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California Carnivores

ENTER THE STRANGE BEAUTIFUL WORLD OF CARNIVOROUS PLANTS
The nursery has over 400 varieties of insect-eating plants on display, with information signs to help provide a self-guided tour. Magnifying glasses, books, photo albums, newsletters and other items are available for public use. We ask that you B.Y.O.B. (bring your own bugs), if you wish to feed the plants. Photographers are welcome.

Plants offered for sale vary from season to season and year to year. All of the plants are commercially cultivated and prices reflect rarity, age and ease of propagation.

California Carnivores offers a general selection through mail-order, however, sale stock at the nursery is of considerably larger variety, and we suggest you call or visit us if you are looking for something special.

If you are visiting Northern California drop by the nursery. As an added bonus, if you are a wine lover, they are located at Mark West Vineyards, and guests are invited to use the picnic areas, visit the wine tasting room, or just enjoy the beautiful views of western Sonoma County.

Plants offered for sale vary from season to season and year to year. All of the plants are commercially cultivated and prices reflect rarity, age and ease of propagation.

Our grower is Peter D’Amato, who has cultivated carnivorous plants for over 25 years. General manager is Marilee Maertz. Our goal is to share with our customers the joy of growing some of the most beautiful and unusual plants in nature. We would like to thank our many customers for their enthusiasm, support and patronage which has helped make that possible.

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CALIFORNIA CARNIVORES NEW PICTURES

Sciencemaster recently visited California Carnivores. Jump HERE to view picture album.

BOOKS AND ARTICLES

Peter D’Amato, co-owner of California Carnivores, has cultivated carnivorous plants for over 25 years and his articles about these fascinating plants have been widely published.

Get ready to enter the strange and beautiful world of carnivorous plants! Beautiful, exotic, and surprisingly easy to grow, many of these savage beauties thrive in gardens, terrariums, and windowsills just about anywhere. Whether you’re a total beginner who’s just bought your first Venus fly trap or an expert looking for new, ever more bizarre plants, this is the book for you.

Buy It Now

OTHER LINKS

Ecological and Bacteriological Notes on Pitcher Plants and Certain Other Carnivorous Plants
by John A. Lindquist

The New Zealand Carnivorous Plant Society Inc., a nonprofit making organisation, formed in 1982 in response to the growing interest in Carnivorous Plants.

For a great resource, also take a look at the International Carnivorous Plant Society and the webchain they maintain.

THE VENUS FLYTRAP
To many people’s surprise, the venus flytrap is not native to some tropical, exotic country or steamy rainforest. The venus flytrap is native only to the coast of North and South Carolina, in a radius rougly 100 miles around Wilmington.

It is a small rosetted plant, generally six to eight inches in diameter. The leaves consist of leaf stems, or petrioles, that may be heart-shaped and flat on the ground, or thin and upright. The trap is the actual true leaf, and sits at the end of the petriole. The traps lure insects by nectar, secreted by glands at the base of the spiney celia, or “teeth”. Inside of the trap are 6 to 8 tiny trigger hairs. An insect needs to touch two hairs once or one hair twice in order to spring the trap. The trap will close in less than a second, in ideal conditions, and if an insect is caught, the trap will seal shut and start secreting digestive juices. If the trap closes empty, it will slowly open in about a day. It may take a week to digest a housefly, and when the trap reopens, the shriveled shell of the insect is left behind. A trap may catch and digest up to three insects, after which the leaf turns black. Older leaves blacken and die regardless of how many insects are caught and the plant continually sends out new leaves during the growing season.

Venus flytraps usually grow along the dampish edges of sandy, wet bogs or fens. The plant begins its growth each spring, sending out a resette of small leaves. Usually the plant flowers around April or May. Summer arrives and the plant produces its larger leaves, often on upright petrioles. Some plants remain rosetted all season. With the approach of autumn,flytraps get small. In winter they are dormant, with tiny leaves or no leaves at all. In their native habitat, venus flytraps enjoy a warm and humid summer, and winters are chilly, with occasional extreme lows down to near 10 degrees F and sometimes lower. From seed, it may take a flytrap 4 to 6 years to reach maturity. They may live several decades.

Venus flytraps grow best in plastic pots. A 4 inch pot is fine for one flytrap. Five to ten plants will grow well in 6 to 8 inch pots. Cover the holes at the bottom of the pot with plastic screen or some long-fibered sphagnum moss, to hold in the soil. The soil itself should be a well-mixed recipe of 1/2 sphagnum peat moss and 1/2 horticultural sand.

*Information and images courtesy of California Carnivores

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