FLY-EATING PLANT

Evening Star, Issue 19431, 14 December 1926, Page 3

FLY-EATING PLANT

ONLY ONE IN LONDON. A floral “ fly trap ” for the home was exhibited at the fortnightly show of the Royal Horticultural Society at Westminster recently. Its name is Dionea Mucipilla. This peculiar little plant, which stands 2Ain above the earth, and comes from the marsh lands of Northern America, is carnivorous, and lives on flies. It has tiny green leaves like those of a nasturtium, with an open green pod in the middle. At the sides grow dozens of tiny green teeth, like miniature crab’s claws. This pool stays innocently wide open, its centre giving off a scent specially attractive to flies, and the fly approaches, hovers uncertainly, and then drops irresistibly into the luring green heart. Instantly the pool closes, the little teeth snap, and the fly is crushed to death in its jaws. This plant, the only one of its kind in London, if placed in a greenhouse or a room, will ultimately catch nearly every fly in the air, and can absorb them at the rate of hundreds a week. It is the property of Mr Perry, of Enfield, who also exhibits the lace plant (says the ‘Westminster Gazette’). This is the only one of its kind in the country, and also comes from North America. Its loaves when full .grown spread to a length of well over 24ft, and are Ift across.. The leaf takes two years to complete its growth, and during that tirge lives under water in complete darkness.