FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Dang! Just randomly found growing by a truck stop in Australia. Neato!
https://www.newscientist.com/article/22 ... o-science/

The insect-ensnaring hairs resemble those on carnivorous sundew plants, but it isn’t clear if the plant extracts any food from the insects it kills. “We have no evidence that there is any nutritional benefit to the plant,”

Kills for sport? Coooooool

MaxVft wrote: ↑Thu Aug 12, 2021 3:47 pmKills for sport? Coooooool

Did you read about another one they found previously?
It traps bugs, and that attracts a bug that doesn't get trapped, but eats the trapped carcasses. That bugs poop then falls to the ground as fertilizer.
Nature is weird.

That's neat, and the related article even has another type they found a couple days ago too.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/22 ... t-insects/

I wonder if this one has a pollinator immune to it to pollinate their flowers

Interesting... apparently nicotine kills insects, and tobacco juice was historically used for pest control. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC509307/
Maybe I'll try that for my next aphid infestation...

elaineo wrote: ↑Thu Aug 12, 2021 8:55 pm Interesting... apparently nicotine kills insects

The same goes for humans, too (No offense to anyone reading this)

A Fellow Scientist wrote: ↑Thu Aug 12, 2021 8:17 pm That's neat, and the related article even has another type they found a couple days ago too.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/22 ... t-insects/

You beat me to that one. Was going to post about it.

A Fellow Scientist wrote: ↑Thu Aug 12, 2021 8:17 pm I wonder if this one has a pollinator immune to it to pollinate their flowers

Yes and no. It is pollinated by bees and butterflies which are too large/strong to get caught. It feeds on small prey like gnats.

elaineo wrote: ↑Thu Aug 12, 2021 8:55 pm Interesting... apparently nicotine kills insects, and tobacco juice was historically used for pest control. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC509307/
Maybe I'll try that for my next aphid infestation...

Done that for years. Would spray a mixture of nicotine "juice" and dish soap water under the siding of my folks house to kill off earwigs.

Do be careful what plants you spray it on. Some plants, like orchids, are vulnerable to the tobacco mozaic virus which can be transmitted via a tobacco spray.

MaxVft wrote: ↑Thu Aug 12, 2021 9:38 pm

elaineo wrote: ↑Thu Aug 12, 2021 8:55 pm Interesting... apparently nicotine kills insects

The same goes for humans, too (No offense to anyone reading this)

I don't think nicotine kills people, I believe that's just what gets people addicted. The tobacco itself is what harms people.

Sundew grower wrote: ↑Fri Aug 13, 2021 7:51 pm I don't think nicotine kills people, I believe that's just what gets people addicted. The tobacco itself is what harms people.

Yeah, cigarettes kill by gunking up your lungs and exposing you to a bunch of carcinogens that aren't even nicotine.

But it IS technically possible (the best kind of possible!) to die of nicotine poisoning. It does hit the receptor that lets your nerves communicate with your muscles, after all, and enough of that can paralyze your diaphragm and/or mess up your heart.

The fatal dose is massive, though, and it looks like serious cases only happen to tobacco farmers, people working with concentrated nicotine insecticides, and very small children eating entire containers of e-cig fluid. And insects, of course, which is what the plant is probably using it for.

Adelae wrote: ↑Sun Aug 15, 2021 1:01 am

Sundew grower wrote: ↑Fri Aug 13, 2021 7:51 pm I don't think nicotine kills people, I believe that's just what gets people addicted. The tobacco itself is what harms people.

Yeah, cigarettes kill by gunking up your lungs and exposing you to a bunch of carcinogens that aren't even nicotine.

But it IS technically possible (the best kind of possible!) to die of nicotine poisoning. It does hit the receptor that lets your nerves communicate with your muscles, after all, and enough of that can paralyze your diaphragm and/or mess up your heart.

The fatal dose is massive, though, and it looks like serious cases only happen to tobacco farmers, people working with concentrated nicotine insecticides, and very small children eating entire containers of e-cig fluid. And insects, of course, which is what the plant is probably using it for.

I'll take your word for it. You seem more knowledgeable on the topic.

ChefDean wrote: ↑Thu Aug 12, 2021 3:05 pm Dang! Just randomly found growing by a truck stop in Australia. Neato!
https://www.newscientist.com/article/22 ... o-science/

That's in the state I live in! I doubt I can see them in the wild though. The wheatbelts are quite far south from where I live

I have "T. occidentalis" seeds enroute. Should be here Monday (8/23).

From what I have read so far, I will need to stratify before planting. Does anyone have any more details on growing this "wildflower"?