to move their inner tentacles to pass prey towards the center of the leaf, where digestion is most efficient. Many species are able to fold the surface of the leaf around the prey to ensure contact with a larger digestive surface.
Drosera glanduligera is the fastest moving sundew, with 'snap tentacles’ which fold inwards within 75 milliseconds. This action is triggered when an insect makes contact with them, and are powerful enough to catapult the insect into the center of the leaf, where it becomes glued down.
Gif from video: Poppinga, S. Et al. via Wikimedia Commons