New England Carnivorous Plant Society

There will be no July meeting, instead the July meeting will consist of a bog walk on July 21 at 9:00 am in the Ponkapoag bog with a followup barbecue courtesy of Mike Stiffler.

The Bog may be wet so please dress accordingly, wear your sturdy, high-top boots. Bring bug spray, drinking water and sunscreen!

Ponkapoag Bog is a natural white cedar bog south of Boston that supports three types of carnivorous plants: pitcher plants, sundews, and bladderworts.

As with any fragile and rare landscape, when visiting the location, stay on the boardwalk through the bog, and disturbing or collecting at this location is prohibited!

In Canton, on Ponkapoag Pond within the Blue Hill Reservation, is a white cedar bog that is rarely found in Massachusetts. The bog has a boardwalk trail through the heart of it to the bog's edge in the middle of the pond. At the start of the bog on the west side of the pond, there is a sign that shows a profile of a bog and the transition of vegetation as you progress through it. The sign states that pitcher plants, sundews and bladderworts are present in that bog. The boardwalk is a tricky and often impassable way through the bog. The boards are loosely placed there and often float when the water level is high.

We will be meeting in the parking lot of the Ponkapoag Golf Course 2167 Washington St, Canton, MA 02021 at 9:00 AM.

NECPS Librarian Don Gallant has announced the addition of a new book to the NECPS Library: "Carnivorous Plants" by Aaron M. Ellison and Lubomir Adamec.

If you would like to take out an item from the library please review the Necps Library Policy and then contact Don using the Contact Form including the title that you are interested in.

NECPS Secretary Needed

We are still looking for someone who could fulfill the position of NECPS Secretary. The candidate should be an officer who keeps records, takes meeting minutes and performs other clerical work. This candidate would be willing to help coordinate events and be a responsible intermediate between the venue and the NECPS.

If you or someone you know would be interested in this position please contact Emmi Kurosawa.

The Weird World Inside a Pitcher Plant

The New York Times: A species of pitcher plant found in Singapore isn't very good at dissolving the prey it catches, but it gets nutritional help from worm larvae that live and eat within its maws.

On the soggy floor of one of the only remaining intact forests on the island nation of Singapore, the egg-sized heads of carnivorous creatures emerge from decaying leaves. They appear to be belching, or singing, or screaming out the catch phrase of their cousin in Hollywood - "Feed me Seymour."

This is Nepenthes ampullaria, an unusual pitcher plant found on the islands of Southeast Asia and the Malay Peninsula. And its "Seymour" is the worm larva of Xenoplatyura beaveri, a species of fungus gnat that develops inside the plant's mouth. When grown, it looks like a mosquito with big biceps.

They've got a strange relationship, these two.

The plant gives the gnat baby a safe place to eat and develop. In exchange, the baby builds a web across the plant's lips, captures and eats other insects and then defecates into its maw, or pitcher. The plant eats the ammonium-rich droppings. And all is well in this miniature world of weird.

It's not romantic. It's not sweet. But researchers call this relationship "mutualistic" in a study published Wednesday in Biology Letters. Their findings, based on laboratory experiments that simulated this insect-plant interaction in the wild, suggest that cohabitation may have its benefits for these two obscure organisms. How tiny pitcher plant communities like this one and others the group is studying function may reveal secrets of plant and insect life, said Weng Ngai Lam, a graduate student in botany at the National University of Singapore, who led the research.

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It's not too early to start planning the NECPS 15th Annual Carnivorous Plant Show which will be held on September 8th and 9th this year! Last year we had a record attendance of 2,894! Lets see if we can do even better this year!

ABC Science: Who do you barrack for: the hunter or the prey? The leopard or the gazelle? The frog or the snake? The fly or the flytrap? Enter the glittering and sensual world of plants with a thirst for blood.

It was an astounded Charles Darwin who scientifically confirmed that plants could capture and digest prey, after years drawing them, studying them and becoming immersed in their intricate biology.

He wrote in 1860: "I care more about Drosera than the origin of all the species."

In the same letter, he noted: "I am frightened and astounded at my results ... Is it not curious that a plant should be far more sensitive to a touch than any nerve in the human body!"

Mr Bourke says: "Of course, at the time it was blasphemous to suggest that a plant could've turned the tides and be eating animal prey, but Charles Darwin was fascinated by this plant.

Darwin delayed the publication of his thesis on insectivorous plants for another 15 years.

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