New England Carnivorous Plant Society

"The mission of the New England Carnivorous Plant Society shall be to share, to gain knowledge of, and to achieve expertise in all phases of growing, education, appreciation, and conservation of carnivorous plants in both culture and in native habitats."

Announcements

What's New

NECPS April Meeting

The next meeting of the NECPS will be held on April 20 at 12:30 PM at The Rhode Island School of Design Nature Lab, 13 Waterman St, Providence, RI (Directions). Laurelin Sitterly will be giving a carnivorous plant bog building demonstration.

A silent auction is also being planned.

In the early 20th century, RISD faculty member Edna Lawrence founded the Nature Lab to "open students' eyes to the marvels of beauty in nature...of forms, space, color, texture, design and structure."

Today, the Lab still offers unmediated access to authentic natural history specimens, while also fostering creative inquiry into biomimetics, biophilic design, ecology and climate change. High-end microscopes, high-speed cameras and other advanced imaging systems give members of the RISD community access to living and non-living specimens at multiple scales and provide an engaging platform for examining myriad connections between artistic and scientific study.

The Nature Lab furthers RISD's hands-on approach to learning by enabling students to investigate ethical, sustainable modes of making informed by natural systems and designed to benefit the environment. Ultimately, it helps everyone who makes use of our resources better understand and articulate the role we play as humans in the ecosystem.

Garden Of Eatin': Carnivorous Plants Are Savage Survivors

Las Vegas Sun: Carnivorous plants aren't a product of nightmares so much as they are a product of evolution. When plants growing in bogs and other wetlands couldn't find enough nutrients in the soil around them, they had to diversify their diets, so they evolved to use their leaves as traps, catching small prey such as insects, tadpoles, frogs, lizards and other creatures. Even more remarkable is the fact that they evolved independently around the globe instead of from one single ancestor. American pitcher plants, tropical pitcher plants, Australian pitcher plants and American carnivorous bromeliads are great examples of convergent evolution-all of these plants consume their prey in a similar fashion, but are unrelated. But pitchers are just scratching the sticky surface of these incredible organisms. Botanists have identified more than 800 species of carnivorous plants around the world.

Homegrown Horrors

North America's native temperate carnivorous plants can't get too hot or too dry, and they need cold weather to go into dormancy, so growing them at home in a desert climate can get a bit tricky. Anywhere beyond their preferred boggy habitat, carnivorous plants will need to grow in pots.

Important note: Never collect specimens from the wild. Most carnivorous plants are rare. Over-collection and habitat destruction are two huge conservation threats to carnivorous plants around the world. Instead, seek out reputable growers who use responsible methods of propagation.

Read the Full Story to learn tips for caring for a Venus flytrap and other species.

Got News?

Have an idea for a presentation or demonstration? If there is a meeting or other event that the NECPS will be participating in, or some other carnivorous plant related news item that you would like to share? Please forward the information to the Webmaster so that it can be included here.

Missing our newsletter? Has your email address changed? You can update your email address or other contact information by visiting the Contact page.

Membership Dues are payable at or before the January meeting.

NECPS 16th Annual Carnivorous Plant Show Sept. 7 - 8

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.

PSA: All Blue Venus Flytraps Are a Scam

Carnivorous Plant Resource: Blue Venus Flytraps are a scam. All of them. Every one of them is fake.

As much as I'd love to have a garden full of wacky colored Dionaea muscipula, there are only two primary shades you're going to find them in - green and red. There certainly are variations of these hues, and the intensity of color can make certain flytraps very desirable. Here's a look at some of these all-natural color combinations.

Keep in mind that how a Venus flytrap is photographed, the white balance and exposure on a camera, editing (color saturation), and filters can also impact how colors appear. However, every single "blue Venus flytrap" ad you see is advertising a fake plant or seeds for a fake plant. Many of the blue Venus flytrap scammers simply use Photoshop to invert or adjust the natural hue of a real flytrap photograph for the images in their false ads. Look at this completely misleading image I created in 30 seconds with a couple of taps on my keyboard:

Growing carnivorous plants should be a fun, rewarding experience, so save the heartache and buy from a reputable nursery like California Carnivores, Flytrap Store, Sarracenia Northwest, or even our Don Elkins at Mesa Exotics.

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