Hey,
Posted it on the dutch forum as well. I thought you may like it .
Curious to see yours!

Cute!

Ha! We just discussed people having both bonsai and carnivorous plants. I like both a lot so yeah, I like it!

Thanks, both of you!
Really means a lot you like it! What plants did/do you have Auk? For my birthday I want a drosera rotundifolia Charles Darwin, but I can't find them, and maybe an Heliamphora. What is your favorite plant (species)? I like drosera and cephalotus the most (and in the naar future maybe an Heliamphora ).

Teye01 wrote: Thanks, both of you!
Really means a lot you like it! What plants did/do you have Auk? For my birthday I want a drosera rotundifolia Charles Darwin, but I can't find them, and maybe an Heliamphora. What is your favorite plant (species)? I like drosera and cephalotus the most (and in the naar future maybe an Heliamphora ).

I had:
Venus flytrap (of course)
Several drosera species
Sarracenias
Drosophyllum
Pinguicula
Nepenthes

I studied them a lot at that time. The trap mechanism of the Venus flytrap is very interesting (it won't simply close when you touch one hair, it will 'know' after closing whether it has actually caught a live prey), but there are many different plants with different trapping techniques.

Initially they did well, but I don't really have the right environment for them, so I eventually gave up. Still find them fascinating though.

My favorite... hard to tell, but probably the Sarracenia's. Would have loved to have a Darlingtonia (not a Sarracenia, but quite similar).

Indeed very fascinating but I think drosera has a way cooler trapping mechanism. I like the fact that you can actually see the prey. After dionaea has shut you just wait for them to open. It is cool when it shuts really quickly but that is one moment, I could watch hours to a drosera catching its pray.

Darlingtonia is really nice (would love to have one) but they are difficult to give the right conditions. They have to get cold flowing water in summer and that is not the easiest thing to give them. Heliamphora is also a bit of difficult one but they can addapt to lower humidity (especially heterodoxa x minor), easier than darlingtonia to warmer water.

What kind of environment do you have then? If you give them enough sunlight and take proper care (demineralised water etc.) they aren't really hard to care for.

Teye01 wrote: Indeed very fascinating but I think drosera has a way cooler trapping mechanism.

i think the mechanism of the Venus Flytrap is more fascinating. If you touch one hair once, nothing happens. If you touch the same hair multiple times, or if you touch two hairs at the same time, the trap closes - but not completely. If the prey is caught and continues to wiggle inside the trap, the trap closes tightly, else, it opens again after a while. That is why you must not feed them dead flies; the trap will close but not completely, it will open again, the digestive process will not start, and the dead fly will stay in there without getting digested.

The Drosera on the other hand - the fly gets caught by the sticky tentacles. However, the Drosera 'moves' as well - the tentacles will move towards the prey, the leaves will fold around it. Indeed pretty fascinating - and there is a species that has catapulting tentacles.

Then we have bladderworts with vacuum traps ("Authorities on the genus, such as botanists Peter Taylor and Francis Ernest Lloyd, agree that the vacuum-driven bladders of Utricularia are the most sophisticated carnivorous trapping mechanism to be found anywhere in the plant kingdom), source: Wikipedia, a sarracenia species that drugs the prey, Aldrovanda with snap traps... but I think we're getting off topic

What kind of environment do you have then

Had. I had a small greenhouse. Also, I had a small pond in a wine barrel, and two small ponds connected by a stream.
That's all gone... I 'll try and find some pictures.

Auk wrote:

Teye01 wrote: Indeed very fascinating but I think drosera has a way cooler trapping mechanism.

I think the mechanism of the Venus Flytrap is more fascinating. If you touch one hair once, nothing happens. If you touch the same hair multiple times, or if you touch two hairs at the same time, the trap closes - but not completely. If the prey is caught and continues to wiggle inside the trap, the trap closes tightly, else, it opens again after a while. That is why you must not feed them dead flies; the trap will close but not completely, it will open again, the digestive process will not start, and the dead fly will stay in there without getting digested.

I know still think drosera is cooler

Auk wrote: The Drosera on the other hand - the fly gets caught by the sticky tentacles. However, the Drosera 'moves' as well - the tentacles will move towards the prey, the leaves will fold around it. Indeed pretty fascinating - and there is a species that has catapulting tentacles.

For me it is about the way insects get trapped. I know that dionaea has an awesome way of trapping insects. But the tentacles of the drosera always move to the centre of the plant (because it knows that it can digest it there better), after the insect gets stuck it will drown in the mucus an die (or from thurst/hunger). Also the snap tentacles are pretty cool, I had them too, but they grow mainly on annual species such as burmannii but after a while I didn't find them that awesome. They are still some neat little plants, though. After all it comes down to personal taste.

Auk wrote: Then we have bladderworts with vacuum traps ("Authorities on the genus, such as botanists Peter Taylor and Francis Ernest Lloyd, agree that the vacuum-driven bladders of Utricularia are the most sophisticated carnivorous trapping mechanism to be found anywhere in the plant kingdom), source: Wikipedia, a sarracenia species that drugs the prey, Aldrovanda with snap traps... but I think we're getting off topic

They do have the most sophisticated trap mechanism, but if your utricularia microcalyx won't flower :sick: :lol: . I also made a kusamono with utricularia sandersonii but they haven't started to grow in the pot yet. I grow my utricularia's for the flowers and not for the traps, you can't see them anyways. But we both agree the plants are cool .

Auk wrote:

What kind of environment do you have then

Had. I had a small greenhouse. Also, I had a small pond in a wine barrel, and two small ponds connected by a stream.
That's all gone... I 'll try and find some pictures.

You conditions don't seem wrong to me. I'm looking forward to the pictures!
I think I mistakingly wrote 'do' instead of 'did'.

Decided to just post my other kusamono with Utricularia Sandersonii, although it hasn`t flully grown in the cup yet. I am looking forward to read what you think about it!