Ch'ien Lee at California Carnivores

Yesterday was a big day – the much-acclaimed wildlife photographer and Nepenthes authority Ch'ien Lee gave a presentation at California Carnivores.

Ch'ien Lee at the beginning of his talk.

Ch'ien is an amazing photographer (seriously, go check out his website) and has traveled throughout the remotest parts of Indonesia, Malaysia, New Guinea, and the Philippines. I hope it's not another 6 years before he comes back to the States! His presentation wasn't just pretty pictures either – there were lessons on geography, plate tectonics, and the history of science, along with great little vignettes about everything from orangutans to Cordyceps fungi, all with photo illustrations (of course).

Before and after the presentation, I wandered around California Carnivores, saying hi to the Carnivore Girl and others, and checking out all the sweet plants.

Sweet bromeliad display.

Huge Sarracenia 'Deep Throat' – the pitcher mouth was as wide as my fist.

I was very tempted by this Sarracenia flava with the exaggerated point on its lid.

Damon and Daniela also gave Maria and I a peek at all the new weird flytraps Damon got from Europe last year and which they're starting to put into production.

This is Dionaea 'Sunrise'.

Dionaea 'Werewolf', a tissue culture mutant.

This Dionaea "Mega Traps" was more beautiful than weird.

I wasn't able to buy as many plants as I had planned (I've spent a lot of money getting some camping gear lately), but I did come away with two very cool acquisitions. First, they finally managed to find me a Drosera slackii.

Finally! Can't wait to grow/propagate this guy.

I'd been trying to buy a D. slackii from California Carnivores for the better part of a year, but somehow they never got around to repotting their leaf cuttings. Then they found this beautiful plant somewhere in the back. It's great!

I also picked up this Sarracenia hybrid, because, well, it looked sort of dumb.

I'll need to find a succinct way to refer to this plant.

This is Sarracenia purpurea ssp. venosa var. burkii × (×wrigleyana × leucophylla). When I showed it to my roommate, he laughed out loud. I can't wait to grow this out more to see if the pitchers stay this silly. I really hope so.