Creepy carnivores

As if vampires and werewolves weren't scary enough, a hapless trick-or-treater must fear the skulking Nepenthes, a plant with a hankering for flesh.

By JOHN A. STARNES JR.
Published October 29, 2005

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Looking for an creepy treat this Halloween for kids and adults? Look to the ghoulish beauty of the carnivorous plant Nepenthes. Once sold only to collectors at exotic plant shows and online, this creepy meat eater can now be bought in hanging baskets at local garden centers and is perfect for dangling above the heads of trick-or-treaters.

Have you ever tried to grow other carnivorous plants like the Venus flytrap, Pitcher Plant and Sun Dews, only to watch them die when you could not duplicate the exacting conditions of the boggy swamps in which they naturally thrive? The Nepenthes doesn't need much, just damp, nutrient-poor, peaty soil, dappled shade and bugs.

The Nepenthes originated in tropical Asia and has 82 creepy species, each with different shapes, sizes and trap colors. They all catch bugs, frogs and lizards in their digestive pouches, and one species is big enough to trap squirrels.

If you have the nerve, shine a flashlight down into the bizarrely beautiful maw of a Nepenthes and see the remains of creatures' bodies that provided the Nepenthes with nitrogen and phosphorus. The toothy lip of each trap lures in prey with a combination of colorful patterns and sweet nectar; then the creatures slip down the waxy slope to their deaths.

If you are snared by the surreal allure of carnivorous plants, be sure to look for them at plant fairs and sales or online.

-- John A. Starnes Jr., born in Key West, is an avid organic gardener and rosarian who studies, collects, cultivates and hybridizes roses for Florida. He can be reached at johnastarnes@msn.com