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A successful hunt
Dionaea 'Dente' |
What's a Venus Flytrap's favorite prey? In my neck of the woods, it's definitely the Daddy Longlegs (a.k.a. Harvestmen (a.k.a.
Opiliones)). These faux spiders populate nearly every surface outdoors and, probably because they are scavengers, continually make the mistake of lowering themselves into the jaws of my Venus flytraps. Still, despite hundreds of kills each month, the number of Daddy Longlegs at my place is somewhat overwhelming.
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| Another Victim |
It's actually pretty much impossible to capture a photo of plant with traps large enough to capture a Daddy Longlegs without a Daddy Longlegs being present in at least one trap on the plant.The good news is that the constant feedings have provided the plants with a tremendous amount of food, which has lead to tremendous growth over the past couple months.
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| Dionaea G14 Rosetted |
I mentioned previously that my handful of Venus Flytraps did shockingly well over the long, cold winter, while my Sarracenia languished. As a consequence, over the summer, I acquired a number of Venus Flytrap cultivars. Over the course of summer, I've had the privilege of watching them grow.
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| Dionaea 'Triton' |
As I've watched them grow, I've discovered that some cultivars are a bit easier to distinguish from others, such as the 'Triton' above. It's a very distinct cultivar.
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| A Red-Color Based Cultivar |
Contrast that 'Triton' with the red-color based cultivar above, and the one below.
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| Dionaea 'Pink' |
The 'Pink' above is a bit difficult to distinguish from 'Clayton's Red Sunset' and other red-based cultivars. I actually wonder how distinct many cultivars really are from one another. My guess is that most Venus Flytrap cultivars can be classified into fairly broad categories and the internal classifications in many of those categories kind of break down.
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| Typical and 'Cup Traps' |
In any case, I'm just thrilled to have plants that are interesting and doing well. My original collection of 'Typical' and 'Cup Traps' have been doing very well over the course of summer, spreading to cover a fair substantial area.
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| Dionaea 'Cup Traps' |
One of the things I've noticed about the 'Cup Traps' cultivar is its size. It is tiny! The traps are barely half the size of typical traps, which, themselves, are about half the size of larger trapped cultivars. Honestly, I'm a bit astonished at the size difference.
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| Dionaea 'Cup Traps' |
This is a mature trap up close!
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| A cluster of 'Cup Traps' |
Above, you can see a whole cluster of mature traps, which are just about the same size as the perlite floating among them. Astonishingly small!
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| Yet another Daddy Longlegs capture |
I'll end on one more observation about specific cultivars. Above, you can see how a typical trap can easily capture a Daddy Longlegs...
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| Dionaea 'Fused Tooth' |
In contrast, the 'Fused Tooth' cultivar rarely captures anything. It's kind of surprising, but, I guess, the "teeth" of the trap help the plant capture prey far more effectively than the ability of the trap to close. There's a lot of space for insects to escape the "teeth" of 'Fused Tooth.'
I only have a solitary typical VFT, but your posts make me want to consider acquiring more. I take it yours grow outside in trays? My backyard is quite windy, which has held me back from acquiring more outdoor-growing plants.
ReplyDeleteIn summer, they live outside in trays. In winter, they come in. (I doubt that they'd make it in the cold NH winters outside without very heavy mulching).
ReplyDeleteRight now, I have them all in black window box type trays in a mix of 50% peat and 50% perlite. (Running some experiments, I've discovered that they like perlite better than sand, in my conditions).