Field Trip: Dartmouth's Life Science's Greenhouse

Sarracenia leucophylla 'Tarnok'
Drosera adelae

In early June, I was up in Hanover, New Hampshire, so I stopped by Dartmouth's greenhouse. It's located on top of the Life Science's building. Most of the space is dedicated to orchids, but there's a small display of carnivores, which is (mostly) nestled in live sphagnum and overrun by the prolific Drosera adelae, see below.

Some of the Drosera adelae at Dartmouth

The prolific nature of Drosera adelae always surprises me. I would have thought Drosera prolifera would be more . . . prolific, but it's always adelae that's producing new plants. Indeed, in my own collection, if I had not restricted the one extremely prolific clone that I have to a single pot, it too would overgrow my collection, just like these ones.

About half the collection (excepting Nepenthes and Sarracenia)

The collection itself is a diverse collection of plants. There are a few forms of Dionaea muscipula (Venus Flytrap) alongside many Drosera adelae, a few terrestrial Utricularia (the Utricularia longifolia is doing well, but the Utricularia reniformis looks unhappy), Pinguicula laueana, Pinguicula primuliflora, Nepenthes ventrata, Nepenthes mixta (probably 'Miranda'), and a few others.

The other half of the collection (excepting Nepenthes and Sarracenia)

One plant I forgot to mention, which you can barely make out on the left side of this photograph is a Genlisea violacea. It was in bloom at the time I visited, and quite interesting. It seemed a little stressed, but, in my own experience, it's difficult to tell how Genlisea are doing. One thing I did note was that Drosera adelae did not have any dew on its leaves, a sign of low humidity.

Heliamphora heterodoxa

One of my favorites in the collection was a Heliamphora heterodoxa. This plant was doing quite well, flowering even! It was good to see such a mature plant growing so well in the collection. (In contrast, both my Heliamphora are still small seedlings).

Heliamphora heterodoxa flowers
Nepenthes ventrata (above)

I couldn't help but take a photograph of the flowers with the front-facing camera on my phone. I find Heliamphora flowers to be quite interesting and, even though these were past their prime, I certainly found them photograph worthy. It's easy to imagine, from this angle, how these flowers - or similar ones - could have evolved into the complex Sarracenia flowers that I'm more used to seeing.

Pinguicula primuliflora

One of the small highlights for me was seeing this P. primuliflora. This native to Florida is quite a prolific spreader, as you can tell from the escapee from the pot on the right. It's a very showy butterwort, nearly always in flower, making it a little prize in collections, especially collections in New England with its gray and flower-less winters.

Nepenthes ventrata

Dartmouth's collection has three Nepenthes ventratas, all of which were growing quite nicely in these orchid baskets. I had not previously seen Nepenthes potted in orchid baskets, but they seem to love it, something which does not surprise me, given their semi-epiphatic nature.

Nepenthes ventrata

After visiting and taking these photographs, I reached out to Dartmouth's greenhouse manager to ask if I could help out in any way, much as I did with the University of New Hampshire (UNH). I'm hoping that, as with UNH, I can act as a liaison for the NECPS and we can build a similar relationship with our organizations - and, maybe, between two traditional rivals. If it works out, the NECPS will have established relationships with nearly every curated, public display of carnivorous plants in New England, something which I am immensely proud to help facilitate.

Nepenthes mixta (probably 'Miranda')

Dartmouth does not have nearly as much room as UNH to grow Nepenthes, so they only have four plants, but I hope that I'll be able to donate a N. 'Rokko', another easy to grow plant, that will help show a little of the divergent evolution of Nepenthes.

Utricularia longifolia

One of the plants I was very happy to see was doing well was this Utricularia longifolia. As many readers may know, I have quite a large terrestrial Utricularia collection, so it's always pleasing to me to see other collections featuring Utricularia. Most of mine aren't nearly as large or showy as Utricularia longifolia, but, hopefully, I can supplement Dartmouth's collection with some Utricularia calycifida, one of my most prolific and interesting species.

Dionaea muscipula

I think the highlight of the collection, and one of my new favorite plants, was the Venus Flytrap collection. The VFTs at Dartmouth looked so happy! I was really impressed with how large and dense they had grown. Not so secretly, I hope mine grow to similar size and density.

Dionaea muscipula 'Akai Ryu' or 'Red Dragon'

This is quite a nice specimen. I was very impressed with the deep reds of this plant. I can only hope that my specimen looks this good one day.

Dionaea muscipula

One final shot of a perfect rosette of a Dionaea. This looks absolutely spectacular! I'm very impressed.

Drosera rotundifolia

Happily, Dartmouth also had a showing of the native Drosera rotundifolia. It's very common in boggy areas and along lake-sides in New Hampshire, so I'm pleased that it made it into Dartmouth's collection.

Sarracenia leucophylla

I have to conclude (or nearly so) with a shot of this gorgeous S. leucophylla. Sadly, mine probably perished over the harsh winter, so I was quite happy to see one thriving at Dartmouth. It is a very showy plant, and one that I really enjoyed seeing in the wild.

Pinguicula laueana flower

I had to end with this flower. It seems everyone except me has a Pinguicula laueana. I can see why it's so popular. That red flower is utterly fantastic. I'll have to get one sometime.