Carnivorous plants alert!

A few months ago, Adam came across carnivorous* plants in one of his books. It was just a small section, but it sparked his interest. He asked if we could grow them. To be honest, when he first mentioned this I thought the plants only grow in the wild, possibly rare, not in Malaysia and there was no way we could grow them in our house. But I entertained his request anyway, and together we browsed the internet - videos, websites - looking for more information on them. He is fascinated by these plants and in particular the venus flytrap. It turned out these plants can be grown in the home, and that in Malaysia there is a local carnivorous plant - periuk kera!

We came across a website - Petpitchers - for Malaysian enthusiasts of carnivorous plants. There is quite a large community there and a lot of information about growing carnivorous plants in our tropical weather. Also, we found a few places to buy them.

This nursery is called 4ZE plant, in Ampang. The owner specialises in carnivorous plants especially monkey pots. He has more than 100 species here.

Close up of a beautiful monkey pot. Malaysia is home to many species of this plant. Its mechanism of trapping its prey is by baiting them with the sweet smell of nectar, then the insects will slip on its slippery wall and into the watery pots. The insects are then digested by the chemicals inside it and the nutrients are released into the plant.

This is a venus flytrap. Adam's favourite. The traps open up, and when a fly/insect goes in, it will automatically close up, trapping the insect inside and digesting it.

Look how happy this boy was! He walked around the nursery taking photos of everything. An early birthday treat for him :)

This one is another type of carnivorous plant. I think the name is sarracenia, and its trapping mechanism is similar to monkey pot.

This Atok was showing Adam around and helping him to choose plants to start off his carnivorous plant collection. He chose one venus flytrap, one sarracenia and one monkey pot. Now my husband and I are not particularly good growers, many of my plants tend to die on me unfortunately, but hopefully Adam can grow these well....

I was barely aware of these plants before but I think he's got me hooked, too...these plants are amazing!

*carnivorous plants are plants that lure, trap and digest small insects/bugs for growth and survival