A carnivorous guest in Kerala gardens

KOCHI: From textbook pages they have come straight to Kerala gardens. Carnivorous plants like pitcher plant, venus fly trap, sundews and nepenthes are slowly gaining a market in the state.
Many specimens are making their way to the state from Thailand. As these are banned and endangered in their wild form, the carnivorous plants are raised through tissue culture.
"Tending to this plant needs special care as it does not need any fertiliser. The soil also has to be nutrient-free and hence we cannot grow it in the soil. If it gets nutrients from soil or fertiliser, it will not produce the 'pitcher' or their trap, which is its identity. You need to only give it water," says Wilson Varghese, Kallayi, Kozhikode.
Wilson who has an exclusive clientele across the state imports the plant from Thailand and nurtures some in his nursery says that the range varies from Rs 600 to Rs 3000 for a single plant. "Nobody buys just one plant. They buy in numbers because most die if they are neglected," he adds.
"People actually treat it like a pet. They catch mosquitoes, worms in their vegetable plants and put it into the pitcher and watch the plant swallow it. I would say that you can get children to treat it as their pet," says Jacob Varghese, assistant professor, botany, Sacred Heart college.
"I have got quite a few specimens in my home. One plant stopped producing a pitcher when unwittingly a fertiliser meant for the rose plant fell on it," he says. "I have got some for my college too"
Wilson says that one of the latest ones to soon come down is a plant that can swallow a rat. "It has a one and half feet bag.
Rejin Jayaraj, a Thrissur-based nursery owner says that since it is an endangered species, people should not collect it from the wild. "I get about 100 plants in a single consignment but about 40 percent of it gets destroyed as the plants are very sensitive," he said.
Meanwhile, Wilson is waiting for a prize order, a carnivorous plant that can gobble a rat!