TARANAKI

- Flesh-eating plants and true love do go together.

The eerie chatter of giant flesh-eating plants beamed from our TV screens in the 1980s and piqued our interest in the mysterious realm of carnivorous plants. This sci-fi classic Day of the Triffids certainly influenced the purchase of my first Venus fly trap (Dionaea muscipula).

I subsequently killed it by obsessively triggering its snap trap leaves (it was only later I learned that each trap can only open and close several times before dying and falling off). I’m in good company, however, as Charles Darwin himself, in 1875, was the first to write about carnivorous plants and spent many an hour experimenting on the trap mechanisms of Dionaea. His findings prompted him to label it “one of the most wonderful plants in the world”.

Equally enamoured is Pauline Ansford, who has amassed quite a collection over the years. Starting with a sundew (Drosera) given to her by a friend, she liked the unusual nature of the plants and kept picking up new types when she saw them. Pauline enjoys all the different stages of their growth. “Many people don’t realise that the flowers of carnivorous plants are a bonus that arrives in November,” she says. “They come in a range of jewel-like colours and are quite stunning.”

Pauline’s carnivorous plants also played a pivotal role in her meeting late husband Vaughan. “I needed someone to take care of my plants while I was on a trip and Vaughan, a friend of my brother, offered. I got home and the plants were, unexpectedly, in stunning condition. And so blossomed a romance.”

Pauline and I find common ground in recollecting our excitement at seeing pitcher plants (Nepthenthes) in Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. “Vaughan and I went on a jungle trek to the mossy forest of Brinchang on our honeymoon and seeing the plants in their natural cloud forest environment cemented our obsession,” she says.

Pauline’s advice for those interested in growing carnivorous plants is to start with the sundews as they are the most reliable. I can’t help but agree when faced with her mesmerising display of glistening jewel-like Drosera capensis glowing in the light from the kitchen window.

Pauline highlights a few key considerations for getting the best out of carnivorous plants. “You must have access to rainwater to use for misting and watering the plants. I have a couple of 1000L tanks that are filled off the garage roof that do the trick. Over summer your plants will need to sit in a shallow tray of water, but never in winter as this can lead to root rot.

“For the pitcher plants, use pure sphagnum moss as the growing medium and for Venus flytraps, always use a peatlike medium. Spring and early summer is the time to take cuttings for propagation.

“In winter, when pitcher plants die back, pruning should be done. They should be cut back in three stages: First take the dead pitchers off, then half way down and then a bit later take right to the stem and which is where new growth comes through.”

Pauline has three tunnelhouses dedicated to carnivorous plants. Here, she cultivates diverse species that represent various trapping mechanisms – snap traps (leaves rapidly move to trap prey), pitfall traps (insects fall into a pool of liquid enzymes) and sticky traps (viscous substances adhere to insects, preventing escape).

Carnivorous plants gain much of their nutrients by luring unsuspecting insects to these modified leaves and then slowly digesting the captives. In areas with poor soils such as the acidic Poetama and Ahukahukahu swamps, found on Mount Taranaki, the additional nutrients gained from meat-eating is a key to their survival in these harsh conditions.

Luckily for us, Paulines’ other-worldly collection only poses a threat to the occasional aphid. It provides a glimpse into a genera of plants that are fast becoming threatened with extinction in their natural habitats. These special denizens of our most inhospitable places are worthy of celebrity status and in turn, let us hope this will ensure their ongoing protection.

In total, there are 16 genera of carnivorous plants all over the world, and Pauline Ansford’s extensive collection has species that range from the Americas to Asia. But she has a particularly soft spot for our very own New Zealand sundews that pop up as self-seeded hitch-hikers in the sphagnum moss she uses.

“People just don’t realise we have such beautiful native carnivorous plants,” she says.