Avid Gardener: The world of carnivorous plants

I first encountered carnivorous plants in the 1960s when Venus flytraps were all the rage and being sold by mail order.

For a mere dollar you could “amaze people of all ages” when the plant ate hamburger meat from your fingers and actually caught and ate flies, or so the advertising promised. It was a popular novelty. I don’t recall it ever eating meat, but it did trap and slowly digest a few unsuspecting insects that fell into its clutches. It was amazing.

Though we usually think of plants as passive and unfrightening life forms, movies like “The Thing,” “Day of the Triffids,” “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and especially “Little Shop of Horrors” embody our primal fear that plants may not be as innocent as they seem.

Though carnivorous plants don’t fit the norm, we now can explain much more about how they function in the plant world. We know that they are part of a fascinating and diverse variety — the pitcher plants, sundews, bladderworts and Venus flytraps being part of the group.

We also know that they live globally in mainly sunny environments where mineral-deficient soils are often very wet, the water carrying away most of the much-needed minerals.

These plants have learned to survive by capturing nutrient-rich insects and absorbing through leaves what they would normally take up through their roots. Though the vast majority eat insects, some have been known to consume spiders, sow bugs, worms, tadpoles, frogs, lizards and even rats (though rarely) by trapping them in unique ways.

As Peter D’Amato recounts in his book “The Savage Garden,” a history of the popularity of carnivorous plants begins in the early 1800s with the invention of the greenhouse. This allowed upper-class Victorians in Europe to grow exotic plants from around the world under controlled conditions. Today, commercial nurseries such as Veitch and Sons in England finance expeditions to far-off lands to collect unusual plant life. The Chelsea Flower Show offers competitions among breeders for prestigious awards of showy hybrids.

Unfortunately, the shortage of fuels used to heat greenhouses in World War I caused the death of many botanical collections, and many prized cultivars and species disappeared forever. Collections only persist in some public botanical gardens and universities.

After World War II, growing carnivorous plants as a hobby began to make a comeback. Francis Lloyd published “The Carnivorous Plants” in America, and in Japan, the first carnivorous plant society (still in existence) started in 1948.

During the ‘50s and ‘60s, ornamental plants began to be cultivated, but carnivorous plants were still obscure to the general public. Venus flytraps, which are dug up from their native North Carolina habitat and sold as novelties, are the only insect-eating plants available on the mass market.

In the ‘70s, D’Amato related, Joe Mazrimas in California and Don Schnell in North Carolina, two carnivorous plant hobbyists, began to communicate with other international collectors, which led to the beginning of the International Carnivorous Plant Society (ICPS).

As time went on, more books were published, especially as the ecology of carnivorous plants was taken more seriously. Instead of removing the plants from their diminishing native habitats, they began to be propagated by nurserymen.

Today, smaller local societies usually associated with the ICPS have sprung up in various parts of the United States, Europe and Australia, and general nurseries are selling a wider variety of carnivorous plants. There has been an explosion of websites, forums and commercial nurseries online, adding to increased knowledge and popularity.

Laws do protect endangered carnivorous plants, 48 species of which, according to Sarah Zielinski’s article in the Smithsonian, are threatened by causes such as expansion of land development, pollution and suppression of fires.

For example, if caught digging up Venus flytraps in North Carolina, or collecting their seed, there is up to $50,000 fine and/or one year in prison. If a United States citizen takes a vacation overseas and digs up some carnivorous plants as souvenirs, they can face two years in federal prison plus $10,000 in fines and an equal amount in attorney fees.

Poaching and smuggling are often done for expediency rather than because the plants are unavailable legally. Customs agents at Baltimore-Washington International Airport once discovered a suitcase with 9,000 poached flytraps bound for the Netherlands. The Dutch smuggler claimed the plants were Christmas ferns.

Can these exotic plants be grown by the home gardener? Absolutely, but with care.

Take the American pitcher plant (Sarracenia), for instance. Its bizarre and handsome leaves may catch thousands of bothersome insects such as ants, flies and wasps, according to D’Amato.

There are eight species found on the warm temperate southeastern coastal plain of North America, growing in permanent wetlands.

The species trap their prey in tubular leaves, where digestive acids and enzymes are produced that cause the insects to break down into a “nutritious soup.”

They can be grown in temperate climates in plastic or glazed ceramic pots, in bog gardens, windowsills or greenhouses. They require three to four months of winter dormancy, which they generally do on their own, returning to growth in very late winter and spring.

If interested in knowing about the myriad characteristics, habitats, cultivation and preservation of these unique plants, pick up a copy of “The Savage Garden” and also check California Carnivores, the plant nursery owned by Peter D’Amato. I’ve never seen so many beautiful carnivorous plants showcased with such care.

D’Amato’s fitting book epigraph from Anne Rice’s “The Vampire Lestat” describes not just vampires, but also the avid carnivorous plant collector: “Ah, but we are splendid devils, aren’t we?”

“Hunters of the Savage Garden,” I said.