who knew carnivorous plants were so incredibly beautiful?

I stumbled across this place this weekend on a saturday drive: California Carnivores

It's an ENTIRE plant shop of carnivorous plants.. And let me tell ya, they were SO beautiful. I had to share my pictures. I unfortunately was in such awe by their beauty that I didn't snap pictures of their names so I am not sure what they are all called, besides the venus fly traps of course. But yeah, here they are.

It seems like carnivorous plants could be really useful in permaculture.

Venus Fly Traps:



I don't know the names for any of the rest.







I feel like a little community of fly eating fairies should be living in this one:







Caught this one in action. You can barely see the fly but it is at the top left of the flower. It wasn't dying yet but it was VERY attracted to whatever was at the top of that flower. I mean so attracted that it was letting my face get super close to it to observe without flying away.

Cassie - those are awesome pics!

You know I can never think of a carnivorous plant without thinking of this episode with David Attenborough.

I think you've got pitcher plants and bladder wort. There are many types of pitcher plant. Many of these lived in a marl pond near where I grew up. Nitrogen poor bogs are home to most carnivorous plants.

Yup! Pitcher plants sounds right. Bladderwort doesn't sound familiar but it sounds funny at least.

Cassie Langstraat wrote:
It seems like carnivorous plants could be really useful in permaculture.

A few of us on a mushroom growing forum have been thinking of using Drosera (sticky sundew plants) to catch fungus gnats which can be a problem when growing mushrooms.

Ive been curious about this too. especially root systems and nutrient dynamics. These, and the mushrooms would be excellent on the boarder of social spaces in a design but that's about all i got.

I've lived in Sonoma and Marin county for the past few years and never ran across that shop. Thanks Cassie!

We use them for indoor fly control along with spiders!

I've got a "bog" planted in an old sink here in Seattle as a secondary stage of filtration for roof water which first passes through a bathtub "pond". The pond allows me to grow flavoring plants like Sweetflag, and starch plants like Wapato. The bog has various species and hybrids of Sarracenia pitcher plants, which help keep fruit flies from the nearby worm bin in check. Sarracenia have no trouble with being outside in our moderate climate, as they are native to the south and can even tolerate brief freezes. I've heard that the cobra plant pitcher plants from California can't survive well outside in Seattle where we are. I also had honeydew plants for a brief period of time, but they seem to have been out competed. I've heard of people using Sarracenia leaves (the pitchers) as a cut "flower" as part of arrangements, and I can imagine that they would get you a good price -- you would have to have a lot of plants though, as you can probably only harvest a few leaves per year without stressing them out.

I've been thinking about getting some around our terasses in the hope that they will get rid of some of the flies and mosquitoes.

first pic is of flytraps second, third are pitcher plants the ones all crowded in the pot look like bladder worts. Awesome pictures of these plants.

http://www.pitcherplant.com/index.html

The link is to a website that sells carnivorous plants but nevermind that part. It also has some wonderful instructions for building and maintaining bog gardens and meat eating plants.



http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/plant-physiology-emersed-culture/72691-emersed-aquatic-plants-carnivorous-plant-layout.html
And the second link is probably the most beautiful carnivore garden anywhere.

I love David Attenborough.

Here's another clip about carnivorous plants from The Private Life of Plants

chad duncan wrote:
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/plant-physiology-emersed-culture/72691-emersed-aquatic-plants-carnivorous-plant-layout.html
And the second link is probably the most beautiful carnivore garden anywhere.

Wow! That is beautiful:

Lovely pictures and videos.
Here are some brainstorms on how to use these plants:

- There's the obvious step of using them instead of flypaper in sensitive areas, like milking stalls or outdoor dining areas.

- The pitchers tend to fall over when they get too full - either of bugs or of water. Sort of an instant-mulching process. If you have a lot of flies, you may need multiple plantings and a place to take the full pitchers.

- The Oregon native cobra plants require fairly cold water, and can thrive in low-nutrient boggy soils. Not as easy to cultivate indoors, or on a sunny kitchen windowsill, as you might hope.
In the edges of their range, they may be a great indicator plant for year-round springs or bogs.
(Be careful about altering their terrain to take advantage of that water, because some species are endangered, and also it's easy to block up springs with careless alterations.)

- The water-collecting pitchers might be an interesting addition to rainforest living-roof systems, to slow down and distribute rainfall. They could also make good water-collection systems except that they tend to grow where water is so abundant that collecting it is sort of beside the point.

- The water-collecting pitchers seem like a highly effective natural funnel. Do we need to funnel anything with a small-to-medium, disposable funnel, and we don't care if it gets some nectar or digestive acids in it?
Maybe a pee-separator or ladies' standup outdoor toilet?
(CHECK the plant data for dangerous chemistry first - these plants have some wicked evolutionary talents.)

- Many other plants have similar hairy leaves like hawkweed, even violets. These plants can be good first colonizers of nitrogen-deprived areas either due to topsoil removal/erosion, or due to leaching of nutrients in very rainy areas. Some of these plants, like violets, are also edible. Hairy leaves and insect-attracting abilities could be good traits to consider in planting alongside legumes for first-stage recovery of poor soils.

- It could be fun to try combinations of pitcher-plants and mushrooms that tend to serve as breeding grounds for insects.

- Their translucent light-windows are very cool. I wonder about using them to grow algae, or mimicking that thin cellular 'window' for our own dwellings and greenhouses.

-Erica

Cassie Langstraat wrote: It seems like carnivorous plants could be really useful in permaculture.

Maybe they could be used in the first phase of grey water filtration?

I wonder if they would grow on a char based medium like moss will. Like, run greasy dish water into a charcoal filter with flytraps on top to simultaneously filter, uptake nutrients and keep down the pests? I'm having a hard time resisting the allure of some of those beauties as a human. As a swarm of flies they'd of had me dead and digested already. What were you thinking? Erica covered most of my thoughts before I could have them this time 'round. That one flytrap just below and left of center has got to be one of the most vividly pink things I have ever seen outside of a Wal-Mart 'girls' toy isle. And the patterning and veining on that first pitcher plant kinda blows my mind. I bet you that plant hangs out with frogs. It totally hangs out with frogs.

Jennifer,

That video is amazing. The brilliance behind the adaptive evolution and the working together and the nature being the source for all pattern and design even when we've yet to even realize it. Way more enlightenment than humor.