COUP DE COEUR (PERSONNAL FAVORITE) 

PLANTS ABC

VEGETAL CARNIVORITY

:: COUP DE COEUR : The Alice's sundew!

History and etymology R. Hamet made the first description of this african Drosera in 1905 in honor of a woman named Alice.

Distribution

South Africa : Cape mountain, swamps in Hermanus, Bainskloof and Silvermine.

How to cultivate it

Substrate: can by exemple 70% blond peat and 30% sand.

Light: this Drosera flourish best at full sun, although in its natural habitat it can grow in some areas less bright.

Humidity: the soil is kept moist at all times, you can leave the  in base saucer a little water from spring to autumn. The humidity is around 50-80%.

Temperature: 10 °C in winter to 15 °C, the summer between 20 °C and 30 °C.

Growth: spring-summer.

Propagation: my preference is seedling. The good seed germination will give you a large family, and until 2 or 3 years a mature plant.

J.J. Labat advice This classic Drosera should be adopted by everybody as it is pretty and easy to grow. It one of the first that I get. Despite the numerous and rare plants that I grow at this moment, I dedicate it a certain attachment. The plant is more nice in winter and springs.

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:: WHY VEGETAL CARNIVORITY ?

The carnivorous plants are dicot, but more recently, monocot species were discovered. If their evolution is independent, we can still note a convergence to the same behaviour.

Explain the evolution of plants to the carnivority, remains a delicate task because there is several hypothesis. One of the most common is the adaptation of some plants to live in deficient soils, but what about Catopsis berteroniana, an epiphytic carnivorous plant.

To call them carnivorous, Pierre Jolivet said that they must possess morphological, physiological or behavioral properties that allow the attraction, capture and digestion of prey, so as to improve its growth, production of pollen or seeds and increase its survival chances.

:: THE DIFFERENT GENUS

It is in the soil and water that lack minerals, acid or alkaline bogs, ponds, lakes, where some plants have evolved to the "carnivority".

The transformation of leaves into traps enabled them to capture different prey, from the tiny protozoan to vertebrates such as rats.

The absorption among others, of nitrogen and phosphorus, from their capture compensates partially the deficiency in minerals of the places where it grows.

Today the more than 300,000 species of flowering plants known, more than 600 species are recognized as such.

Discover the detailed descriptive lists of the plants specific to one of the 18 genus.