Field Trip: California Carnivores (again)

Before this post, a programming note: The Bay Area Carnivorous Plant Society is having their monthly beer social at the Westbrae Biergarten in Berkeley on Wednesday, 10-14 (tomorrow). The address is 1280 Gilman St., and is about a 10 minute walk from the North Berkeley BART station. We'll be there from 6-9, so come on by, drink some beers, and hang out. I'll probably bring some ping pulls to share. Okay, back to your regularly-scheduled blogpost.

I've been hanging out with a lot of carnivore folks lately. On Sunday Josh and I took a drive up to California Carnivores to see some folks and stare at some plants. Y'know, as you do. There was lots of great stuff in there (as usual), but a couple things caught my eye.

First up is this Nepenthes Viking × ampullaria Red Stripe. I'm only permitting myself one Nepenthes in this post, but I think this is worth it.

It looks like a candy apple.

Fly away little plant.

Look at that bright red little fatty with the big ole wings. This is a real show-stopper of a plant. I had actually never been in this part of California Carnivores. I'm not sure why. It's a big hothouse area. Guess I hadn't realized that door was there!

I spent a bit of time admiring their collection of weird VFT clones and cultivars. One of my favorite mutants is Dionaea 'Angel Wings'.

These are definitely non-functional traps.

Now that is a yonic plant.

I also quite liked the much more understated Dionaea 'Harmony'.

Such neat tidy little traps. Cute!

There's so much fun stuff back there. Just wait until this all gets in production, it's gonna be awesome for VFT collectors.

This Pinguicula sp. Tonala ANPA A had the best flower in the ping collection when I was there.

I love how different this flower is.

I wonder if this is the plant I lost the auction to Mike Wilder for. Hmm...might have to beg a pulling off of them.

The tuberous dews are starting to wake up over there. This is Drosera rosulata.

Tuberous dews are so much work. I should get more.

I should probably start to coax my two tuberous species out of dormancy. That'll be a major finger-crossing moment.

Near the tuberous are a couple of Drosera regia, including this insanely dewy tangle.

This is what doom looks like to order Diptera.

This species produces insane amounts of mucilage when happy. Just look at that!

Finally, the loveliest plant there was this Drosera intermedia × capillaris.

Even my non-plant friends think this plant looks awesome.

I really ought to have bought one, but I've definitely capped out my plant budget for this paycheck. Oh well, there's always next time.

P.S. If you're in the Bay, come to the social. It'll be a Hoot.