Drosera

Drosera is a family of carnivorous plants know as Sundews.

My plant has been growing well in the unheated conservatory.
This is Drosera capensis alba - Cape Sundew

 

It is one of the easiest to grow and is happy with the heat in Summer and the cooler / cold temperatures in the Winter. The main care point is keeping it moist all the time. I always keep the saucer topped up with rain water. During the Winter I also use the water from the de-humidifier I sometimes run in the conservatory.

The slender leaves are covered in a mass of very sticky globules which catch any unwary small flies which land on a leaf.

 

A fly's eye view



From experience  I can vouch that they are very sticky.

Timelapse - Sundew Flowers

The finished timelapse video of my Sundew plant flowering:



If the video looks a bit blurry YouTube may have chosen to show it at 480p
In that case click the cog wheel at the bottom and then Quality.
Choose a better quality, up to 1080p depending on the speed of your internet connection.

Title scene made in HitFilm 2 Express
Stills compiled to video with TLDF
Final video made with iMovie
Soundtrack found on Wikimedia Commons.

One Still

Sorry folks. This is not a set of instruction for making your own hooch.

I've had a quick look at the new set of photos of the Sundew plant flowering.
257 taken so far. I have to check every one to remove the occasional blank photo.
Possibly the flash / shutter sync fails every once in a while.
Also tried a new app for assembling them to make a video at 1080p 25fps HD

This is a crop from one of the new series of photographs:



There might be enough by Friday to make a new time-lapse video.

One problem has been keeping the flowers in frame:



The photos were taken about a week apart and show that the flower stems grow as they unfurl.

Sundew Timelapse - Early Test Sample

Five days ago I started taking a flash photo of the Sundew flower stems every 15 minutes. The idea being to make a timelapse video. Here is a test video made from the 473 photos taken so far:



The video was made at 30fps and then slowed down 50%
I had to adjust the camera view a few times as the stems are still growing in height.
You may need to force YouTube to show in HD.
Click on the little wheel at the bottom and choose HD

Avoiding the Death Trap + A New Project

Spotted this crafty fly which had settled on the outside of a Venus Flytrap:



Longish term project.



It's quite a while since I last made a time-lapse video.
This set up is to try capturing the Sundew flowers opening.
The top bud is just starting to show some pink.

An old Canon 350D powered from a mains adaptor made by Canon.
Canon 18-55mm lens.  8GB memory card. (room for well over 2 weeks photos)
Flash gun powered from a 12V battery via a voltage dropper to supply 3V
Battery operated digital timer set to trigger a photo every 15 minutes.
Focussing was the very devil as the Sundew is so 'furry' it always looks fuzzy.

No idea how many days this will need to operate to get a result.
I reckon the final video will be about 5 seconds for each day.

Not Just Sticky Leaves

I could see something different about a few new growths on my Sundew plant. As well as growing new sticky leaves, which seem to be doing a grand job in trapping the small flies which can infest compost, there are:



Flower buds? Until yesterday I had never noticed a photo of a Sundew in flower but a quick search showed they do indeed produce pretty pink flowers. Something else to look forward to.

A Sticky End

Close views of a Sundew leaf showing all the sticky blobs waiting to trap any unsuspecting insect.
The sticky blobs surround nectar glands.  I assume those are the red bits seen in close shots.

Taken with the iPhone:


Closer views of the very sticky blobs on the end of each tentacle.
Focus stacked shots with the Canon 50D + 135mm lens + Raynox DCR-250 macro lens.

44 shots with ring light, which is reflected in every sticky ball


60 shots without the ring light


Notice how the tentacles bend over to trap anything which lands on the leaf.
Both those sets of stacked photos were processed with Zerene Stacker.

Finally 20 focus stacked shots with Canon 50D + 200mm + Raynox MSN-202 macro lens.
 

This time processed with Affinity Photo as it gave a better result than Zerene Stacker.

For more information visit the Grow Sundews site.  Not an https secure site.

Catching Flies

Catching pesky annoying flies in the home can be done several ways.

Artificial man made catcher.
This is the one I use. No chemicals.
Just a nice attractive, to flies, yellow colour and a very sticky surface.
I have just replaced last year's one as it was well and truly covered with dead flies:



In the past I have tried the yellow sticky sheet type catchers.
Two problems.
Trying to get the paper cover off them without sticking to the darn thing.
Worse, ending up with a sore throat from the chemical used to attract insects.
All you have to do with the Zero In is hold the plastic hook and slide it out of the box as the plastic shapes at each end prevent it from catching on the cardboard.

The natural way with plants which catch flies.
I have had a Venus Fly trap and Pitcher plant in past years but lost them to cold winters.
Now I have got round to replacing them with the addition, for the first time, of a Sundew:



It will be interesting to see which of these works best in the conservatory.

Also tried in the past.
A UV zapper. The type you sometimes see in food shops.
The light attracts insects and a high voltage zaps them.
The almighty crack when one was zapped used to make me jump.
It didn't attract many flies.
It cost money having it plugged in to the electric supply all the time.

A hand held electric zapper. The tennis racket shaped thingy.
I'm too slow to swat the flies. Again the crack when one is zapped made me jump.
Having it handy, with a working battery was a clat.

Much better to have something you can hang up and forget about as it gets on with its designed task.
Just keep it well away from curtains which might blow on to it or heads which may brush against it.