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Hey people Im new to this forum. I was never really a plant person and never had any plants of my own until last year. We were having a problem with gnats where I work in an office, and half-jokingly I was talking about getting a venus fly trap. It was funny because most of the people that I work with are nice old ladies that have very nice "normal" plants. After doing a little research I saw that the flytraps would not be ideal for my office environment, and neither would any other type of plant that would eat gnats. I did read that some sundews are very easy to grow and do not require difficult conditions, although still I thought the office would not work. I was shopping at Walgreens a drugstore and they had some sundews there for cheap. I figured what the heck, its only a few $$, ill bring it in to work and see what it does. I didnt have big expectations for it though, and I certainly did not think it would be viable enough to catch gnats. After about a week I noticed it had not done much, leaves were not dewy and alot of them didnt even have the little hairs on them, but it wasnt dying either so I was happy enough. After about another week or 2 I noticed that it started to sprout some new leaves though. Also some of the others were getting dewy. I was excited lol then finally after about a month it was catching gnats :0o: That was about 9 months ago now. In that time my sundew has been growing pretty well and catching lots of gnats. I dont know if its helped the office with the gnat problem -- we still get alot of gnats -- but at least my sundew can eat well. Im still not sure why it is doing so well in my office...I am not near windows although there is lots of artificial light all day long but there is very little humidity as well. Im sure it would be doing better if the conditions were better but it is certainly exceeding my expectations in the office. Anyway, I think my sundew has grown so well that I am probably going to re-pot it next week. The little pot that it came in is overflowing with the plant now, and there is even a second smaller sundew coming up next to my main original one. It definately looks like it needs more room. So I have been looking on some forums trying to find out how to properly re-pot them. I think I have found all of the info that I need, but I wanted to still sign up and post my feel good story of sundew survival on this site. Also if anyone has any pointers about repotting or anything else that you think I should know, go ahead and post up. Thanks.

*EDIT*
Forgot to mention this. It seems like my sundew leaves do not curl up or move when they catch gnats. I have read in the past that they dont always, or maybe they just need to get bigger or healthier so Im not worried about it. It still looks like the plant is digesting them just not curling.
 
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Congrats on getting the sundew to grow in your office. Any idea what kind it is?

Welcome to Terra Forums!
 
I'm guessing its just the capensis cape sundew "typical". The leaves are green but red on the tips...its not the alba or the ******** or lance leaf or broad leaf or anything. I can take some pics and post them maybe tomorrow. I just bought a digital camera (cannon sd1000) the other day so i'll fire that up and get some pics on here for you.
 
haha that species is harder to kill than it is to grow.
that is if it is capensis.
 
Welcome to the forum. Glad to see the sundew has you stuck on cp's enough to join us !
 
Welcome to TF!
 
Welcome to TF!!

My guess would be that it's a D. adelae, not a capensis. For one thing, you state the leaves don't curl around prey, and second, that it's adapted to somewhat lower light conditions than optimal. Third, it's formed a plantlet, possibly from runners, which adelae likes to do.
 
my capensis have never curled around things as small as gnats. they just stick and only the surrounding tentacles bring it in. but in my smaller capensis they always wrap around gnats. i think there is some sort of leaf size to bug size ratio. the bigger the bug the better the results.

oh...and welcome! :)

Alex
 
  • #10
Thanks for the warm welcome, fellow CP-ians.
I took some pics today and I will upload them and put them on here tonight. As far as my plant being D. adelae, I dont think it is. This is because I have looked at pics of adelae and it seems to have a broad leaf. As you will see in the pics that I will post later, my sundew has very narrow leaves, with the traps just on the end. But I will put them up later and let you experts figure it out. And as far as insect-to-leaf size ratio, I was thinking that too. Since my leaves are very narrow, and it has never caught anything larger than a tiny gnat, I figured that either my plant would need to get bigger or start catching bigger prey if I want the curl action. This spring I might try finding something a little larger (im in an office, so I am not gonna go crazy with this) but maybe if I can find a big ant or something I can try that out and see if it wraps around.
 
  • #11
OK as promised here are my pics....
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These next 3 were taken after I had the plant for about a week (using my camera phone). Notice how small it was and that many of the leaves didnt even have tentacles for the sticky stuff.
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  • #12
Welcome to the forum. Your pictures settle any disputes what plant it is. Definetly Drosera capensis. Happy growing.
 
  • #13
it is drosera capensis and it will be fine in your office :p but it does look rather green.
 
  • #14
I kinda figured that green is the color that it supposed to be :crazy:
 
  • #15
Looks fine to me. It might be slightly etoliated because of the low light levels, but it has a nice green color instead of a sickly yellow green color you get from very low light levels. I think what D_muscipula is referring to is the color of the tentacles on the leaves not being a more pronounced red. More light would make the tentacles a darker red.

A couple years ago my daughter had a houseplant with a severe gnat infestation. I put a medium sized Drosera filiformis next to it and after 2½ weeks the gnats were reduced to just the occasional one or two and the D. filiformis leaves were almost a solid black from all the gnats stuck to them.
 
  • #16
i love dews!!!
btw i would say thats 'alba' isnt it?
 
  • #17
I'm a bit late, but welcome to TF nonetheless!
Nice capensis. They often get a bad wrap for being 'too easy', but I love them. They grow quickly and get lots of dew. Don't worry, you'll be addicted soon.
 
  • #18
Welcome to TF!
Let us share our Obsessive Personalities with you! :water:

i love dews!!!
btw i would say thats 'alba' isnt it?
I think its probably just because of the low light intensity that the plant is getting. I bet it would color up a great deal if it was in strong light, which an alba wouldnt do.
 
  • #19
Is that a 'broad leaf' variant ya think?

Hard to tell from the photos.........
 
  • #20
Welcome to the forums! And yay for another 'dew lover! :)

You just can't resist that sticky, sparkly goo.

D. capensis leaves will slowly wrap around larger prey...but not gnats. Somewhere I have a photo of a leaf curled all around a moth.
 
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