Species introCountry intro
Fork-leaved sundew, Heesch, Netherlands
I recently purchased 3 species of Drosera (sundews) just for fun and as potential subjects for extreme macro. I'll be posting quite a few angles/magnifications of each species, as I have these readily available indoors as patient subjects.
To start with this species, it is visually unique. In total, there's about 194 species of Drosera documented, yet this Australia/New Zealand species is the only one to have branching leaves. In the wild these branches can extend by quite a lot:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drosera_binata#/media/File:Drosera_binata.jpg
...yet this small pot specimen is a bit more modest. This first photo is a simple 1:1 macro with natural back-light. I wanted to show the gloomy nature of this species, beautiful yet deadly.
''Drosera binata'', commonly known as the forked sundew or fork-leaved sundew, is a large, perennial sundew native to Australia and New Zealand. The specific epithet is Latin for "having pairs" - a reference to the leaves, which are dichotomously divided or forked.
comments (7)
I have them on a plate and water them twice a day. Booklet said they like having wet feet and should never fall dry.
That small fly I shared here I fed to one of the sundews once I was done with it. It's far from spectacular, takes several days to process and the hard parts of the insect remain, as waste. Position also seems to matter, it's best to put it at the end of a branch, as they roll up from that end.
I also gave the small bee to one of the plants but in hindsight it was too big. I've read you shouldn't over-feed them, especially not with subjects they can't process. For example, some people mess around with venus fly traps, triggering their trap repeatedly whilst not offering actual nutrition. Supposedly this can "exhaust" them in fatal ways.
Overall, if I find a tiny fly dead, I may give it, but they basically should catch their own food. And if they don't, it's fine too. One surprise learning is that some sundews will never make a single catch in their entire lifespan of multiple years. Apparently, it's not a critical need. They can live off water and sunlight alone. Posted 5 years ago
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ac/b4/19/acb41978654c33ecfd55af5c9aae07b1.jpg
I hate to spoil your excitement, but the "process" is slightly less interesting than watching paint dry. It's best summarized as: nothing. Nothing happens. You stick the insect on there and if the plant can be bothered at all, it may take the next few days rolling up a single corner of its "arm".
Now that I ruined that, how about Sarracenia? It's from your continent, can be held indoors and they're very beautiful. Posted 5 years ago
Sarracenia...I thought about it, but don't think I would have the right conditions outside, and I'm not sure how well they would do indoors? I need to research those a bit more. Posted 5 years ago
https://www.vleesetendeplant.nl/
First, note that homepage cover image, really beautiful.
I'm not an expert but they can definitely be held indoors. I hope the translate function of your browser works on this site.
But of course, just because you can keep them indoors, doesn't mean it's easy. I think those plants require a particular humidity which is hard to control. Posted 5 years ago