New England Carnivorous Plant Society

The NECPS will be setting up to sell plants on Saturday, May 11, 2019 at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society's Gardener's Fair

The Gardeners' Fair is your opportunity to find rare and unusual perennials, trees and shrubs; ready-to-plant herbs and vegetables; tomato varieties by the dozens; and also a chance to hear talks by an expert, find unique garden tools, garden ornaments and other gardening accessories.

We'll have activities for Kids, food for sale, garden tours, The New England Unit of the Herb Society will be leading tours of the Herb Garden, and Massachusetts Master Gardeners will be hosting an "Ask a Master Gardener" info booth and testing garden soil- bring your samples!

Vendors from around New England will be selling anything you can think of to help you plant your dream garden.

If interested or if you have any plants to sell, please contact Emmi Kurosawa.

Though there is debate among archeobotanists, the oldest carnivorous plant fossil may well be Archaeamphora longicervia, found in 2005 near Jinzhou, China. It is from the Early Cretaceous beds of the Yixian Formation, and is dated at 124.6 million years ago. Nine specimens have been found. Dr. Hongqi Li of Frostburg University notes the presence of pitcher shaped leaves, a tubular base, a phyllodia-like wing, a hood and rows of glands inside the leaves.

Also consider, researchers from the University of Göttingen in Germany have found two leaves of an amber embedded fossil that is has a striking resemblence to Roridula. Like the modern plant, the fossils posseses multicellular stalked glands (tentacles). The Eocene baltic amber is 35-37 million years old, and comes from the amber mine near Kaliningrad, Russia. Carnivorous plants can still be found in this same region today.

View more fossil images here

The NECPS 16th Annual Carnivorous Plant Show Board is now active in the forum should anyone wish to begin planning. As always we will be looking for Presenters as well as Vendors. Anyone wishing to help out with the show should contact one of the NECPS Officers.

Southeastern, N.C. - Archie Williams could spend the rest of his life in prison for poaching 216 Venus Flytrap plants out of Green Swamp Game Land in Bolivia.

If each of his 216 counts of felony taking of the vulnerable species is prosecuted, under the state's Class H felony sentencing guidelines, Williams could serve 72 years, to a maximum of 450 years. However, it's not likely Williams' maximum sentence gets carried out.

After news of the arrest, the first large-scale felony Venus Flytrap arrest in years, Port City Daily received multiple questions about the case. Readers wanted to know if something like this had happened before, and how the law worked. Readers also wanted to know: Why is it a felony for this person to take Venus Flytraps when developers frequently clear land with flytraps likely on it, without so much as a fine?

Turns out, the vulnerable species' protection is strongest on public lands. Taking just one Venus Flytrap from the public domain - a Class H felony - could result in four to 25 months in prison. Stealing the plant from someone else's private land, without written permission on hand, is also a felony.

However, under the state's plant conservation laws, specifically 02 NCAC 48F .0407 (3), property owners aren't required to obtain a Protected Plant Permit to collect or remove flytraps from their own property. But if they wanted to sell the plant, they would need the permit.

J.D. White, a Wildlife Resources Commission master officer, said his team has reason to believe Williams was in a pattern of stealing the tiny carnivorous plant. When White and his colleague approached Williams, White said they were lucky to catch him during his allegedly weekly routine.

The difference between what the officers caught Williams doing, and, say, what developers do, comes down to public versus private land use, according to White.

Read the Full Article Here