The Curious World of Carnivorous Plants

Oh those Gooey Glands and Hairy Appendages. A little sinister, bit scary and somewhat beautiful -the world of carnivorous plants attracts fans from all populations, from the youngest kids to the gnarliest biker dudes – as experienced this past weekend at the fall Carniverous Plant Show held by the New England Carnivorous Plant Society at the Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, MA.

I can’t say that I’ve ever attended a carnivorous plant society show before, so this was new to me – but I had been forewarned that these shows are a bit crazy – crowded, busy and packed with enthusiasts of all ages. In fact, I was so encouraged by the scope of the crowd at this weekends’ show, I have never seen so many young people (i.e. “folks under 40”) attending a show, let alone so many kids.

These are popular shows, and it’s no wonder why. Carnivorous plants are fascinating, to say the least. Not truly ‘man-eating’, these plants still offer enough interest to appeal to this very broad audience. It’s fun to see second graders mingling with surgeons and tattooed bikers, yet at the same time, everyone shares a common interest – a passion for death and beauty. Who’d a thunk? 

Personally, I’ve had a ‘ho-hum’ relationship with these plants. Always believing that they were more about novelty than botanical interest – but clearly they offer much, much more, and only by attending a show like this where collectors display pots, bowls, even shot glasses with tiny plants that eat fruit flies – these plants are like no other plants on earth.

So what do we know about carnivorous plants?  Well first and foremost – they eat bugs, right? That alone is pretty cool, even to a botanist. Second, they seem to all come with a built-in narrative – not unlike a horror movie, but one which lives on your windowsill. Drama, mystery and beauty round out the list. Not biologically sentient (they are ‘alive’ in a way, but not in the way your 9 year old may want them to be!).  As I heard one society member explaining to a heavily tattooed visitor at this weekends’ Carnivorous Plant Show….

“you see…” as she pointed with a ball point pen to a fringed, leafy appendage on a Venus fly trap, 

“…they don’t really have muscles, but rather, they react to pressure and vibrations. Like this…” as the plant’s ‘man eating parts’ quickly wrapped around the tip of the pen to the delight of the twenty-something who asked the question.

Yeah. Carnivorous plants are cool. Even to me. Then again, I have many tattoo’s. 

Maybe it’s ‘a thing’

My first exposure to carnivorous plants was while I attended college in Unity Maine. A bog which housed a large northern population of Pitcher Plants – Sarracenia purpurea – lay behind the college, and it was my first job as a freshman to collect press some specimens for the college herbarium, which I tended to as part of my work-study program (the other part was cleaning the men’s dorm bathrooms, a task a shall never try to recall again.). A bog of Pitcher Plants is an amazing sight to see in any season, but in autumn, the floating mats of sphagnum and deep red pitchers caught my imagination, and before long, specimens were not pressed, but living in buckets in our school greenhouse. 

Since then, I have survived through  a couple of carnivorous plant addictions. You know what I mean. I may have a relapse after this show. I just can’t seem to stay away from them, once I see them in person.

If you know nothing about carnivorous plants, the more growable species can broadly be grouped into a few groups broadly speaking. These are the most collectible, and any visit to a carnivorous society web page will connect you with local nurseries which specialize in the plants, or to mail order sources. Also, I urge you to attend a local meeting of your closest society for these plants, as members all seem highly eager to share their passion with newbies, and at that point, you can decide if you want to join. Bring your kids too!

I would say that when one thinks of carnivorous plants, one first thinks of Venus Fly Traps.

But the more collectible groups are the showier ones – mainly, Nepenthes and Sarracinea – the pitcher plants, but never confuse these two genus as they are distinctly different from one another, even though botanically, they both produce ‘pitchers’.

These beauties capture various prey (mostly insects and larvae), but one grows them more for their exotic appearance than flesh-eating show.  Nepenthes are warmer growing plants, better for indoors or a moderate greenhouse, but they grow perfectly well under lights or on a windowsill. Generally vining in habit they native to places like Borneo and South East Asia. Truly exotic looking, they are becoming easier to find, but like most plants, the nicest varieties are shared and sold amongst collectors and not at retail nurseries unless they specialize in these plants, so do some homework or get connected with collectors.

The genus Sarracenia however is generally more hardy, most can grow outdoors in a home-made bog or in frost proof containers, but the nicest ones will require a little bit of protection in the winter such as a garage which is unheated. This hardier clan can be kept outdoors in zones 6 and higher.