Drosera Species, Sundew

A nifty little carnivorous plant, cape sundew has a congested mass of long, thing, tentacle-like leaves with reddish hairs at the end, ti...Read Morepped with a sticky, glistening substance. Insects landing on it quickly become ensnared. This sends a message to other tentacles, which creep toward the victim, smearing it with more "glue" and eventually forcing it down, where it is digested and absorbed in fluids. A fun way to get rid of mosquitoes. Shade from hot sun, and keep the potting mix continually moist by standing the pot in a saucer of rain or soft water.

A great carnivorous plant for beginners! Ours survived having a pot full of boiling water/spaghetti accidentally dumped on it (though it...Read More lost most of its leaves it recovered) and it blooms constantly with these pretty little purple flowers that unwind way up above the traps. Now we have bunches of little baby plants growing up all over the pot, including in the saucer (they don't seem to mind being submerged). You don't have to collect rainwater -- distilled water bought at the store works just as well (which is good because it sometimes goes for six months without raining here). Do NOT use regular water or bottled spring water as they have too many minerals in them and will kill it. Do NOT fertilize. The only fertilizer it needs is occasional tiny insects stuck on its leaves. If you can't find any a banana peel left near it will usually attract fruit flies.
We water it every day with distilled water and keep about a 1/4 inch (1/2 cm) water in its tray and have the whole thing sitting in a larger saucer of water to provide humidity. Ours grows happily without any kind of dome or terrarium on the kitchen windowsill (a corner window behind the sink with southern and eastern exposure) -- but the steam from the sink adds to the humidity.
Since it is originally from the tropics, it doesn't need a period of dormancy like Venus Flytraps do.
Based on the way it reproduces indoors in a pot, I would be wary of planting it outdoors in a bog garden as it might become invasive.

A very interesting plant! It is carnivorous. The upper part of the plants leaves have hairs with tiny water drops on them. If an insect l...Read Moreands on them they stick to the leaf which roles up.
The plant digests the insect. It is kind of difficult to care for the
plant because it needs very high moisture and has to be
watered with rainwater. But I love this plant!!