Notes on carnivorous plants

[musicdiamond]

I semi-recently went to a class on carnivourous plants and have acquired a venus fly trap. Here are various notes on the topic.

CARNIVOROUS PLANTS:
1. Venus fly trap - North Carolina
2. Pitcher plants - 2 species can capture and drown rats
3. Sundews
4. Butterworts - have a sucking mechanism that can catch crustaceans, fish, tadpoles
5. Carniverous bromeliad

-other plants like potato plants have hairs that break, secrete glue and can absorb decomposing insect on leaves
-Roridula - outsources digestion of trapped insects to assassin bugs, and plant feeds on the assassin bug poop

HABITATS: Typically wetlands/bogs, sunny, acideic, nutrient poor, near conifers

PITCHER PLANTS:
-pitfall trap with nectar as lure
-open hood allows with water ->drown insects
-closed hood -> insect dies of exhaustion/starvation
-some can live underwater and catch tadpoles and small fish

VENUS FLYTRAP:
-true leaf is the trap
-trigger hairs send an electrical current through the insect that closes the trap
-trap doesn't close all the way at first, to allow smallest insects (like ants) to escape. Further struggle by insect prompts it to close all the way

SUNDEWS - some may be related to venus flytraps (started out as a sticky trap that closed up, maybe)
-some fiddlehead like leaves
-some leaves curl around caught insects
-also electrical current causes curling of leaves
-grows on all continents except Antarctica

CARE NOTES:
-use distilled water - can either catch rainwater, can use tap for a little while
-full sun is best - can use reflector to increase sun
-sphagnum peat moss or live version
-sand - must be washed and clean play sand
-plastic containers only
-some need dormancy period (cold weather)
-spray plants to increase humidity