Carnivorous Plants 2021

[Tristan_He]

The carnivorous plants are waking up now. As it's been a wet weekend I have been repotting terrestrial orchids and frits for their summer rest, and cleaning / deaphiding the Sarracenias for the sping.

My Sarracenias live in the conservatory most of the time, but during good weather (or when I want to take a photo) I bring them outside. Some of them are flowering.



'Lynda Butt'



S. flava var. rubricorpora 'Burgundy'



'Red Sumatra'



Although they are pretty tough, the new pitchers are vulnerable to aphid attack causing distortion, as here.



An overwintering pitcher of S. alata black tube. It is quite dark but I think the name is a little optimistic!

[Tristan_He]

Pitcher plant pots can become whole ecosystems which I like. Here is a self-sown Dactylorhiza.



..and more surprisingly, this looks like a clubmoss. Not sure where it came from but I may have scattered some spores at some stage and forgotten about it.



I acquired this hybrid last year and it has already thrown a large pitcher. It looks very promising.





Last year I tried growing some from seed, and I now have a lot of seedlings coming on. You can see lots of variation already.

[ian mcdonald]

Tristan, could your clubmoss be a Polytrichum?

[Tristan_He]

Hi Ian, it certainly could be, and there is Polytrichum in the pot. But this looks a bit different from the rest - can't exactly put my finger on it. Looking at it again though maybe just the male gametophyte? I've only come across sporophytes of this before.

[ashley]

Nice examples of extrafloral nectaries, on Nepenthes.