Our July meeting was a talk given by Laura Skates, who is doing her PhD with research at UWA.

Early work on carnivorous plants was carried out by Charles Darwin, who raised them in his own greenhouse and wrote a book about them. He said “Drosera is a wonderful plant or a most sagacious animal.”

WA is a global centre for carnivorous plants, where they occur in the south-west corner and the Kimberley region due to the very poor soils. Carnivorous plants can catch insects and they produce enzymes to digest their prey. The Venus Fly-trap bears trigger hairs, which when touched by an insect close over and trap it.

Drosera or Sundew is an adhesive plant which has hairs on its stem containing a sticky secretion and enzymes which dissolve the insects that it catches. Some of the Droseras of the south-west can be up to a metre tall and there are 200 species. The Fork-leaf Sundew can fork up to 10 times.

Byblos bears purple flowers and is buzz pollinated by bees, i.e. when the bee buzzes past, pollination takes place. They can also be pollinated using a brush.

Aldrovanda—the Waterwheel Plant—has global distribution and it floats on lakes and swamps, catching its prey underwater using snap traps.

Utricularia is a suction plant which uses a bladder-trap to trap insects underground or in the water.

The Albany Pitcher Plant grows around swamps and along streams and some of its leaves are modified to form pitchers containing a watery liquid into which insects are guided and where they drown. Ants are often trapped by these plants. Maggots live inside the traps. This plant only occurs in the south-west and may live on cliffs.

Migratory birds may help transport carnivorous plants around the world.

Research is being carried out into carnivorous plants and conservation is important to protect these plants against habitat destruction and degradation. Threats include illegal collection from the wild and land developments which lower the water table. It is best to only buy these plants from trusted sources.

The International Carnivorous Plant Society and the Australasian Carnivorous Plant Society are two organisations of interest. Sir David Attenborough is the Patron of the IUCN Carnivorous Plant Specialist Group.

Laura gave us an excellent and spirited talk supported by good illustrations, prompting many questions. We thank Graham Ezzy for his technical help and advice.

Margot Bentley