Namastey
The plants you are seeing above are carnivores plants. They are amazing wonders of nature. You must have seen such pictures in your textbooks of biology but have you wondered why these plants need to eat insects.
Carnivores plants grow in the soil which lacks nutrients. Mostly they are found in the areas where soil lacks in nitrogen.
These plants eat insects, protozoans, and other arthropods to fulfill the plant nutritional deficiency. There are at least 583 known species of carnivores plants all around the world.
They attract insects, traps them, and then absorb all the nutrients from the body of the prey needed for their growth and development.
Different species of carnivores plants have different mechanisms to trap their prey. These insect-eating plants can be found in every continent except Antarctica.
Nowadays garden enthusiasts have started growing this plant in their home under a controlled environment because of curiosity and plant behavior.
Seeds of various carnivores plants such as Venus flytrap are available in the online market.
People grow these insect-eating plants on sphagnum moss or pure peat moss instead of soil. Because soil already contains nutrients for plants. This property of soil can kill your carnivores plant.
If nutrition less soil is available in market then you can also use them to grow these plants in your home. There is an additional benefit, you will not need to add compost and they can help you to control insects in your garden as well.
You can use the containers of various sizes, from small to medium size containers is considered good for growing these plants.
But to water your pots you can’t use tap water because they contain nutrients. You have to use rainwater or distilled water to grow these plants.
To grow these plants from seeds, you need to first prepare the medium in the pot and water them thoroughly. These seeds need more water than growing normal plant seeds.
So soil should be completely wet but not submerged in nutrient less water. You can sprinkle seeds on the nutrition less medium in your pot for germination.
Water your plants regularly when the growing medium becomes a little dry. To prevent your soil from drying fast, you can cover your pot with a transparent polybag.
They need high humidity to grow especially venus fly trap plant. Wait for few days and you will see your plant seeds germinating. Keep them in shady areas for a good germination rate.
It will take about 20 days to germinate completely.
Later on, when they have grown to a healthy plant, you can place your pot near windows which receives 2 to 3 hours of sunlight.
They are mostly pest resistant but need continuous moisture to grow well in pots. Do not add any nutrients in the growing medium for better growth of carnivores plants.
Let’s now see some of the carnivores plants along with their trapping mechanisms.
1. Pitcher Plant
They have a special mechanism of pitfall traps. Insect falls in these traps by getting attracted by nectar bribes, color, and smell. Inside the trap, they contain digestive enzymes that help the plant to get nutrition from the trapped insects.
Once insects fall under these traps they can not get outside because of waxy substance present on the inner lining.
2. Sundew
They have flypaper trap mechanism to catch their prey. This plant have sticky mucilage or glue on their outer surface. They catch small insects flying in the air.
Insects get attracted to these plants and sit on their surface. But thereafter they are unable to leave the surface again because of sticky substance.
3. Venus Flytrap
Garden enthusiasts nowadays are mostly growing venus flytraps in their garden. They catch their prey with the help of snap traps mechanism.
Venus flytraps leaves are divided into two lobes. Trigger hairs are present on these lobes that is sensitive to touch. When any insect sits on these lobes and causes pressure on trigger hairs then leaves get closed and the insect gets trapped.
You can also grow these carnivores plants in your garden and tell us your experience. You can comment down below if you want to add something or have any queries.
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