Pitcher Plants Eat Meat
Carnivorous Plants Make Outstanding Terrarium Gardens
Remember Venus fly traps in botany or biology class? You can grow attractive, flowering meat-eating plants in containers or in your garden with the right care.
Plants that lurk in slimy, dank habitats, capturing and devouring hapless insects aren’t sci-fi imaginings; it happens in marshes, bogs and swamps where conditions are right for carnivorous plants. Carnivorous, of course, means “meat eating,” and the plants are pitcher plants. They don’t eat much meat, just enough to survive, since they grow where other plants might starve, in acidy soil with few nutrients. So pitcher plants evolved to catch insects and “eat” the protein.
Pitcher plants are mostly found in southern states like Florida or South Carolina, but one species (Sarracenia purpurea) grows as far north as Canada. These meat eaters need a regular supply of insects to survive and since insects enjoy sunlight and mushy soil, too, bogs are perfectly symbiotic for both.
Roger Spotts, plant expert for Pennsylvania’s Monroe County Conservation, thinks his Tannersville Bog is an environment made to order .
“Pitchers are seed plants that have existed for thousands of years. They look like a pitcher, hence the name – with a spout that captures their meal,” Spotts explained in an interview with this writer in 2005.
The pit of the plant’s hollow pitcher ( a sac-like structure at the top of the plant, often mistaken for the flower) makes a soup of water and enzymes.The enzymes are not unlike the stuff that digests food in human stomachs. Insects appreciate the visual appeal of the plant’s colorful leaves and they’re seduced by its sweet nectar. They go in for a closer look.
“An exploring bug goes in the plant’s mouth, follows tiny hairs to the liquid at the bottom, and becomes mired. It can’t climb out; the soup digests the bug, sending nutrients through the plant’s system,” says Spotts.
Varieties of pitcher plants sport red, yellow, purple, or green leaves. In spring, they produce beautiful tall flowers. Some pitchers are large enough to trap and digest even small frog but they can’t harm humans since their digestive enzymes are weak and dilute. If some got on your skin, all you would feel is wet – burn or irritation is unlikely.
Pitchers plants grow in large colonies, but you can buy single plants from some nurseries, especially specialty mail-order growers. It’s quite possible to grow species at home in a terrarium-like covered fish bowl or glass jar. Mix equal parts soil and peat moss with a little live sphagnum and a bit of sand. Keep the soil continuously and evenly moist, making sure the plant gets a few hours of strong sunlight daily.
In warm weather, set the bowl outdoors where insects can explore it. Go ahead and hand feed the plant an occasional bug in winter, but if it has enough light, it can survive quite a long time without protein. Humidity is the key to successful pitcher plant gardening -- dry weather causes fluids to evaporate and the plant will die.
