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Carnivorous Plants-Some Tropical Jewels

© Diana Pederson

Last week's article identified several carnivorous plants that are easy to find and suitable for your first bog garden. Have you caught the bug for collecting these plants? Let's explore some additional carnivorous plant species. These plants are for the advanced collector but it is fun to know what is available. I'll also lead you to some sites that provide outstanding information on the culture and propagation of these plants.

Pitcher plants are found throughout the Americas. Last week, I mentioned the Sarracenia species as the easy to grow variety found in most nurseries. Many more exotic species of pitcher plants exist. Cobra lilies, Darlingtonia sp., are popular with collectors. They are similar to pitcher plants, but much larger. The tropical pitcher plants belong to the Nepenthes family. They make wonderful hanging baskets if you can maintain the high humdity needed. Still another tropical pitcher plant family is the Sun pitchers, Heliamphora sp. Western Australia is home to the Cephalotus sp. There are many plants within each of these species. A collector could easily decide to specialize in just pitcher plants and have enough to keep them fascinated for a lifetime.

The waterwheel plant, Aldrovanda, is found on the European and African continents. This plant spends its entire life in the water. Note its resemblance to a wheel with many spokes. Bladderworts are found in the water and on very wet land, Utricularia sp. Those that dwell in water have traps the size of a pinhead! The land dwelling species are bigger with colorful flowers.

CULTIVATION AND PROPAGATION OF CARNIVOROUS PLANTS

Many sources of information exist on the www about carnivorous plants. If you want a comprehensive list of all the carnivorous plant families and species, refer to the Carnivorous Plant Database. This site allows you to enter the scientific name of a carnivorous plant species and rewards you with a detailed list of all plants in that category. Many of the illustrations used in this article are from this site. Some text documents on the care and cultivation the species exist as links. As you search through lists of carnivorous plants for sale, I urge you to make good use of this site.

The Carnivorous Plant Faq website is a must for anyone interested in carnivorous plants (see my top five sites to the right). Plan to spend several hours exploring this site. You will find detailed information virtually any topic involving carnivorous plants. Examples include: What is a carnivorous plant? These Latin names are pretty nerdy. What do they mean?

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