Sundew Flowers

 

I had a nice walk this week in the relative cool snap. This is the view from my favorite picnic spot at Franklin Parker Preserve in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. See that floating log in the lower right foreground? Click to enlarge. 

There were many such logs. Note the pretty red fringe along the top. It's sundew plants. They are among the famous carnivorous plants of the region. Their red leaves are covered with droplets of sticky fluid that trap insects. The plant digests them and incorporates their nutrients. It helps the plants get by in nutrient-poor soils. Sundews have made a career out of it.  

Right now they are flowering. That poses a small dilemma. How does a sticky insect-trapping plant avoid trapping an insect that it hopes will take some pollen and fly away to pollinate another plant's flower? They just grow long stems, stems that hold the flowers high above the traps. See the white flowers way up over the bushy red mass? Each stem ends in a flower and is lined with buds that will bloom sequentially. That's a great solution, you tricky plants!