We call carnivorous plants those that feed on insects or very small animals, so they are also called in a less shocking way: insectivorous plants.
There are many varieties of this type of plant, mainly divided according to the way in which they attract or trap their victims to devour them.
Some carnivorous plants use mechanical-type traps in the form of balloons that pump and trap water and nearby insects.
Others have villi with sticky substances, cone-like shapes that contain water for insects to get to drink by getting trapped.
There are also the popular Venus Flytraps, whose method is to attract the prey with sweet smells and wait for it to land on the detector cilia, to close and seal the prey inside the leaf.
The latter are the most popular carnivorous plants and the ones that are usually kept at home either as an ornament or as a low-maintenance pet.
They draw a lot of attention from children, young people and adults for their unique characteristics and perhaps for the fantastic idea of feeding them for years until they grow enough to devour some undesirable person. Tempting. But clearly impossible.
Although it is not feasible to raise them as an army, the Venus flytrap or Carnivorous Plants are an exotic acquisition that will brightly adorn any home, whether planted in an indoor pot or directly in some area of the garden.
How to take care of my carnivorous plant?
The Venus Flytrap is a fairly small plant that does not grow more than 10 centimeters and has between 4 and 8 rosette-shaped leaves that have an oval and toothed trap at their tips that remains open like a big smile waiting for that some insect lands on them to close suddenly trapping it hopelessly to consume it. As you can imagine, the plant feeds on its own.
The growth of the plant is slow, it takes about 4 years to become an adult plant, but it is a very long-lived plant, living up to 30 years with sufficient care and in its natural habitat.
The adult carnivorous plant is resistant and strong; however in crops it becomes difficult to achieve the simulation of the habitat that it requires to reach maturity due to its unique characteristics, which is why it demands certain special care.
What do you need to take care of a carnivorous plant?
- Moss
- Clean sand
- Plastic container or pot with a container for water
- Distilled water (preferably)
- Dome or plastic cover (optional)
Instructions for caring for a carnivorous plant
Habitat suitability
Generally, the carnivorous plant arrives at the home from a nursery or garden store, where the plant is delivered in a small pot and covered with a dome or plastic lid that has a hole at the top so that insects can fall. It is recommended to keep the plant with the plastic dome and the pot for the first two days, to help it acclimatize and adapt to the humidity of the new space.
It is also possible to generate your own carnivorous plant from seeds, to achieve its germination it is necessary to imitate the natural habitat of the plant and its humidity conditions. This is achieved in a homemade way by wrapping the seeds in damp kitchen paper and storing them in the refrigerator in a closed plastic bag. Each day the paper should be sprayed inside the bag with distilled water. This process will take between four and twelve weeks.
Planting or replanting
Once the seed has germinated or the plant brought from the nursery is acclimatized, it is necessary to plant it in a suitable pot.
The pot or container in which the plant is placed must necessarily be made of plastic or sterile material, since the natural ones have minerals that they release and in the case of the Venus flytrap, its nutrients are not obtained through the roots, which is why they are harmful.
The pot should be filled with 60% moss and 40% clean sand, moisten the mixture and transfer the plant to the pot.
The moss retains a lot of water so it is not necessary to water too much. Preferably, the pot should have a plate or container with water below it so that the moss is kept moist as needed.
Irrigation should preferably be done with distilled or rain water, since the salts and minerals contained in running tap or drinking water can lead to the death of the plant. This is because they require an acid pH and tap water has a basic ph.
Climate and temperature
Carnivorous plants are from swampy and warm climates, so they prefer temperatures between 18°C and 26°C and a slightly humid environment. They are plants that require strong exposure to sunlight, so their ideal location will be decorating a balcony or window, where you can also easily get insects.
Carnivorous plants do not support frost; they only resist temperatures up to 5°C. However, they require a period of hibernation through the cold, so if they are in a dry area or the temperatures do not drop too much, it will be necessary to artificially generate the conditions so that it can develop naturally.
In winter, once the natural temperature has gradually decreased, around the month of December, the plant should be wrapped with everything and its pot in a closed plastic bag to place it inside the refrigerator. Never in the freezer, would the plant not resist that temperature.
While it is in the cold period or inside the refrigerator, the plant does not require watering or any care, since it goes into hibernation and its metabolism is suspended to a minimum, maintaining only the most vital of its functions and therefore not requires any water or nutrients.
The plant will be in suspension so its appearance will be deteriorated, it is normal. It is only necessary to validate each week that no fungus has formed on the plant due to the conditions of the refrigerator.
This hibernation period lasts about 4 months, so if it is being generated artificially, it should be removed from the refrigerator at the end of March. Once outside or out of the cold period, the care of the plant will continue regularly. It does not require any special treatment to return to its hunting and photosynthesis activities.
Feeding
Carnivorous plants obtain their food for themselves, attracting insects or arachnids with their alluring odors to their toothed traps. However, if the plant has been placed in a space where insects do not proliferate, it is possible to bring the insects close to it or carry it so that it can catch and digest them.
It should be considered that the food is smaller than the traps of the plant and are live insects. The plant secretes enzymes to process food through the movement of prey caught in its trap, so a dead specimen cannot be digested.
The plant eats according to its needs, it is not necessary to feed it at any particular time.
Never add fertilizers to your pot or container, carnivorous plants are native to soils with very few minerals and therefore the substrates can kill them.
In addition, it is unnecessary, carnivorous plants obtain all their nutritional requirements from photosynthesis and the insects they devour. Conversely, certain fertilizers can rot their roots.
Flowering and seeds
Carnivorous plants have a period when they come out of hibernation in which they can generate flowers. When it comes out of the cold period, in mid-spring, it can be seen that it generates some bright light green stems that can reach up to 30 centimeters in their natural habitat.
At the end, at the tip of the stem, up to 5 buttons are generated from which small white flowers emerge.
Once the carnivorous plant has flowered, it is possible to pollinate it to generate seeds that allow more plants to be grown. For this it is necessary to take a little pollen from the flower with a cotton swab and rub it with the stigma of the flower, the lower central part.
It is recommended to perform this operation on all the flowers that the plant generates to guarantee success.
If the procedure was done correctly, the plant will produce about 30 seeds that are ready to be cold germinated.
Tips for caring for a carnivorous plant
Status of the Venus flytrap
While carnivorous plants can be found in many nurseries and garden stores, the Venus flytrap in its wild form is considered an endangered species. This article where we explain how to kill flies with home remedies will also interest you.
It is a plant native to and endemic to the United States of America, existing exclusively in the swampy areas of North and South Carolina. It is rare to find them in their natural habitat.
The plants that can be acquired commercially are cultivated, since for several years there has been a legal prohibition to remove wild ones from their natural habitat.
Because it is a curious and special plant, it attracts the attention of humans and for this reason in the past it was fiercely predated, placing it in the situation of vulnerability in which it finds itself today.
