Scarlet Belle Pitcher Plant: Name and Pictures to Help You Get to Know This Carnivorous Plant

Chinese name: Scarlet Belle Pitcher Plant

Latin scientific name: Sarracenia x Scarlet Belle

Family and genus: Sarraceniaceae, Sarracenia

Origin and distribution: horticultural hybrid

The Scarlet Belle Pitcher Plant is a very popular variety. Its striking white spots paired with bright red veining are truly beautiful! It is a relatively large and elegant carnivorous plant. Its leaves are pitcher-shaped, upright or leaning to the side, and most are brightly colored with brilliant spots or veining. Its form resembles the pitchers of tropical pitcher plants, and it can secrete nectar and digestive fluid. Insects lured by the nectar lose their footing and fall into the pitcher, where the digestive fluid digests and absorbs them! When watering, use water with low mineral content (such as rainwater or purified water); it likes strong light, and light makes the plant grow more robust and gives it more vivid color.

Luciole - (France, climbing, glossy-leaved, scarlet, 1923) Variety Introduction

Chinese name: Luciole

Latin name: Luciole

Color: scarlet, white center

Fragrance: light fragrance

Country: 1923 France Auguste Nonin & Fils

Category: climbing glossy-leaved rose

Flower form: small flowers, single to semi-single, clustered blooms, large cluster flowering form

Introduction: Luciole, English name Luciole. Bred in 1923 in France by Auguste Nonin & Fils, it belongs to the climbing glossy-leaved rose class. The flowers are scarlet with a white center, small, single to semi-single, clustered, and borne in large cluster flowering form,.

Growing potted carnivorous plants in summer is a great helper for repelling mosquitoes

Toothless Venus flytrap eating an earthworm

Scarlet Belle Pitcher Plant

Sundew

Tropical pitcher plant

Summer is the peak season for mosquito breeding. Are there any plants that like hot, humid environments and can also eliminate mosquitoes? In people's traditional thinking, it seems perfectly natural for plants to be eaten by animals. However, in the vast plant world, there is a strange, interesting, and remarkably capable group of carnivorous plants that can not only catch live insects, but even small animals like frogs and dragonflies. In the hot summer, growing a pot of carnivorous plants at home can be a great helper for driving away mosquitoes. Jiangnan Times reporter Xu Sheng / text, Xinhua Daily Media Group Visual Center reporter Le Tao / photo. Carnivorous plants like to eat "meat"

In the greenhouse of the South Garden of Nanjing Zhongshan Botanical Garden, there are more than 20 kinds of carnivorous plants. Director Gu Yonghua of Zhongshan Botanical Garden introduced that these special plants are called insectivorous plants or carnivorous plants. They use sticky fluid, slippery leaf surfaces, needles, and curved leaves to capture animals, and can secrete digestive fluid to digest them to supplement their own nutrients.

Worldwide there are about 10 families, 21 genera, and more than 630 species of carnivorous plants. In China there are about 3 families, 5 genera, and more than 30 species, most living in alpine wetlands or lowland swamps. The carnivorous plants in Zhongshan Botanical Garden are all relatively common types, including tropical pitcher plants, pitcher plants, sundews, and butterworts. They come from southern China and Thailand and other places, growing under tropical and subtropical climate conditions.

Why do carnivorous plants need to "eat meat"? The reason is that most of their living environments are barren and lack the nitrogen, phosphorus, and other elements needed for their life activities, and their root systems are not well developed, with some even completely degenerated. Thus, over the long course of evolution, the leaves of carnivorous plants gradually transformed, forming various insect traps to prey on insects and supplement the nitrogen necessary to sustain survival.

The Venus flytrap counts as the fastest hunter

The reporter learned that the Venus flytrap is the top "hunter" in the carnivorous plant world. Among carnivorous plants, Darwin especially liked the Venus flytrap, and he was one of the first scientists to conduct in-depth research on the Venus flytrap and other carnivorous plants. The amazing characteristics of the Venus flytrap led him to regard this plant as "one of the most wonderful plants in the world."

What does the Venus flytrap's "trap" look like? The reporter saw that its two leaf lobes are shaped like a clip, usually open, with the leaf edges curved outward. When a staff member placed an earthworm on the Venus flytrap's leaf, it immediately closed, with half of the earthworm inside the leaf and the other half struggling, and the more it struggled, the tighter it became.

It turns out that when an insect climbs onto the Venus flytrap leaf to eat nectar and accidentally triggers its trigger hairs two or more times, the "trap" closes at extremely high speed, in as little as 0.1 seconds. Moreover, the leaf lobes curve inward, and the bristles on the leaf margins interlock, quickly confining the prey inside. At the same time, the purplish-red glands on the leaf secrete strongly acidic digestive fluid to decompose and digest it. After 1-2 weeks, the insect is digested and absorbed, the trap opens again, and a new "hunt" begins.

There are several kinds of Venus flytraps. The toothless Venus flytrap has huge traps and thick petioles, and its most obvious feature is the short triangular teeth on the trap margins; there is also the piranha Venus flytrap, whose teeth resemble piranha teeth, and the flame Venus flytrap, whose trap teeth resemble flames; the G16 Venus flytrap is one of the largest Venus flytrap varieties, growing quickly with huge traps, and the traps of mature plants can reach more than 5 cm.

Plant "hunters" set traps to catch insects

Each type of carnivorous plant has a different insect-catching mechanism, and their trapping methods are strange and varied. Some set traps to capture insects, while some secrete sticky liquid on their leaves to stick insects. "One category is passive-capture 'hunters,' such as tropical pitcher plants, pitcher plants, and sundews, which wait for insects to come to them and then digest and absorb them; another category is active-capture types, such as butterworts and bladderworts, which catch insects through their own active movement," Gu Yonghua introduced.

The tropical pitcher plant is the most famous among carnivorous plants. Its insect-catching pitchers, that is, the little hanging cages, are quite attractive to insects. The smooth pitcher mouth and the usually half-open lid also have nectar glands that can secrete sweet nectar to lure insects. When these "little prey" fly over to eat the nectar, they may accidentally slip into the pitcher and fall into the "liquid pool" at the bottom, becoming the tropical pitcher plant's "delicacy."

According to the introduction, plants evolving to use animals to obtain nutrients is an adaptation that the famous British biologist Darwin praised as a marvelous example of ingenuity in the process of species evolution. Darwin was one of the scholars most interested in carnivorous plants. He carefully studied carnivorous plants and wrote a monograph, Insectivorous Plants, which is still cited today.

The pitcher plant is the "big eater" among carnivorous plants

Some carnivorous plants do not have a big "appetite," such as sundews and butterworts, which specialize in eating small flying insects, but pitcher plants are different and can prey on small animals as large as mice. At the same time, pitcher plants can also be considered the most beautiful among carnivorous plants. Their leaves are like attractive vases and have a top lid, and each pitcher-shaped leaf is an insect trap. The flower stalk emerges from the base of the leaves, and the flowers are yellow-green or dark red, large and beautiful.

Pitcher plants catch insects relying on their pitcher-shaped leaves. Their inner walls are very smooth and bear nectar glands, and the pitcher wall has rows of sharp, spiny downward hairs, like strong guards, grabbing insects and blocking their escape. The liquid at the bottom of the pitcher is the "water prison" in which the pitcher plant imprisons and drowns its prey.

"Pitcher plants can even digest the bones of a mouse," Gu Yonghua introduced. When greedy insects are attracted to feed on nectar and gradually approach the inner side of the pitcher mouth in order to eat more nectar, they may accidentally fall into the digestive fluid in the pitcher. The smooth inner wall makes it impossible for them to crawl out. After the insects drown, they are decomposed by digestive fluid and bacteria, the nutrients are absorbed by the pitcher wall, and finally the indigestible shell remains in the pitcher. However, digesting an animal as large as a mouse requires more than a week.

To grow carnivorous plants well, water and soil are key

In summer, mosquitoes keep coming out to "harass" people. Many Nanjing residents like to buy some carnivorous plants to take home, as they are attractive in appearance and can "eat mosquitoes," or they choose some plants that rely on special scents to drive away mosquitoes. However, growing them well is not easy, because the cultivation methods of carnivorous plants differ greatly from ordinary flowers. They have unique ways of survival and higher requirements for growing media, and need special treatment.

First, carnivorous plants mainly rely on catching insects to absorb nutrients, their root systems are not well developed, and their absorption capacity is weak. The potting soil sold on the market is not suitable for planting because it contains too much fertilizer. Common soils suitable for cultivation include fertilizer-free peat, perlite, sphagnum moss, sand, and akadama soil. In addition, most carnivorous plants like humid environments, so wet sphagnum moss can be spread on the pot surface and water can be sprayed frequently. They need a water source with low mineral concentration, and residents can try watering with rainwater or bottled water.

Some residents also sigh that although they keep a pot of tropical pitcher plant at home, their family members are still often bitten by mosquitoes. Plant experts explain that the tropical pitcher plant's "food intake" is very small, and it generally takes more than a week to digest one small insect. Therefore, the mosquito-catching effect is not as good as everyone imagines. In fact, common plants such as mint, spearmint, night-blooming jasmine, perilla, calamus, jasmine, and marigold all have mosquito-repelling effects, and there are as many as a hundred kinds of plants in nature that can drive away mosquitoes.

Common insect-repelling plants

1. Mosquito-repelling geranium
Contains medicinal components such as citronellal and gives off a lemon scent year-round. It can not only repel mosquitoes but also purify the air.

2. Mint
Contains medicinal components such as menthol and menthone, with a special fragrant aroma that makes mosquitoes dizzy when they smell it.

3. Jasmine
Contains medicinal components such as jasmine flavonoids and mannitol. Its fragrance is rich, and placing it indoors in summer can keep mosquitoes away.

4. Geranium
Contains effective components such as citronellol and citral, and has effects such as sterilization and insect repellence. Its scent is slightly like roses, and mosquitoes and flies flee when they smell it. Not to be used by pregnant women.

5. Lavender
Contains effective components such as linalyl acetate and linalool, and is known as the "queen of herbs." It blooms small blue-purple flowers, and its light fresh fragrance can repel insects and also has a calming effect.

6. Night-blooming jasmine
Contains medicinal components such as aromatic alcohols. In summer and autumn, it blooms clusters of yellow-green bell-shaped small flowers with a strong fragrance. This scent makes mosquitoes fear it, making it an excellent mosquito repellent, but it should not be kept indoors for long periods.

7. Orange jasmine
Contains medicinal components such as linalool. Its leaves are small and glossy, and its flowers are white and abundant. The leaves give off a strong pungent-sweet fragrance to repel mosquitoes. The ancients used it to store books and keep insects away, and placing it under mats could get rid of fleas and lice.

(Original title: In the hot summer, quickly grow a pot of carnivorous plants at home!)

Source of this article: Xinhua Daily Media Network