Last upload 2024 December 14
20 Years Boxing Day Tsunami

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 How to grow Triphyophyllum peltatum

The largest carnivorous plant on earth.
Bilingual: English & German subtitles provided.

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Adventures with Carnivorous Plants in Australia:
2001 - Carnivorous Plant Maniacs in Down Under.


1995 - Destination Carnivorous Plants


1991 - Beautiful and Hungry!

Let us take you on an adventurous journey through Down Under. Exciting entertainment not only for CP-friends.
Featuring Allen Lowrie, Marilyn Minon and Trevor Hannam.

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Copper foil to fight Tiger Mossies

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Devil's Claws are Bug-Plants. A Spontaneous Mutualism.

European Mirids on American Plants.

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Drosera glanduligera in Guinness World Records 2021

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The fastest carnivorous plants show what they are able to do.
A very special competition.

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Symbiotic bugs living on carnivorous plants in tropical Australia

Predatory mirid bugs form biological communities with different sticky carnivorous plants. Such a symbiosis with Roridula and Pameridea bugs was first described from South Africa by the German botanist Rudolf Marloth in 1902. About half a century later, Lloyd (1942) and China (1953) reported on Setocoris and Cyrtopeltis bugs living on Byblis gigantea and some Drosera near Perth (Southwest Australia). In 1995, Irmgard and I were very fortunate to film and publish four of such mutualisms for the first time on tropical Byblis and Drosera in Northern Australia. On three journeys, we spent more than six months in Australia to capture news on carnivorous plants on film and found luckily even a not described sundew. As a positive consequence, our movies and articles on the discoveries found the interest of acknowledged scientists, and led to an invitation to hold a video lecture at the National Science Museum in Tokyo, Japan. That was both, a great honor and a confirmation of the relevance of our work. This film contains excerpts from our original footage and comments; however, remastered (includes English subtitles) as a brief entertaining (HD) summary on the bug - carnivorous plant mutualisms in tropical Australia. The first publication of the mutualisms that we discovered on our video-tour through Northern Australia took place even in 1995 in the Bulletin of the Australien Carnivorous Plant Society (ACPS). A detailed description of the phenomenon followed in 1996, including a those days painstakingly collected listing of the systematics of mirid bugs (Diciphini), which live on sticky carnivores. Once again synchronically published in the German and English language in Das Taublatt Heft 27 (jetzt als PDF) and the Bulletin der ACPS Volume 15.

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The Realm of Emergences: Drosera Sektion Arachnopus

The Realm of Emergences shows the history and the currently most detailed description of the spider leg sundews (section Arachnopus) by their different emergences in an entertaining fashion. With D. hartmeyerorum, Dr. Jan Schlauer split the first species from D. indica for its unique morphology in 2001. Criticized by some experts at that time, today we can say with certainty that the plants in this section can actually be distinguished by their emergences, even if their function is often not known. Only the characteristics of the emergences of D. hartmeyerorum have been unequivocally proven. They function as optical lenses, which light up bright yellow even under a red laser beam. In D. cucullata we find structures that appear like ant abdomens and when the German couple Holger & Anja Hennern discovered a sundew with ice-lolly emergences in 2008, even the experts were amazed. These and further emergences that appear even more fascinating beneath the microscope help to identify the plants that have been distinguished from D. indica so far.   This film enables you to recognize the featured plants easily.

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Untangling The Indian Sundew Muddle

Even in 1753, Linnaeus described the Indian Sundew (Drosera indica) officially. In our film, we are especially happy to show the herbal records that existed at that time with the kind permission by the Trustees of the Natural History Museum London (GBR) and the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden (NLD). Despite their different appearance, between 1753 to 2001 all spider leg sundews ( section DroseraArachnopus) occuring from Africa over Asia to Australia were identified as D. indica. Some early attempts to assign plants as separate species, such as by Planchon in 1848, failed because the distinguishing characteristics were not considered sufficient and/or reliable. Eventually in 2017, we were able to examine also the micromorphology of the "real" D. indica and found emergences, which were obviously misinterpreted and/or ignored in the existing literature. Until today, the spider leg sundews are often confused and therefore incorrectly labeled in botanical gardens as well as private collections. With our film "Untangling the Indian Sundew Muddle" we hope to be helpful to assign D. indica correctly. We are very grateful for the kind support by taxonomy expert Dr. Jan Schlauer, for the provision of seeds from the "real" D. indica by Gideon Lim and the photos of D. barrettiorum by Holger & Anja Hennern.

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Publications and videos on the fascinating catapult-flypaper trap Our documentary on the catapult-flypaper-trap derives from a common project with the Plant Biomechanics Group of the Botanic Garden of the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg. In September 2012 our filmlet for the PLOS ONE article Catapulting Tentacles in a Sticky Carnivorous Plant  became Video of the week by the German magazine Bild der Wissenschaft.

Our documentation "The Diva's Catapult" >Publikation on PLOS ONE<         Press Release of the University Freiburg International Press Responds Short film: The catapult-flypaper trap in action. Prey capture in a nutshell on YouTube.

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On CP-tour with Stewart McPherson

DVD description

 The English movie as playlist on YouTube

CP-books and more by Stewart McPherson

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Drosera: Snap-tentacles and Runway Lights.

Our examinations on sundew tentacles from 1994 to 2010.

DVD   YouTube   Drosera glanduligera

Publication in CPN  General view with microscope pictures

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Siggi Hartmeyer's
performance at TV total.

Click on the photo or text to view the broadcast on.

Comedy meets Carnivorous Plants.

Germany's popular entertainer Stefan Raab questioned Siggi on "the personal sensitivities of carnivorous plants".
A very special lesson. Here is much room for a lot of laughter.
More informationen at our page "The Hartmeyers on TV".

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TV-Broadcast: Planet Wissen 14.08.2015: "Pflanzen wie wir." On air via the TV-stations SWR, ARD-alpha, WDR, 1-plus, HR, RBB "Neue Sicht auf unsere grünen Mitgeschöpfe" with technology writer Volker Arzt. Plants can do much more than most people think. Plants lure and lie, they warn and defend themselves, and they know how to orienteer. With each new study, botanists discover more fascinating skills. For example, plants are able to distinguish colors and smells. They communicate with each other and with animals. They recognize who is feeding on them and react with precisely tailored defense strategies. The guest on Planet Wissen is nature filmmaker and journalist Volker Arzt, who succeeded in making an award-winning film with "Kluge Pflanzen" (Clever Plants). Expert consultant is the famous technology writer Volker Arzt, who talks about the making of his documentary and book "Kluge Pflanzen" (Clever Plants). It was a pleasure to provide some film fooltage  for "Planet Wissen" (English: planet knowledge). Volker Arzt mailed us: "The editorial staff "caught fire" after looking at your clips on the internet ..." The warmly recommended book by Volker Arzt: For everybody who is looking for more information on the defensive strategies and the sensoric performance of plants. It provides a plain, thrilling and entertaining insight into modern plant research. Enclosed is a DVD with two film documentaries! Kluge Pflanzen by Volker Arzt. C. Bertelsmann, 2009 - ISBN: 978-3570010266.