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Category: Wetland Plants
The Venus fly trap (Dionaea muscipula), is one of the best known wetland plants due to its carnivorous appetite and appearance as Audrey II in the cult classic, "Little Shop of Horrors". It is a marvel of evolution - being earthbound and immobile in nutrient poor soil, how else can a plant obtain nutrition? From wayward insects. The selective pressures must have been so strong that a plant, over the course of millenia, developed an trap, actually a modified leaf, which can clamp shut in a tenth of a second on a hapless ant, fly or beetle plonking a trigger hair ever so gently. Lacking a proper gut, the mouth of a the flytrap secretes digestive juices, dissolving the insect over the course of a week, fortifying the plant. Its native habit is remarkably small, and shrinking. It is found only within a 60-mile radius of Wilmington, North Carolina.
Carnivorous plants unique abilities did not escape Charles Darwin's attention, he wrote the book, "Insectivorous Plants" largely about the Sundew plant, a cousin to the flytrap, in 1875. The book, still used as a reference, can be downloaded for free from Project Gutenberg here.
Working in a greenhouse as a teen, flytraps were always sold in miniature terrariums, and I brought a few home over the years but was never was successful in keeping them alive for long - my mistake was feeding them small amounts of ground beef, which promptly rotted, killing the stalk. Looking back, I probably should have put a dead ant or two in the maw of the venus fly trap instead. The fly traps I purchased were likely poached, it seems many of them are, to be sold as greenhouse novelties. Since then, flytrap poaching has increased, to the point that the North Carolina legislature just passed a law declaring that poaching Venus fly traps is now a felony, rather than a misdeminor with a paltry $50 fine. In January 2015, poachers were caught redhanded with almost 1,000 Venus fly traps, and charged under the more stringent law. Seymour would be proud.

Further Reading:
The Mysterious Venus Flytrap
Video of flytrap closing
North Carolina cracks down on Venus flytrap poachers

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Category: Legal
Every year on February 2nd, the signing of the Ramsar convention on Wetlands is celebrated. For readers unaware of Ramsar, it is a worlwide organization cooperating to protect wetlands through a nongovermental, nonbinding agreement. Member countries, over 160, share best practices and strive towards better international working relationships to protect and preserve wetlands. Every year has a new theme, and this years theme is "Wetlands for Our Future" - which in the face of global warming and sea level rise, has become more important. Check out Ramsar and worldwetlandsday.org for World Wetlands Day information and materials.

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Category: Miscellaneous
The will'o'wisp, is a unique phenomenon described as a flickering light floating or dancing hovering above a bog or marsh, continually out of reach. It straddles the worlds of folklore and science, mentioned worldwide, from the moors in Scotland throughout Asia and Africa. A will'o'wisp' reputation varies from the impish to ghoulish, depending on the culture and location. Some cultures describe then as spirits leading travelers astray, witches or simply as lost souls. However, its consistent appearance through the centuries lends credence to it being a real, if poorly exclaimed phenomenon. Scientists have surmised that its phosphorescence is due to marsh gases oxidizing (phosphine, diphosphine, and methane) or the luminescence of phosphine under perfect conditions, excited, but not aflame. Its recent cultural resurgence appearance is from the Disney movie Brave. Are they real? I don't know, but sometimes a good mystery deserves to remain unsolved. More info on Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will-o%27-the-wisp

Wetlands in the News

03 May 2024