A variety of carnivorous plants stretch and send out their flowers with the arrival of spring...
My flytraps started flowering in April. In contrast with their bizarre leaves, flytraps have nice white flowers that look too normal. I tried to pollinate these but it didn't work out...I only got dried flower material and no seeds. The reason might have to do with the anthers on the flowers. I didn't really see any pollen on them like I can on other flowers. A possibility is that pollen was released in a very short span that I missed. Or, my flowers might not have been properly formed.
My Pinguicula primuliflora started flowering back in January. The purplish hue is a unique color in my collection. It looks a bit like watercolor in my opinion. The only plant that comes close to producing this color is Utricularia bisquamata, although the flowers I've seen on my U. bisquamata look almost white.
Since they are tropical plants, Nepenthes don't really have a flowering season. However, my Nepenthes ventricosa bloomed two flower spikes this Spring (mostly throughout March) to join my temperate plants in flowering. Guess they were jealous of the attention the temperates were getting. All joking aside, it's probably a coincidence, although increased sun intensity and photoperiod (from getting put outside) might have triggered flowering to some degree.
Nepenthes flowers don't have petals and are dioecious. My N. ventricosa is a male. Ants seem to be attracted to the nectar produced by the flowers, as you can see in the photo below. I also noticed a slightly sickly sweet smell from the flowers. I collected pollen and stored it in the refrigerator for future use...I am hoping that my N. boschiana (which is female) will flower sometime soon...
As usual, my Drosera also bloomed. In my collection, Drosera are at their best around early Spring, when they start sending up flower stalks.
The Drosera I have bloom a new flower every morning for just a couple of hours. As you can see in some of these photos, there is a strand of developing flower embryos at the end of the flower stalk, a blooming flower further back on the stalk, and then a strand of developing seed pods below the fresh flower. If I took a time lapse video of the flowers blooming and the stalk elongating, I imagine that it would look like the plant was flinging up flowers!
Drosera flowers, like flytrap flowers, also look deceiving normal.
It's interesting how the flowers bloom when they are at the apex of the flower stalk. The growth of the stalk is synchronized with the maturation of the flower so that each of the tens of flowers on one stalk open in the same position, one after another. Wonders of nature, anyone?
Utricularia bloomed from February to May. U. subulata was first, popping up in various pots. Their tall and thin stalks almost disappear into the background, making the bold yellow flowers look like they're floating like little stars a few inches above the soil surface.
I discovered U. bisquamata in my collection in May of this year (2019). It was sharing a pot with my Pinguicula primuliflora this whole time, but I didn't realize it was a different species until it declared its identity by blooming a flower (its leaves look similar to U. subulata's). The colors on this species are more subtle in comparison to U. subulata.
The Sarracenia really let you know when they've started their growing season. Their numerous large, unique flowers bloom upside down, each at the top of their own tall flower stalk. The flowers are hard to miss, especially when tens of them flower at the same time. Sarracenia flava is usually one of the first to start flowering. In my collection, the first S. flava flower buds emerged around early February.
Sarracenia alata for the most part starts flowering soon after S. flava and before S. leucophylla and S. minor. A fact about Sarracenia flowers is that they are designed to encourage cross-pollination. I saw this design working a few months ago (Here's the post about it).
Sarracenia leucophylla and Sarracenia minor are the latest temperate pitcher plants to start flowering in my collection. S. leucophylla is the only red flowered Sarracenia I currently have, and S. minor has the smallest flowers of all the Sarracenia I currently have.
Sarracenia minor may have relatively small flowers in comparison with many other Sarracenia, but they more than make up for it in quantity. Each spring, a tight forest of flowers emerges from my S. minor pot:
Just as a side note....Sarracenia flowers look really nice even when they haven't bloomed....
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AuthorRising college student who enjoys growing carnivorous plants. Archives
August 2020
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