Plants need nutrients

Brian Green delicately removes dead leaves from the small terrarium he arranged a year ago in Northwest Seed & Pet’s greenhouse and chucks them onto the floor as he talks about the feeding process of the Venus fly trap.

“The reason why the carnivorous plants are the way they are, is because they’ve adapted to growing in very nutrient-poor environments,” Green says. “This way they’re using animal parts, just like we do, just to get those nutrients.”

Now 30, Green has had his dream job as greenhouse caretaker for eight years. One of his favorite duties is caring for the five types of carnivorous plants the store sells for $12 and under. For years, they’ve been a huge attraction for young people who are captivated by meat-eating plants, particularly the Venus fly trap.

“The fly traps are the only ones you can see eating,” Green says.

With steady fingers he drops a small cricket straight into an open trap that immediately closes around the victim.

When the slightest pressure is applied to the tiny trigger hairs that line the inside of the trap, they send a chemical message telling the plant to pump extra water to the trap’s outer cells, applying pressure and causing it to close. The more an insect struggles, Green says, the tighter the trap closes. Within 15 minutes, it is so tight that the bug can no longer be seen.

After the trap digests the bug, often it turns black and falls off. A new trap usually blooms in its place.

Pitcher plants are so named because their shape resembles a pitcher. When the insect, attracted by sweet nectar, is drawn inside, it’s unable to climb out because the surface is covered in hairs that point downward. Digestive juices inside, break down the bug for protein. Northwest Seed & Pet also carries cobra lilies, which feed the same way.

Butterworts and sundews work a little differently – the plants secrete sticky digestive juices that attract the insects and then hold them to the plant like glue.

Green estimates he sells at least 100 carnivorous plants a year. Many of them go to boys.

“Mostly little boys,” he says, and then pauses. “And sometimes big boys.”

At the Northwest Seed & Pet on Division Street, assistant manager Corey Epley says he also sells quite a few to kids.

“The teenage kids, if it’s going to kill something, they’re going to want it,” he said. “It’s like the snakes and scorpions and tarantulas.”

Carnivorous plants will eat any bug, but contrary to popular childhood horror stories, not human fingers.

At the Sprague Avenue store, Green is constantly catching youngsters poking at the fly traps to trigger the traps. It may be fun, but it’s also lethal to the plant, he says.

“You don’t want to go and trip the trap because it uses energy without reward,” he says.

Green recommends that owners keep carnivorous plants in fish bowls or terrariums without fertilizer and give them distilled water, since lime and other minerals in local water are harmful to these native bog plants, which are often dormant in the winter.

So you’ll pretty much still need to keep a flyswatter handy.