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Little Shop of Horrors.
Feed me Seymour! I recently visited the Conservatory of Flowers here in SF and came across these carnivorous beauties. The name Nepenthes was given by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in reference to a passage in Homer's Odyssey. "Nepenthe" literally means "without grief" and, in Greek Mythology, is a drug that quells all sorrows with forgetfulness. So, this is how the plant eats- The pitcher shaped cups are filled with a liquid that attracts insects with the odor of nectar. Because of a slippery wax on the interior walls, the insect can not hold on and ultimately falls into the muck. The motion caused by the struggle stimulates digestive glands to release an acid. This goo can dissolve a fly in just a few hours. Ew, kind of.
Feed me Seymour! I recently visited the Conservatory of Flowers here in SF and came across these carnivorous beauties. The name Nepenthes was given by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in reference to a passage in Homer's Odyssey. "Nepenthe" literally means "without grief" and, in Greek Mythology, is a drug that quells all sorrows with forgetfulness. So, this is how the plant eats- The pitcher shaped cups are filled with a liquid that attracts insects with the odor of nectar. Because of a slippery wax on the interior walls, the insect can not hold on and ultimately falls into the muck. The motion caused by the struggle stimulates digestive glands to release an acid. This goo can dissolve a fly in just a few hours. Ew, kind of.
