Essential Survival Gear Catalog

In making your herb garden, if you want to have a very different gardening experience, carnivorous plants are bound to get attention. From the common Venus Flytrap to the Cobra plant, these interesting plants serve a few purposes. In areas that have large numbers of bugs, it decreases the number of flies or other insects that bother you. While the benefit is limited to the size and type of carnivorous plants that you own, these plants can provide a small amount of relief while providing entertainment to adults and children alike.

There are five different types of carnivorous plants. The well known type, the same family that the Venus Flytrap contains, is the snap trap family. Snap traps rely on a mouth that closes in around its victim, where the plant will eat anything it catches.

Next are pitfall traps. These traps rely on food tumbling into the plant and being unable to get out. These types undergo frequent evolution, as water can gather in the pitchers of the plant and also the bugs that the plant eats. These plants range from colorful to ugly, and do not have moving parts like their snap trap counterparts.

Flypaper traps are among some of the most unique carnivorous plants. These plants spew forth a glue which traps and consumes insects for food. These carnivorous plants should be treated with caution in the home, as the secretions can cause irritation to the skin.

Bladder traps are quite fascinating. These plants function through the osmosis of water to create a suction within the body of the plant. Once an insect or aquatic species has been trapped within, escape is difficult. Unlike many carnivorous plants, these are more commonly found underwater than above ground. Some classifications of the bladder traps, like the Bladderwort, don’t have roots, which makes them quite a creative addition to your collection in the garden.

Last but not least, the lobster pot traps are among some of the most odd appearing carnivorous plants that you can buy. These plants can make it through by allowing insects an easy way to gain entry, but little chance of escaping. In the case of the corkscrew plant, the internal structure of the plant have downward pointing obstructions and a y-shaped leaf form that prevents the escape of its prey. The unusual shapes of lobster pot traps are directly related to their evolution to halt the escape of bugs.

For those wanting a plant even more unusual in their herb gardening pots, there are several varieties of plants that do not meet all of the requirements of carnivorous plants, but have sharing characteristics. Such plants include the Brocchinia Roridula and the Martyniaceae species. These types of plants lack one of the three required aspects, which is to attract, kill and digest prey, to be classified as a proper carnivorous plant.

In making your herb garden, carnivorous plants should be tended where young children and babies cannot touch them. While quite a few of them are mostly harmless to humans, the consumption of these species should be avoided, due to the digestive enzymes that the plant utilizes to eat their victim.