Carnivorous plants. Doesn’t that sound weird? Yes, there is plant called Sundew which is one of the biggest variety of carnivorous plant having 194 species. Interestingly the plant is found in some forests of Odisha. Sometime ago when I was roaming in the Arjunpur reserve forest near Sonepur with a forest officer friend we spotted some blood red plants. My friend pointed out that those were the rare carnivorous plants called Sundew. Colloquially it is known as Nak Kandiri. The size of the plant normally spans two centimeters in diameter and contains a sticky substance known as trap droplets. It also contains spiny hooks to trap the prey. When the prey comes in contact with the plant the leaves immediately curl and it gets stuck to the trap droplets. It is one of the fastest trapping plant and its leaves can curl around an insect in only a few seconds. The plant was first described by Johannes Burman, a Dutch botanist in his 1737 publication on the flora of Srilanka. In 1794, the species was formally named in honour of Burman as Drosera Burmannii. Apart from some places in India, you can find them in the swamps, marshes, fens, bogs and moist steam banks of coastal Australia , in Venezuela (table-top mountain) and in South Africa(in the Western Cape of South Africa).
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 09:32:12 +0000
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