Did you know carnivorous plants can be found on every continent except Antarctica? In fact, we have 20 species native to Canada, including one species of pitcher plant, and several species of sundews, butterworts, and bladderworts. 

These plants use a variety of methods to lure, trap, and digest small insects, spiders, or anything small enough to fall in. Young salamanders have even been found in pitcher plants. Pitcher plants use a pitfall trap — a cavity filled with a liquid soup of bioorganisms and enzymes that dissolve whatever prey falls in. Sundews and butterworts use sticky tentacles and leaves that have a thick gelatinous substance that attracts, traps and digests passing insects. Bladderworts are aquatic plants that use sensory hairs and a trap door method to catch their prey. 

Carnivorous plants are found in wet, nutrient poor areas — such as acidic bogs, fens, and rocky outcrops with little soil — and use special enzymes to digest invertebrates to absorb essential nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus. 

Because carnivorous plants require extremely specific environments to survive, habitat loss and climate change have the potential to wipe out entire species. Wetland preserves, like Schout’s Wetlands, are pivotal to these plants. Keep your eyes out, you might be able to find some there!

To learn more about these fascinating plants, and how you can keep them in your house or pond, join Garden Wilmot on Monday, January 12 at 7:00pm at the Wilmot Rec Centre Room A, for a talk by Meadow Acre’s Julie Baker. 

My love affair with carnivorous plants started with one lonely sundew in an attempt to control farmhouse flies. Now I have a collection of over 5 different, native and non-native, species. Be careful  — once you start leafing through the world of carnivorous plants, you might just find yourself stuck in their clutches.

By Chrystina McNeil, as seen in the Wilmot-Tavistock Gazette