# Carnivorous Plants



## Andrew (Jul 11, 2005)

Anyone out there keeping any carnivorous plants? I picked up a small cobra lilly and a pitcher plant over at home depot earlier today. Now that im not keeping mantids anymore, my top shelf which normally stored all of my mantid supplies has been cleared off and is now dedicated to raising carnivorous plants and other cool plants.

It may sound stupid to some of you guys but I think its pretty cool... i fed the plants roaches and crickets not very long ago. Pretty cool to watch.  

Here is the cobra lilly:







And the pitcher plant:






The dark spot in the pitcher here(can also be seen in the above pic) is a roach that I fed to the plant that is now being digested  






Thanks,

Andrew


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## Rick (Jul 11, 2005)

Why did you stop raising mantids? Cool plants though.


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## Macano (Jul 11, 2005)

I don't currently keep them, but I used to raise Venus Fly Traps. Fascinating plants. It seems most people buy them at a store only to have it die a few months later. True, it may be dead, as those plants are _extremely_ sensitive, but they do have a dormant season. After a few seasons the plants become quite large and robust. THe traps become large enough to take poison dart frog size meals. I bought them from http://www.californiacarnivores.com/ I plan on one day picking up the hobby again.


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## Andrew (Jul 11, 2005)

> Why did you stop raising mantids?


Too much work and not enough time, although I havent given up mantids completely. Im thinking about keeping a couple B. Borealis.



> I don't currently keep them, but I used to raise Venus Fly Traps. Fascinating plants. It seems most people buy them at a store only to have it die a few months later. True, it may be dead, as those plants are extremely sensitive, but they do have a dormant season. After a few seasons the plants become quite large and robust. THe traps become large enough to take poison dart frog size meals. I bought them from http://www.californiacarnivores.com/ I plan on one day picking up the hobby again.


Yeah, the winter dormancy is required for long term growth, otherwise they die. I was thinking about trying to start some from seed, but im sure how well that would go... lol. Did you have the "giant" morph or the regular morph?

Thanks,

Andrew


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## yen_saw (Jul 12, 2005)

Nice Andrew!! I have a pitcher plant too. I feed the plant once a week with house flies or small moth. They are really cool plant...


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## Ian (Jul 12, 2005)

yeah andrew, very nice. We have just purchased a very large picher plant, they really are stunning. Can I ask you though, do the pichers die beack every year?

Cheers,

Ian


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## Joe (Jul 12, 2005)

very nice plants, what happens if u dont feed them bugs? will the live off the soil and water? i'm just wondering.

Joe


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## Katie (Jul 12, 2005)

Very neat. I kept venus fly traps when I was little, but wasn't any good at it... now you have me tempted to start up again.  I also really like the looks of that cobra lily.


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## Andrew (Jul 12, 2005)

Nice plant yen! Its nice to see that im not a complete loner on this one..lol. So how are you keeping your pitcher plant?

Thanks,

Andrew


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## yen_saw (Jul 12, 2005)

Hey Andrew, i keep them wet and humid and soak, provide plenty of light but keep them cool indoor, and they will do alright. Bought this one from Houston reptile show recently last month.


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## Ian (Jul 12, 2005)

well, I thought id post some pix of mine as well!
















as you can see, the large ones are dying off, athloguh, i am not sure weather this is yearly??

Cheers,

Ian


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## Andrew (Jul 12, 2005)

Cool plant. It may need to be kept more humid, and the soil can never be allowed to dry out, or the plant will die. That may be why the pitchers are dying.

Thanks,

Andrew


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## Ian (Jul 12, 2005)

I see, I will give that one a try, there are many new lil pichers though, so things mught be looking up  

Cheers,

Ian


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## chun (Jul 12, 2005)

These plants are amazing, after looking at these pictures i want some meself.

I remember having a discussion with my biology teacher about this...do you put these plants in a "producer" trophic level or "primary/secondary consumer" consumer?

i've read that these plants come from acidic marsh habitat, with the soil lacking any oxygen due to waterlogging. This encourages denitrification, so nitrogen in the form of ammonia is released back into the atmosphere in the form of nitrogen gas. Plants would normally use the nitrogen compounds to produce big molecules such as amino acid which are used for growth. In an aenarobic condition (where the carnivorous plants come from), they obtain their nitrogen/protein from insects and not from the soil. So i guess if you keep them in the correct soil (they will die if you keep them in normal compost, i learnt it the hard way) with the right level of nitrogenous compounds within the soil i guess it wouldn't need the animal protein...but if you're not gonna feed it flies/crickets/livefood, i would just get a pot of busy lizzies  I'm not sure how much of that is correct, but it sounds logical...learnt this in my biology lesson last year (nitrogen cycle..."bare" exciting!!! )


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## Johnald Chaffinch (Sep 16, 2005)

how do pitcher plants dispose of the things they cant break down?


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## infinity (Sep 17, 2005)

they don't... if you cut open a pitcher plant's trap, at the bottom where the trap turns into a *vine* you'll see all the carcasses of the prey... it's a bit inefficient but then again, the traps will all die back eventually...


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