Plant of the day is: Drosera affinis or South African sundew

Plant of the day is: Drosera affinis or South African sundew

Hard to cite these:  Tell me to take it down if ya own it and hate education.

Hopefully I'll be growing several of these soon.  I've never grown carnivorous plants before.  Should be an adventure.  Can't wait to see some tentacles.  It'll be the first time I'll feed a plant with fish food (seriously...fish food).  Though...they may get plenty of bugs in my greenhouse.

Taxonomy/etc.:  Where to start really?  Drosera is a fascinating genus in the Droseraceae family and is the type genus for the family.  It is a small family with around 200 accepted species (LOTS of debate about species designation in the Drosera genus).  Drosera are, of course, called sundews and are one of the largest genera of carnivorous plants.  Typically perennial (rarely annual) herbaceous plants.  Most of them are relatively small but D. erythrogyne has climbing stems that can reach up to 3 m.  Impressive.  There are a few divisions of sundews, including: temperate, subtropical, pygmy, tuberous, and petiolaris complex.  The pygmy and petiolaris complex groups are found in Australia.  D. derbyensis is a BONKERS looking petiolaris complex, just bonkers.  Click here if you don't believe me.

Description:  Drosera affinis is one of the subtropical species resembling D. nidiformis when young.  Early growth forms as a basal rosette which then forms an elongated stem up to 25cm long.  The petioles of the leaf are a nice yellow/red color, as well as the lamina (leaf blade).  The tentacle looking things that stick out of the leaf are ...called tentacles and at the tips there is a mucilaginous bead that contains enzymes to digest the unwary (and unlucky) insect that happens to wander into its snare.  The liquid suffocates the insect and then the insect is digested.  Pretty rough way to go, reminds me of the pit of Sarlacc.  Most carnivorous plants have developed these complex strategies for survival because they live in very nutrient poor soils and have adapted to supplement their diets with readily available nitrogen from passing insects.  The pygmy sundew, for example, doesn't even produce certain enzymes that most other plants do that are necessary to extract nitrogen from the soil (like nitrate reductase).  Sometimes I think it's easy to forget just how OUTSIDE the box many plants have evolved to survive.  Truly impressive.  

Habitat:  Middle Africa (Angola, Dem. Rep. of Congo), eastern Africa (Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Aambia, Zimbabwe)

Culture:  Like many carnivorous plants living in swampy/boggy areas, D. affinis prefers lots of moisture and a lot of light.  D. affinis is actually one of the easier species to grow and has become more and more popular and available as that discovery has come to light.  It used to be a fairly uncommon species in cultivation.  From a few blogs I ran across, it looks like it does like a good amount of water and at least 30% relative humidity.  Grow in 2 to 4" pots as they develop a long root system.  Feed once every two weeks. For BEST results, use RO or distilled water.  You want water with very low mineral content or total dissolved solids (TDS).  

On growing media:  Two options are common.  The first is a 1:1 blend of milled pet and sand.  The downside to using this is that you need to "rinse" both of these (basically rinse out in multiple changes of water in a 5 gallon bucket) to get the best result.  This leaches out the minerals/nutrients and leads to less algae growth down the road.  Best to use silica sand (quartz sand) as well, as it tends to be much cleaner (pool sand is good).  Downside is that silica sand is an irritant when inhaled and can cause silicosis if too much for too long is inhaled.  The second method is the method I am going to use, which just uses long-fibered sphagnum.  You still need to "rinse" the long-fibered sphagnum but it is a MUCH easier process and only requires working with one component.  Sounds good to me.  Throw in some antimicrobial properties of long-fibered sphagnum and you've got a great media to grow in.  

Watering:  Must always be wet.  Best strategy is to use bottom watering by placing your pot in a plastic watertight bin and flooding with 1/4" to 1" of water in the bottom.  Add water when low but do not let the plants dry out.  Easy method.  Again, use RO or low mineral/nutrient content water.

Fertilizing:  Beta Bites pellets (crushed).  Can use bloodworms, fruit flies, fungus gnats (they might help clean the greenhouse for you!).

HUGE thanks to Aaron May, Lutz Pludra, and Phil Anton at GrowSundews.com for their AMAZINGLY detailed work to educate noobs like me on the art of growing sundews.