Carnivorous plants

Cobra Lily Darlingtonia californica

Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia purpurea)
Many tribes of the Great Lakes region used this plant as a cure for smallpox. The use of the root offered some immunity and shortened the course of the disease.

SARAPIN from Sarracenia purpurea is currently being used for neuromuscular or neuralgic pain.

Traditionally, Sarracenia species were used in a poultice against smallpox. The root was used to furnish the greatest cure against smallpox lesions.

Venus Fly Trap (Dionaea muscipula)
When an insect lands inside a trap, the fine hair inside the trap is stimulated and the plant will close around the insect. It won’t open again for several days until the insect is completely digested. After three leave closings, the trap leaf will turn black and wither.

Sundew (Drosera)
The sundew has “tentacles” with sticky dew drop on the ends that attact insects. These tentacles then wrap around the insect-victim, and they begin to digest (via enzymes) the food.

Hindu medicine used Drosera burmannii as a rubifacient.

The astrologer-herbalist, Nicholas Culpeper, said that Drosera anglica was ruled by the sun under the sign of Cancer. The juice destroys purulent lesions, warts and corns, if a little of the juice was applied to the same.

Drosera rotundifolia is found in herbal cough medicines.

Pinguicula species were used in Nordic countries to curdle milk.

Nepenthes ampullaria was used to make rope in Indonesia. Nepenthes is the largest of all of the carnivorous plants, the largest species growing in Indonesia and Borneo. It has been reported that small tree frogs, reptiles and birds have also fallen victim to these carnivorous plants.

Byblis species from australia has been used as a sweetener.

Plant Curiosities

Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora) The root of this plant was considered a good remedy for seizures in children. The powdered root was administered for restlessness, pain, fever, gonorrhea, ulceration of the mucous membranes of the bladder, intermittent, recurring fevers.

The Indian Pipe does not have the usual green color associated with plants, instead it is white and found growing on the decaying leaves and other dead material found on a forest floor. It has been found that the Indian Pipe forms a connection via an underground fungus to a plant that is forming its own chlorophyll, which it then takes from the green plant.

Rafflesia is the world’s largest flower, with a single flower being nearly three feet across. This flower grows in the jungles of Sumatra.

My Gardening Tips

Keep the plants moist, using a covered planter or terrarium. These plants need a moist, even boggy, environment. Light should be diffused. They can be feed every two weeks using 20-20-20 plant food diluting to 1/4 strength. These plants are most compatible with most ferns and mosses.