Carnivorous Plants for Beginners: What to Know about Sundews

The breadth of experience many people have with carnivorous plants involves shady ads in the back of magazines for Venus flytraps that'll live maybe a week, tops, with love and care. The truth is that growing a carnivorous plant is something that anyone can do with a little time, some patience, and the proper materials.

Carnivorous plants aren't really limited to those green flytraps. A better choice for the amateur grower is the sundew. These plants are hardy, quick-growing, and can adapt to many climates. The most distinctive feature of this plant is a frond covered in bristles topped with a sticky "dew". While this basic description can be applied to every sundew, their differences are what make cultivating them a rewarding experience. Sundew plants differ primarily in dew color, frond shape, and tenacity.

The range of dew colors which can be had is fairly large. The minority of sundew plants carry green or clear dew, although the majority of plants coat their bristles in a shade of red. Fantastic colors in a spectrum consisting of red, salmon, and neon pink can be found in a variety of species.

The shapes of the fronds of sundew plants create the most visible differences between species. Some species, such as the octopus sundew, boast long, thin tentacles as long as 6 inches. These tentacles point in all directions, creating a bushy mass radiating from a central point. Another common type is the spatula style of frond. This frond starts with a slim shoot that ends in a quarter-sized circle covered in bristles. These also sprout from a central plant mass, which continually puts out shoots in a radial fashion. A third type is very similar to the spatula, except that the shoots point upwards. As opposed to the spatula shapes of the shoots of species such as the Frasier island, these, found in species such as the Capensis, are shaped like small rounded rectangles.

Although some grow carnivorous plants such as sundews for their beauty and uniqueness, others simply enjoy seeing them in action. That said, some species of sundews are much more active than others. The key that guides this tenacity is related to the amount of movement the sundew must perform in order to secure prey. Species like the octopus sundew must completely roll its tentacle around its prey. As a result, this plant can only accommodate consumption of one or two insects in a relatively large period of time. On the other hand, the capensis only has to fold over its rectangular shoot a small amount to capture its prey. As a result, it is not uncommon to see a Capensis with half of all of its shoots occupied.

Sundews are perfect starter plants to help the amateur gardener break into the world of carnivores.