Georgia Magazine - September 2024 - 34

GEORGIA Gardens
By Pamela A. Keene
Feed me: Georgia's carnivorous plants
P
lants feeding on insects? It sounds like
science fiction, but carnivorous plants
worldwide survive on diets of insects and
small amphibians.
The Broadway musical " Little Shop of Horrors "
introduced audiences to Audrey II, a carnivorous
plant gone rogue that became the star of the show
with the famous line, " Feed me. "
In the wild, some carnivorous plants, such as
the well-known Venus flytrap, have extremely
limited range.
" The only place that Venus flytraps occur
naturally anywhere in the world is in the Carolinas, "
says botanist Keith Bradley with the South Carolina
Natural Resources Department, who also is a faculty
member at the University of Georgia's Wormsloe
Research Institute on the Isle of Hope. " In South
Carolina, there are three known populations-all
located in Horry County-and we regularly monitor
them to preserve their habitat. All the other known
flytrap populations in the world are
found in 15 counties in southern North
Carolina. "
However, several species of
carnivorous plants are Georgia natives.
The most common are pitcher plants,
sundews and bladderworts, each of
which has distinguishing traits and
habitats.
One thing all carnivorous plant
Tiny hairs line the purple
pitcher plant to trap
insects, preventing their
escape and enabling the
plant to digest them and
absorb their nutrients.
'Of the carnivorous plants native
to Georgia, the most prevalent
and easiest to identify are the
pitcher plants.'
- Stephanie Koontz
habitats have in common is that they are low in
nutrients. These plants had to evolve a way to
supplement their diets, and nature has plenty
of insects.
Pitcher plants
" Of the carnivorous plants native to Georgia, the
most prevalent and easiest to identify are the pitcher
plants, " says Stephanie Koontz, plant ecologist for the
Georgia Department of Natural Resources, wildlife
resources division. " We have eight unique species
in the state, all with their own special habitat
requirements. "
Growing in boggy areas, savannas and ditches
and at the edges of ponds, some pitcher plants are
tall with hollow leaf-stems that can grow up to 3 feet
high, making them easy to distinguish among grasses
and other wetland plants. Other varieties are much
34 Georgia Magazine September 2024
shorter and hide among the vegetation.
" Georgia's coastal plains are known for colonies of pitcher plants, "
Koontz says. " They can be hooded, flat-topped or completely open. Colors
[include] red, yellow, white or green tubes that lure insects to nectar along
the top of the pitcher, where they get trapped on the slippery edges and
slide down inside the tube. "
As insects move farther down the tube, fine hairs prevent them from
climbing back out. Enzymes and liquid at the bottom of the tube dissolve
the soft tissue of the prey to provide nutrients to the plant.
The purple pitcher plant inhabits part of the southern Blue Ridge
Mountains.
GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES
Georgia Magazine - September 2024

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