candyhighbeams

VFT

2008-03-26T23:42:41Z

The Venus Flytrap, Dionaea muscipula, is a carnivorous plant that catches and digests animal prey (mostly insects and arachnids). The trapping structure is formed by the terminal portion of each of the plant's leaves. The plant's common name refers to Venus, the Roman goddess of love, whereas the genus name refers to Dione.^{[citation needed]} Despite being closely related to the waterwheel plant and sundews, Dionaea is a monotypic genus.

From Wikipedia.

he Venus Flytrap is a small herb, forming a rosette of four to seven leaves, which arise from a short subterranean stem that is actually a bulb-like rhizome. Each leaf reaches a maximum size of about three to seven centimeters, depending on the time of year;^[2] longer leaves with robust traps are generally formed after flowering. Flytraps that appear to have more leaves are generally colonies, formed by rosettes that have divided beneath the ground.

The leaf blade is divided into two regions: a flat, heart shaped photosynthetic capable petiole, and a pair of terminal lobes hinged at the midrib, forming the trap which is actually the true leaf. The upper surface of these lobes contains red anthocyanin pigments and its edges secrete mucilage. The lobes exhibit rapid plant movements, snapping shut when stimulated by prey. The trapping mechanism is tripped when prey items stumble against one of the three hair-like trichomes that are found on the upper surface of each of the lobes. The trapping mechanism is so specialized that it can distinguish between living prey and non-prey stimuli such as falling raindrops;^[3] two trigger hairs must be touched in succession or one hair touched twice,^[3] whereupon the lobes of the trap will snap shut in about 0.1 seconds.^[4] The edges of the lobes are fringed by stiff hair-like protrusions or cilia, which mesh together and prevent large prey items from escaping. (These protrusions, and the trigger hairs, are probably homologous with the tentacles found in this plant’s close relatives, the sundews.) The holes in the meshwork allow small prey to escape, presumably because the benefit that would be obtained from them would be less than the cost of digesting them. If the prey is too small and escapes, the trap will reopen within 12 hours. If the prey moves around in the trap, it tightens and digestion begins more quickly.

Speed of closing can vary depending on the amount of humidity, light, size of prey, and general growing conditions. The speed with which traps close can be used as an indicator of a plant's general health. Venus Flytraps are not as humidity dependent as are some other carnivorous plants, such as Nepenthes, Cephalotus, most Heliamphora, and some Drosera.

The Venus Flytrap exhibits variations in petiole shape and width and whether the leaf lies flat on the ground or extends up at an angle of about 40-60 degrees. The four major forms are: 'typica', the most common, with broad decumbent petioles; 'erecta', with leaves at a 45 degree angle; 'linearis', with narrow petioles and leaves at 45 degrees; and 'filiformis', with extremely narrow or linear petioles. Except for 'filiformis', all of these can be stages in leaf production of any plant depending on season (decumbent in summer versus short versus semi-erect in spring), length of photoperiod (long petioles in spring versus short in summer), and intensity of light (wide petioles in low light intensity versus narrow in brighter light).

Welcome

2008-03-26T23:38:07Z

Welcome.

Guess the animal!

2007-01-03T23:13:50Z

Guess the specimen in this picture that so uncannily resembles our familiar, hungry, fanged loved one!!!!

give up?

click...

An unidentified cnidarian that resembles a Venus flytrap from the family Hormathiidae. Found at 1874 meters depth on the slopes of the Davidson Seamount. (Image courtesy of NOAA/MBARI.)

Interesting, I wonder if the cnidarian functions in the similar way our carnivorous plants do; of course their diet would consist of other... victims. I am also curious to see the method in which they trap their victims. In a flash like our Dionaea? Or in a slow, deadly manner?

Coral are also very fascinating creatures. I had always presumed they were gentle, beautiful species but some of them viciously attack neighboring coral, throw up their intestines onto them, and digest them alive.

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Intriguing...

Post summer growth

2007-01-03T22:54:49Z

*heart thudding* uh oh, I am afraid I have recently grown a new obession as well.... (drum roll) SEA MONKEYS... more on this later.

they unfurl long tendrils tipped with gaping mouths!

ick, image taken with a canon digicam, I need to buy the new compact Sony cameras.

NEW POST!!!!!!

2006-12-01T22:03:52Z

venus!!!!!!!

I didn't realize so many people actually visit this site, hence, I humbly apologize for the much too long hiatus.

In the past few months, my life had been tossed upside down and completely around, and the struggle to attain normalcy had been a rather difficult one.

I must keep specifics at bay and vague generalities closer, since this is not my personal journal.

The dear venus fly traps have been faring well, and struggling to keep their best face.

Update coming very soon!

-Caro

sad things

2006-07-12T22:31:45Z

June is a tragic month for me.

I took many photos of my healthy VFTs and soon after I got into a car accident that totalled my car, and I ended up in the ER. I am completely fine now, but was unable to update.

To the 2 people reading this, I express my apologies of the severe tardiness in updating. My venus fly traps are flourishing and have hordes of flies strewn across their traps in graphic, splendid glory and photos will indeed come!!!

planties

2006-06-12T09:35:08Z

Wow! It has certainly been a while! :) My VFTs are flourishing, gorging ravenously, and blooming.

Massive pic update coming soon, hopefully within the next couple days.

Here's a teaser:

Pot of death!

Yea, my hand! I looooooooove seeing those mouths of crimson fury gaping and anticipant!

Ooh, sweet pea seed inside that pot, not blooming b/c it is probably afraid of the others.

Thanks for the support while I was MIA, folks!

whooooaaaa

2006-04-23T06:52:50Z

sadly, some major family problems have incurred upon my formerly blissful life not a long while after the last post, and I had to take some time off in trying to deal with them.

After, I was fairly depressed and avoided my former hobbies.

However, my Venus Fly Traps are flourishing. I did not purchase any more and need now to majorly save $$ but pics of the babies shall come soon.

woo hoo! VFTs rule, please adopt one today.

Pingpingpingpingpingpingpingpingpingzzzz

2006-03-30T11:00:43Z

candyhighbeams @ 2006-03-21T01:13:00

2006-03-21T09:12:32Z

Apologies for the delay in posting; have been a bit preoccupied, yet still have been taking numerous digi photos.

Update post coming up in a bit, I recently spent an ENTIRE DAY propagating Pinguiculas at a university greenhouse!!!!

Caro

Reference: Equilibrio Czech Giant

2006-03-13T09:07:04Z

Czech Giant. Purchased @ just a couple years old, for $14!!!!! :( :( :(

Observation: Digests relatively quickly.

Reference: Ed's Red Piranha

2006-03-13T06:49:58Z

This was a gift from Ed Read, the official creator of the dionaea cultivar "Red Piranha".

He had kept it under heavily filtered light so I did the same as well, but only slightly filtered.

Observation: reddens at the speed of lightning!

Reference: Equilibrio "Chilean Giant" & "Typical"

2006-03-13T06:48:43Z

Rec'd 3/3/06 as Day 1.

the Chilean Giant.

*Note: little random leaves in the pot are test leaf cuttings from another Typical.

Transplanting Dionaea into a cute "commercialized" fishbowl.

2006-03-13T06:41:06Z

Yep.

Just couldn't resist it!

Names: "Wasabi" and "Boobie". Wasabi is the larger, more mature dionaea, and Boobie is the tiny dionaea.

Venus Fly Trap in a Fishbowl!!!!!!

Many years ago when I was perhaps in 6th grade or so, my cousin Jennifer (who was my inspiration into applying to UCLA) purchased for my brother and me 2 Siamese Fighting Fish (Betta Splendens). We kept them alive for about a couple years until they died, and now I am using their fishbowls to cultivate dionaea.

2nd fishbowl will come up later this week.

candyhighbeams @ 2006-03-04T22:13:00

2006-03-05T08:13:09Z

Updated my reference for Tippy/Bubo/Cabby/Giraffe.

Afternoon w/Larry: Indian food, Cal State Fullerton Greenhouse, CP Bonanza!

2006-03-04T06:55:27Z

Today marks the first official meetup I've ever had with a fellow CP cyber-enthusiast, Larry!!!!! Click here for Larry's CP website. We ate a decent Indian buffet lunch (there was great paneer there, but the #1 Chicken Tikka Masala still remains Westwood's New India Grill) and ambled off to Cal State Fullerton's greenhouses. Larry provided an extensive, phenomenal tour, filtering out the "uncool plants" and showing me all the VFTs, Sarracenias, Pinguiculas, Cephaloti, and etc.

There was also a student Greg working there who didn't seem obsessed with CPs but pointed out some hideous tumour-like succulents anyway, :) The cutest, most docile and amiable kitty stealthily stalked her way around us. So adorable.

Near the end of our tour the real deal showed up: Ed Reader, the caretaker of the CSF greenhouse, and the ORIGINAL CREATOR OF THE DIONAEA MUSCIPULA 'RED PIRANHA' cultivar!!!!!!!!!

Ed called me a freak and laughed his head off at me, but I didn't care, he's the one who spend thousands of hours propagating baby Dionaea. Though I'd kill to do this invitro thing.

Cutie emerging out of her dormancy, with a dead roly poly halfway escaped.		If you look carefully at 9 o'clock position you can see the roly poly. Nasty! (translation: shwweeeet!!)
Awesome Sarracenias!
Ewww! nasty spidy.	awwwwww

		I LOVE CEPHALOTUS!!!!!!
sweet CEPHALOTUS CLUSTER!!!	BUTTERWORT MANIA!!! I love butterworts!!	Greg pointed out the flowers are fragrant, and they indeed are; in a unique, exquisite way. Lovely scent.
	HOLY SHIT! THIS TRAP WAS 2 INCHES OR SO!!!!

	Kitten!
		GORGEOUS!!!!!!!
That's MY hand!	Very huge!	Larry is molesting the pitchers... nasty!

	nasty ant plants.	I happily surrounded by Nepenthes!
I with a gorgeous red pitcher!! Pics taken by Larry the uber-photographer!!	YEAH! SUPER HUNGRY PITCHER.	KITTEN!!!!!
LITHOPZ!!!	Don't know what it is but it looked nasty.
		Equilibrio!!!!
Indoor collection so far. Tomorrow I move out the Equilibrio plants to get their batch of full direct sunlight.	Typical.	Chilean Giant.
MY VERY 2 FIRST DROSERA!!! CAPENSIS AND SCORPIODES!! B/C I'M A SCORPIO!! j/k, Larry was soooo nice!	some update pics.
	♥	♥

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When I got home my Equilibrio consolation package came, and I was very enthused to see a gorgeous Chilean Giant with red mouths, and a rather robust looking Typical.

Supercool highlights: Taking home my very first two Drosera (Capensis & Scorpiodes) thanks to Larry, and the CUTEST BABY RED PIRANHA!!!! I was in utter euphoria!!! Wooooooooooo!!

Thursday. BBP order. (from 3 weeks ago)

2006-03-03T09:19:19Z

Finally arrived my 3-week-late order from Robert Crespo, an order I had placed in the beginning of my blind VFT ordering frenzy, all of which were severe mistakes, due to the blatant ineptitude and lack of professional service of these companies. I had communicated extensively with this vendor, politely requesting and reminding that I had purchased 4 ten-year-old bulbs (b/c the website had a typographical error) but he STILL sent the wrong bulb size. Prior to these bulbs I had placed an order for 3 VFTs in one pot, which, according to the photo, showed 3 rather medium sized plants. Once again I communicated before purchasing, "do the plants resemble this size or the photo?", and received affirmation after affirmation.

Three weeks later I received my two products, one which was a mistake, and one which was a complete misrepresentation, even after I had confirmed my suspicions with the vendor, and asked when he would ship the plants out.

In the center are some white Lumina pumpkins seeds from a different order
(different vendor)
that arrived the same day.
I will have huge alabaster-white pumpkins!!

No, I had stated TWICE I was specifically ordering the 10 year old rhizomes,
and had paid the hefty $20 for the 10-year old rhizomes,
only to be send rhizomes that were a whole FIVE YEARS OFF.

cute though!

OKAY, TELL ME, DOES THIS PICTURE RESEMBLE THE PROCEEDING PICTURE!??! ---->I didn't think so, either.

<--------- Does this look like: (next) -----------> ?

What I received. No joke.

The bulbs, albeit cute, are the wrong age, 5 years younger than I had paid for... hmm....

The Red Dragon (right) freshly transplanted next to a Big Mouth baby (left)

and now for others.

Velvet Queen sunflower that grows ALARMINGLY fast. I love you!

I don't know what would happen, but needless to say, I would never recommend such a place of misleading and ignorant customer service to anyone else.

However, I wrote a kind and polite e-mail to Robert Crespo (the owner) thanking him for shipping the product out, but explained what happened in my order, reiterated the number of times I had clearly communicated / requested the proper type of bulbs be sent, and asked what could be done.

Reference: WM Tray #3- Tippy, Bubo, Cabby, Giraffe

2006-02-27T07:54:36Z

I will be updating this post hopefully once a week with pictures of these particular plants, as a reference.

Tippy, Bubo, Cabby, and Giraffe.

Tippy:

Bubo

Cabby

Giraffe

sunflowers, moonflowers, sweet pea, tomato, rat ransack.

2006-02-26T09:46:52Z

Zoomed off to Walmart twice today ::blush::

Shtuff I purchased from Walmart, including the hailed/cult item Superthrive.

Planting sunflowerz

Gorgeous result... a few hours completely destroyed by mice/rats!!!

Yep.. Caro has a green thumb. hoo hoo hoo... STFU!!!!

I will no longer be using this as it is too close for an evil mouse/rat.

latest Walmart batch.

The ever-gorgeous Finetooth

Rat Ransack :(

Realizing I over-water!!! 4 new Walmart VFTs. Sunflowers.

2006-02-26T03:33:30Z

Sunflowers. That's what I have been obsessive compulsive about lately in addition to venus fly traps. I planted dozens and dozens of sunflower seeds.

I am truly fascinated to watch them slowly germinate, salubrious green sproutings coquettishly pushing through the dirt, peeking through a cracked shell as a bonnet.

Getting in my way sometimes!!
Away, brown beast!

Awwwww......cute puppy!

I am obsessive-compulsive over raising germinating sunflowers.
After the birds ransacked a packet of sunflower seeds and
ransacked the freshly germinated sunflowers pictured here,
I vowed to kill the birds and planted new seeds in old ones' places.
Maybe I can poison the birds. hee hee
For now my dad contructed a net over my plants.

It turns out I pretty much SUCK taking care of VFTs.
The walmart ones developed a raisiny, leather-like texture.
Here is one lone leaf struggling to triumph.

Weird raucous adults in my house. Too rowdy!

AND THE NEW AWESOME WALMART PLANTS!!!! paid $20 for 4 VFTs.

Most of the first batch of the walmart plants seemed to be slowly withering away, I don't know if the direct sunlight was much of a factor; perhaps it was due to my over-watering!!! I didn't think I was overwatering it, but the plants are already immersed in a centimeter or so of water in a tray. On top of this I would lightly mist distilled water a handful of times a day--> perhaps that was the culprit. At any rate, I consoled myself by driving to Wallies again and purchasing 4 new fresh VFTs. I will keep them away from direct sunlight for a week AND keep them in their humidifying plastic canisters AND only water them through bottom-absorption. I am sure these would thrive.

Part II

2006-02-25T23:05:57Z

------>Continued from the post directly proceeding this entry.

'Cos I don't want to crash computers! ;)

eeeeeeeewwwwwwwwww!!! what's wrong with it!!!!!!!!!!

oops, posted some pics repeatedly.

Cook's Carnivour's order, new Walmart tray, photo updates [thursday]

2006-02-25T22:51:28Z

Upon setting my eyes on two USPS Priority Mail packages, my pulse raced with joy. I'm surprised VFTs can elicit such strong childish frissons in the midst of my long, post-graduate ennui/depression. Contents of Box 1: Two 1-gallon zip-lock bags of live, long fiber Wisconsin Sphagnum. Box: 2: Cook's Carnivour's.

The Wisconsin Sphagnum moss was beautiful indeed, which I immediately commenced using as dressing for the top layers in many of my plants.

Cook's Carnivour's: Suffice to say, I shall never order here, EVER again!!

First of all, BobZ's Finetooth X Red:

SO VIGOUROUS!!

Then on Thursday....

live long fiber sphagnum moss, and a package from cook's carnivours.

That shrivelled, dried Pink Venus at the right the size of my pinky I believe arrived dead.
even the paper towel it came in was dry. I am contacting Cook's...

After I lightly misted it with distilled water.

The Big Mouth I transplanted into sphagnum peat moss/perlite with a layer of LFS sphagnum on top.

Cook's Typical VFT

Next to the All Green, a Typical leaf.
It fell off the Cook's Typical, so I placed it in sphagnum.
Hopefully it will continue to grow.
(update: on Satruday 25 Feb. It still looks like it's alive)

Another shot of the Cook's Big Mouth I transplanted.

And of course, update photos of everything else.

whoa.

THANK GOODNESS for Photoshop!!! Without their automated actions and batch functions, I wouldn't have been able to program the actions that automate resizing, cropping, optimizing, and saving these digicam photos. With 2 clicks of a button I go from raw, uncompressed large photos to tiny, optimized web-pics with neat borders.

--->Continued in the post right above this.

Generic Photo update. others, + Finetooth x Red

2006-02-22T08:44:03Z

The cute plants that BobZ sent have the fastest, most vigourous growth, along with my Equilibrio Czech Giant.

Also included: plant stand fashioned adhoc by Daddie.

BobZ's Finetooth X Red.
A single trap transforms most dramatically in the course of a single day!
Amazing!

The ever increasingly beautiful Czech Giant from Equilibrio, photo taken yesterday.

The Czech Giant tonight.

Another shot of the Czech Giant tonight

and the obligatory others:

Furthermore, today I ordered some live sphagnum moss from eBay. Hopefully I can grow it en masse.

generic photo update

2006-02-20T09:54:53Z

This is a generic photo update on all my plants. One of my trays looks SCORCHED due to the initial obscure place in which Walmart had it situated, and I think my direct exposure to sunlight overwhelmed it.

Click for larger version. Walmart Tray #2. Later, I placed my Equilibrio plant in the center.

BobZ's plants flourishing!

Another pot.

The set of plants I was most worried about.
Yes, day by day they look weaker and weaker, but I will continue to try to revive them.
They are not entirely dead.
VFT are known for their miraculous revivals.

Walmart tray #1. Looking scorched from the initial direct sunlight hit it received. I placed it today in indirect sunlight to alleviate the scorched appearance.

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Confession: Today I spent $19 on four 10-year-old bulbs from bugbitingplants.com. I am seriously not spending any more on retail sites because I have no job, and guiltily observing my money flow in streams down a waterfall is not the most splendid feeling. I succumbed because the notion of a single 10-year-old VFT is enough to make me swoon, plus the excitement of watching rapid growth in a matter of short weeks as it emerges from its bulb state. Multiply this by 4, and 4 ten-year-old bulbs? shweeeeeeet! I hope they make it through the transit.

Name References. (Walmart Tray #2)

2006-02-20T08:16:23Z

Nothing special, some of my plants are difficult to distinguish from one another so I've decided to name some of them.

This set includes names and pictures of my Walmart set #2 plants.

Baby Dente (has many offshoots/clumping/babies)

Dooty Dente (currently has the largest, more mature traps. very close call though)

Meddy Dente (plain, medium traps) Traps all point in one direction, as a blatant result of walmart keeping a light source far, distant, inaccessible.

Catty (big mouth?) generally larger traps than Batty. many divisions.

Batty (Big Mouth?) has many division but its largest traps are larger than Catty's.