Pest follow-up

I've been dealing with pests in the collection a bit lately, so I decided to do some follow-up with a couple of my plants.

First up, the Drosera collinsiae that had aphids on its flower stalk appears to be aphid-free.

This is actually the best this plant has looked in some time.

I think they had all gathered on the flower stalk to take advantage of all the sugar and nutrients concentrated there, which made it easy to get rid of them. I'm keeping this plant in quarantine a bit longer, but I think it's out of the woods.

The same cannot be said for my much more heavily-afflicted Drosera anglica CA x HI.

A shadow of its former glory.

I don't think it really liked the treatment with isopropyl alcohol, and was already quite weakened by aphids. There is a bit of green at the crown, and hopefully it can bounce back, but it's hard to say. Also I'm not positive all the aphids are gone, since they weren't all gathered on an obvious spot. That said I haven't seen any on the sundew weeds in the pot, so I'm holding out hope that there are none left. I'm going to keep this plant in quarantine for a while until it either definitely dies or bounces back and gets stronger. Then I'm going to repot it and throw out the media in case there are eggs.

My experience with this plant is proof of the wisdom of taking cuttings whenever you get a new species or cultivar. If I didn't have those plantlets I would be seriously bummed to lose this hybrid, which is one of the loveliest in cultivation, and somewhat difficult to find.

The most severely caterpillar-munched Drosera burmannii plant has kicked the bucket, but I think the other one is going to make it out alive.

To be fair this plant had already probably outlived its natural lifespan.

There are a couple dewy leaves on the plant on the left in the foreground (which is the one where I found the caterpillar living). I've fed it to jump-start the regrowth process. The one on the right has basically melted. Godspeed little plant.

To honor my fallen plant I want to share this photo from back in May. It's actually of the centermost plant, but I want to share it anyway because I recently realized it had never been posted to the blog, and it's one of the most horrifying photos I have of my carnivores. Consider it a warning to future pests.

D. burmannii is a fearsome hunter.

That's grim.