I enjoy my carnivorous plants a heckuva lot more than flypaper, to understate more than a little. The wonderful folks at California Carnivores provide insect control for me year after year.
My honeydew from a couple years ago is still among the living – and presumably happy campers in my home.
Officially known as drosera capensis, my honeydew is highly photogenic and wonderful for keeping little flying insects in check.
Peter D’Amato, founder and principle at California Carnivores told me the little dewdrops at the end of the leaf hairs are ounce-for-ounce the stickiest substance known to man.
Once an insect lands on one of these leaves it’s stuck. The leaf then curls up around, and digests the insect parts it likes before re-opening for the next customer.
I took several photos of this plant thinking I would get just ‘the right one’ to base a pastel painting on. Now I have the one I was shooting for and realize there is nothing I can say with pastels that nature didn’t already say.
Put another way, This is best suited in its raw, natural format – a nice, close-up photograph simply respecting the plant itself.
Below is another view of that one and a partner honeydew in my bog officially known as drosera aliciae. It functions similarly to the drosera capensis except the leaves do not roll up to embrace their prey, digesting them instead in the open air.
