How to raise pitcher plants? These plants can also catch insects!

The pitcher plant gets its name because it has an organ similar to a pig cage (insect cage). Its body is divided into petiole, leaf body and tendrils, which can be reversed to form a bottle to prey on insects. Some people find it interesting and want to raise a pot. So, how to raise pitcher plants?

A brief introduction to pitcher plants!

1. What does pitcher plant look like?

Pitcher plant is a perennial vine, about 3 meters high, the leaves are generally long oval, at the end of the cage vine will form a bottle-shaped or funnel-shaped, and with a cage cover; pitcher plants usually grow for many years before they blossom, and the flowers are usually green or purple, and the flowers are relatively small.

2. How do pitcher plants eat worms?

The pitcher plant has a bottle-shaped organ, and the bottle mouth has a cap that can be opened or closed. The bottle mouth is relatively smooth, and there is water liquid in the bottle; the inner wall of the bottle mouth can secrete sweet and fragrant honey, and insects will crawl over to eat honey when they smell the fragrance. Because the mouth of the bottle is smooth, the insect will be slipped into the bottle and then drowned, decomposed and gradually absorbed by the water secreted from the bottom of the bottle.

Second, how to raise pitcher plants?

1. Soil: loose, fertile and breathable.

The soil for raising pitcher plants is loose, fertile and breathable rotten leaf soil or peat soil. if potted, you can mix peat soil, water moss, charcoal and fir bark.

2. Propagation: cutting, pressing or sowing.

Pitcher plants can be propagated by cutting, pressing or sowing. Here is an introduction to cutting propagation. First of all, cut off the branches with 2-3 bud points and insert the branches into the cultivation substrate, and the bud points should be exposed to the soil surface; then, the cultivation substrate with branches should be placed in a high humidity environment, slowly waiting for the branches to take root and grow new buds.

3. Daily management

(1) temperature: the suitable temperature for the growth of pitcher plant is 2530 ℃, the winter temperature should not be lower than 16 ℃, the growth of plants below 15 ℃ stops, and the edge of leaves below 10 ℃ will suffer frost damage, so heating measures should be taken.

(2) humidity: pitcher plants like relatively humid areas, with a humidity of at least 60%. In order to increase the humidity of the air, the whole plant can be covered in a transparent plastic bag, either in an aquarium or in a corner, as long as ventilation is reduced. Humidity will increase; you can also often spray water on the plant, if during the growing period, spray water 4 times a day.

(3) Illumination: the pitcher plant is a semi-shaded plant, so don't keep it under strong light, otherwise it will be shaded properly to prevent the leaves from being burned, and don't put it in dark conditions, otherwise the leaf cage will form slowly and small; you can put it in a bright astigmatism.

(4) watering: the requirement of water content of pitcher plant is not high, and it is suitable for soil not to squeeze out water and loose, therefore, watering can not be too much, and immersion method can be used to supply water, as long as the soil can not squeeze out water and loose.

(5) Nutrition: pitcher plants are insectivorous plants that can obtain nutrition by catching insects or small animals, so they do not need to be specially fed during growth; of course, indoor cultivation usually does not have enough insects for pitcher plants to catch and can be sprayed with instant diluted foliar fertilizer or slow-acting fertilizer in the soil.

Which plants can also catch insects?

1. Castanopsis grossedentata: found in Yunnan, southwest Sichuan, western Guizhou and southern Xizang, it grows under grasses, thickets and sparse forests such as hillsides, hillsides, hilltops and streams at an altitude of 50-1600 meters. Its leaves are semicircular or semicircular, and the edges are covered with glandular hairs. When the insect touches the glandular hair, other glandular hairs will curl around the prey at the same time.

2. Chlorophyta: China is produced in Heilongjiang Province and grows in water. There is a spherical trap sac at the base of its pinnately compound leaf lobule, with glandular hairs and inductive hairs on it. When the insect touches the hairs and inductive hairs, the insect sac expands rapidly, and the valve at the mouth of the sac opens, and the worm flows into the sac with the water.

3. Flytrap: only found in the coastal plains of southeastern South Carolina and the northeastern corner of North Carolina in the United States, it grows in wet sandy or peat wetlands or swamps. Its leaves have a "shell"-like trap at the top, which can secrete nectar. When a bug invades, the trap will quickly trap it.

4. Bottle grass: found in southern Canada and the east coast of the United States, it grows in marshes. It has tubular leaves in its rhizome and a cap-like lid, which can secrete a kind of nectar. The mouth of the bottle has thick fluff and waxy smooth edges that grow downward, and there is water at the bottom of the bottle. When the insect is attracted by the nectar, it will be stuck by these hairs and then slide into the bottle and drown.

The above is the introduction of pitcher plant culture methods, as long as pay attention to its growth needs of the basic requirements, in addition to pitcher plants, there are other plants that can catch insects, this paper introduces four kinds of plants, hope to be useful to you.