This
is an overview of our movies, mainly but not exclusively on carnivorous plants (CP) and botanical
rarities, briefly described in the English language.
Most videos provide English subtitles, some are completely in English. Just click on the thumbnails to view the film on YouTube. Enjoy!
Siggi at Stefan
Raab's TVtotal.
The interview on the famous sofa is about the state of
carnivorous plants. Laughter is expressly permitted here. To be seen at
MySpass. German language. Good entertainment!
 
Link to index with brief descriptions of all single lectures of the
ICPS World Conference in Tokyo (2002).
Scroll down for the single lectures.
Our film for the ICPS 2022 World Carnivorous Plant Day: Ingenious Traps.
To be seen on the ICPS YouTube channel. With contributions from Dr.
Simon Poppinga (biomimetrics),
Dr. Jan Schlauer (chemotaxonomy) and
Siggi & Irmgard Hartmeyer (Venus flytrap). Click on thumb.
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 Sri Lanka 1981 + Trailer Boxing Day Tsunami 2004
In
1981, we visited Sri Lanka for a week on our trip to Nepal for a beach
vacation and to get to know the country and its people along the west
coast. The remastering of this digitized Super 8 celluloid film
continues our series of nostalgic travelogues. Of course, we have again
selected suitable background music from our SMARTSOUND archive.
In
2004, we returned to Sri Lanka to film a documentary about the world's
largest specialist nursery for carnivorous pitcher plants, Borneo
Exotics. On Christmas, we witnessed the devastating Boxing Day tsunami,
which killed more than 250,000 people around the Indian Ocean, from the
balcony of our hotel, which is fortunately located on a rock several
meters above sea level. A trailer shows the arrival of the 2nd wave in
Mount Lavinia in time-lapse, as a preview of a film currently being
made to mark the 20th anniversary of the catastrophe.
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How to grow Triphyophyllum peltatum in the greenhouse.
The
largest carnivorous plant on the planet is a West African liana up to
70 m long. After 3 ½ years of experience with growing it in the
greenhouse, our tutorial shows how it works. Triphyophyllum peltatum
is still extremely rare in private collections, but fortunately this
could soon change. If you have a greenhouse in which lowland Nepenthes feel at home, you can get started with these guidelines as soon as the plants are on sale.
We would like to thank Stewart McPherson, Dr. Heiko Rischer and Dr. Jan
Schlauer for their permission to use location photos from Sierra Leone
(West Africa) and unique photos from the greenhouse cultivation in the
Botanical Garden of the University of Würzburg. We would like to
thank John Mignano for the botanical drawings.
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In
May, Irmgard and I visited the ICPS World Conference 2024, organized by
the society for carnivorous plants in the German-speaking area, GFP,
which also celebrated its 40th anniversary here, in the wonderful
ambience of Schönbrunn Castle in Vienna (Austria). In addition to
pictures from the orangery with a sensational range of carnivorous
plants, we are showing short excerpts from several of the highly
interesting lectures by well-known scientists. We have translated
everything in English and German with subtitles. Our entertaining
excursion to Vienna is therefore bilingual throughout. It is certainly
worthwhile for scientific laymen to take a look.
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It
always looks sensational when the rapid catapults of some sundews fling
their prey into the sticky tentacles of the trapping leaf in a matter
of seconds or even milliseconds. The largest of the catapult-flypaper
traps known to date, Drosera glanduligera,
is even faster than the famous Venus flytrap. In the past, who would
have thought a sundew could do that? The exciting research into these
fast trapping movements in the genus Drosera only began in the 1980s with the still rather sedate Drosera burmannii / D. sessilifolia.
We show with impressive recordings how research into the fast catapults
progressed. Even today there are still surprises. In this film we show
all known rapid catapult-flypaper traps and present video evidence of
the tentacle movement of Drosera australis, a further rapid pygmy Drosera. |
CP-Maniacs in Down Under 2001 Upload 11.1.2024
In the last part of our Australia trilogy in 2001, we find many carnivorous plants with Kirstie
Wulf and Greg Bourke near Sydney and in the Blue Mountains. We look for
more sundews and bladderworts with Trevor Hannam in Cairns and film Drosera schizandra
in the jungle of Mount Bartle Frere. In Port Douglas, we are invited by
Helen and Michael Gabour to the great blues events at the Court House
Hotel, dive on the Barrier Reef and encounter more carnivores and an
impressive stick insect near Cape Tribulation. In the CP-paradise of
the Kimberley near Kununurra, we film many plants and two
bug-plant-mutualisms including a sundew with unusual characteristics,
which we are delighted to find in cultivation on our return to Germany.
We show it to an expert and Dr. Jan Schlauer explains the unique
characteristics of the plant in an interview at the end of June. In
December 2001, he describes the new species in Carnivorous Plant
Newsletter as Drosera hartmeyerorum.
This film offers an hour of exciting adventures on the successful
search for carnivorous plants in Australia. It doesn't get much more
adventurous than this!
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Controlling Tigermossis with Copper Upload 24.10.2023
Asian tiger mosquitoes (Aedes albopictus)
are increasingly becoming a serious problem in southern Germany. Here
in Weil am Rhein it is already so bad that our Ordnungsamt (office of
public order) distributes free Culinex tablets with the active
ingredient Bti (protein crystals of Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis).
This is used to make a solution that is specifically lethal to mosquito
larvae (but also other Diptera larvae), which must be reapplied every
1-2 weeks. As an alternative, which works for months, this year we have
made tests with copper foil in flower coasters and trays, the results
are presented in this film. It will certainly not be possible to
completely do without Bti, but hobby gardeners can successfully combat
or at least greatly reduce the plague in the greenhouse and garden with
copper foil.
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On
a tour through our summer garden, we encounter exciting animal visitors
beside carnivorous plants. A perfectly camouflaged crab spider (Misumena atria) is stealing prey from a White Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia leucophylla) while being bothered by a fly. So, what's going on there? The elegantly tropical digger wasp Sceliphron caementarium proves to be extremely clever at nectar snacking on, of all things, Sarracenia pitfall traps. And then even a Russian bear surprises us! With great shots it becomes exciting again this time.
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Are
springtails (Collembola) harmful or useful in the pots of our plants?
What happens when they encounter sundews there? We show the exciting
world of primordial insects with exceptional photographs under the
microscope. It was such a springtail that, during a coincidental
observation, first brought to our attention the sensational prey
capture of a lightning-fast catapulting sundew. We thank Andy Landgraf
for his permission to show some of his excellent macro images of
springtails.
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About 1500 km south of their native habitats in the Carolinas, Venus flytraps (Dionaea muscipula), propagated from seeds, find a comparable environment in open
long leaf pine forest on the property of Bill Scholl in northern Florida. Originally, they
relied on occasional wildfires that remove not only dry undergrowth but
also the wiregrass that often grows over them. Presently, on Bill’s
property, they benefit from controlled burns done by Bill and his burn
team to manage the habitat.
Often only the parts of the Venus
flytraps near the surface are killed by the fire so they quickly
resprout in areas cleared of overgrowth, although, where wiregrass is
abundant it rapidly grows over the flytraps. In the summer, tropical
storms and hurricanes are common with heavy rains that temporally
inundate the Venus flytraps. A controlled burn was done on the forest
surrounding the Venus flytraps in this timelapse in April, the effects of which can easily be seen in this amazing timelapse over the complete year of 2022.
We (Irmgard and myself) edited and produced this film in collaboration
with Dr. Stephen Williams (USA), who assembled the timelapse sequences,
and Bill Scholl, who did the video monitoring on his property.
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Nepenthes pervillei,
the Seychelles pitcher plant, has some unusual characteristics for the
genus. These include the constant formation of rosettes on the climbing
long shoots, with the pitchers held upright by a short tendril in wind
and weather. In 1992 we visited the Seychelles and found magnificent
sites where the tendrils overgrew rocks, bushes and trees with
thousands of pitchers. It was a sensational view. A few years ago, we
noticed in the greenhouse another peculiarity of the inflorescences (male in
our case). They rotate a full 360° over 24 hours regardless of the
sun's position, something we have never observed in any other pitcher
plant and for which we have not yet found any literature. |
We investigate the function of the prominent eyespots of Nepenthes reinwardtiana,
a pitcher plant common in Borneo and Sumatra. The spots obviously have
different physical characteristics than the surrounding, very smooth
and fluorescent tissue inside the pitchers. In contrast to this
water-repellent (hydrophobic) surface, the hydrophilic eyespots
effectively accumulate small water droplets suspended in the air during
fog or heavy rain. As a result, steadily growing water droplets form
there, eventually hanging over the edge of the "eyes" where they form
an amazingly opalescent play of color with incident light. This is
certainly attractive to insects, which the plant preys upon.
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Destination Carnivorous Plants Remastered:
Our Australia Tour 1995
Upload 27.1.2023
This
very adventurous and exciting search for carnivorous plants in
Australia in 1995 has been extended with previously unreleased footage
compared to the original released DVD in 1995. The adventure begins
where our 1st tour ended in 1991, at the Lowries' home in Perth, with a
lecture on Devil's Claws. Together we fly to Broome and drive with Sue
Giesen's off-road bus towards Derby, always on the lookout for Byblis,
sundews and bladderworts.
In Derby we start with a small plane to Beverley Springs (today
Charnley River Station), a wonderful
CP-paradise. Then we continue to Halls Creek, where Sue Giesen is
waiting with her bus. We fly over the pristine Bungle Bungles with a
helicopter and then continue to Kununurra. There, the Lowries
unexpectedly decide to travel on alone, so we are now on our own, which
turns out to be a stroke of luck for our CP-search. We are the first to
discover both the spider leg sundew, named after the Hartmeyers six
years later, and the bug-plant symbioses on Byblis filifolia
and various large sundews, previously unknown in tropical northern
Australia, which we first published in the ACPS Journal in 1996.
Then we continue to Darwin. During excursions to Howard Springs and the
"Cathedrals of the North", enormous termite mounds, we discover more
sundews populated by bugs as well as bladderworts. After a successful
week, we fly on to Cairns for diving and snorkeling on the Barrier Reef
and make excursions into the world's oldest rainforest. In Cairns we
meet Trevor Hannam, president of the North Queensland Carnivorous Plant
Society, who leads us on an adventurous trip to the only known pitcher
plant in Australia at that time, Nepenthes mirabilis. There our film
ends, which will be continued in a few months with our 3rd Australia
movie "Fleischimania".
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How did the bugs (Dicyphus errans) develop on our devil's claws (Proboscidea louisianica var. fragrans) during the summer? How do we control the dangerous and aggressive Asian tiger mosquitoes (Aedes albopictus) in the collection? Does a floating culture of spider leg sundew (Drosera section Arachnopus) succeed without soil? What is our Nepenthes veitchii female doing and how is the Triphyophyllum? Our new film from the greenhouse and garden in autumn answers all these questions in an entertaining fashion.
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Japanese Amanoshrimps (Caridina multidentata)
love filamentous algae. They live with us with a shoal of guppies and a
red-eared slider. We demonstrate in a several days experiment, how
effectively they clean a heavily algae-covered decorative stone in an
aquarium. These lively creatures only live in freshwater when fully
grown, as their offspring need brackish or seawater to mature. Good
entertainment!
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We show how our Japanese fiber bananas (Musa basjoo) survive the winter outdoors and what a few minutes of hail did to them and a Nepenthes bicalcarata.
In addition, a clever mimosa near the air circulation fan as well as
pictures from the cold house in spring. We close with a recommendation
for our film "Ingenious Traps" for the ICPS World Carnivorous Plant Day (WCPD, May 4, 2022), from which we have taken some effects-laden time-lapse videos by Claus Rodemer (Claus' Carnivores).
Good entertainment!
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This
film shows our adventures in search of carnivorous plants in Australia
1990/91. Already in Singapore we are welcomed completely surprisingly
with a red carpet and Siggi even appears briefly on TV. We find Nepenthes
on Sentosa Island and others in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney.
With a rental car we drive north along the east coast, finding first
sundews and later visit the sympathetic Marilyn Minon and her Nepenthes collection in Townsville.
We drive to Port Douglas, the base of the famous Quicksilver fleet for
trips to the Barrier Reef. There we also take off with Wolfgang Klein's
airplane as well as an off-road vehicle to the surroundings of the
Daintree Rainforest. As a tropical cyclone approaches, we move to a
concrete hotel in Cairns and escape Cyclone Joy with one of the last
planes still allowed to take off to Darwin. Christmas Eve we head from
there to the famous Kakadu National Park, where we encounter plenty of
crocodiles.
Then we fly to Alice Springs and visit the Red Center with the famous
Uluru (formerly Ayer's Rock) and the Olgas. We continue the flight to
Perth to meet Allen Lowrie and his wife Pauline. With Allen's SUV we
make several tours in the Perth area. There we film many pygmy sundews
and Byblis gigantea. Finally we drive together the 400 km south to
Albany with a stop at Porongurup, where Allen shows us the at that time
newly discovered Drosera lasiantha. Then, in a coastal area inhabited
by brown snakes, we also find the famous Albany Pitcher Plant,
Cephalotus follicularis.
After returning to Perth, Allen Lowrie gives us an interview in which
he answers questions about the new Drosera, an ominous sundew name
confusion, and the latest progress on the printing of his carnivore
books.
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A
population of the mirid-bug (Miridae) Dicyphus
errans, a species occurring in Europe, colonized a group of Proboscidea louisianica (Martyniaceae) native
to the USA and cultivated in a garden in Germany. More than 20 individuals of
these predatory bugs have been found living and moving freely on the sticky
plants, feeding on stuck victims, while garden ants (Lasius species) trying to place aphids for “sugar farming”
become captured together with their “productive livestock”, just like small
flies and bees.
Proboscidea as well as Roridula do not produce digestive enzymes,
so they cannot benefit directly from their diverse captured prey. But as soon
as predatory bugs colonize the plants and feed on the sticking prey, their
droppings provide a suitable fertilizer to be absorbed by the leaves stomata. A
perfect mutualism that turns an insect-trapping plant into a carnivorous one.
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The
Making of the Film:
With this film for the ICPS WCPD, Siggi & Irmgard Hartmeyer show
entertainingly in closed chapters research on the capture behavior of
the Venus flytrap, a smart method to identify sundew hybrids by
chemical analysis, and biomimetical applications related to carnivorous
plants. To realize this, those colleagues were invited to cooperate,
with whom the Hartmeyers have done common research and publications on
these topics during the last years, not rarely in CPN. Fortunately, all
of them participated. In addition, the YouTuber Claus Rodemer (Germany)
had been invited to contribute time-lapse footage of fed sundews,
provided on his YT-channel "Claus' Carnivores". By applying special
effects, these turned into comical transitions between chapters. A
bibliography for each chapter follows at the end of the film underlaid
with brief outtakes and film clips.
Chapter 1 “Sophisticated Dionaea:
(Emeritus Prof.) Dr. Stephen E. Williams (USA) provided visual material
and results on the trapping behavior of the Venus flytrap from natural
sites in the Carolinas and Florida. Irmgard and Siggi Hartmeyer
supplemented the chapter with their own experiments on the behavior of
small ants, unprofitable as prey, in adult snap traps. Most
astonishing: At 0.04%, their risk of being captured is even 2.5 times
lower than the risk of a patient in a German hospital dying from a
treatment error. An amazing and effective protection strategy to avoid
unprofitable closing by small ants.
Chapter
2 “Amazing Chemistry”
ICPS board member PD Dr. Jan Schlauer created a presentation on his
research on the distribution of certain ingredients (naphthoquinones)
in the sundew family that is also well-suited for non-chemists.
Together with his son Carl, he designed graphics for this film in which
chemical formulas turn into mopeds ... making even complicated
chemistry easy to understand. With a reliable method of analysis,
hybrids can be identified in sundews, which is very valuable for
taxonomy. This could also soon answer the question whether the newly
described Queensland sundew D. buubugujin is a hybrid or a new species.
Chapter
3 “Ingenious Traps”
PD Dr. Simon Poppinga recorded an entertaining video on biomimetics for
the WCPD in his office as the new Technical Director of the Botanical
Garden of the University of Darmstadt. Therein, he uses vivid examples
to show in a very entertaining way how science transforms ingenious
mechanisms from nature into practical technical applications.
Carnivorous plants play an important role here. For example, the purely
hydraulically driven trapping mechanism of the pimpernel sundew, which
catapults prey onto its sticky leaves in 75 ms, faster than the Venus
flytrap snap shuts. In collaboration with engineers, materials
researchers and other colleagues, applications for robotics or even
wear-free shading elements for facades have already been created from
the function of Aldrovanda's snap trap.
Cast: A Film for the ICPS WCPD
Chapter 1: „Sophisticated Dionaea“
Irmgard & Siegfried R. H. Hartmeyer and Dr. Stephen E. Williams
Chapter 2: „Amazing Chemistry“
PD Dr. Jan Schlauer and Carl Schlauer
Chapter 3: „Ingenious Traps“
PD Dr. Simon Poppinga
Drosera time lapse: Claus Rodemer. YouTube channel “Claus’ Carnivores”.
Special effects: Siggi Hartmeyer.
Production and Copyright 2022: Irmgard & Siegfried R. H. Hartmeyer
Happy 2nd annual World Carnivorous Plant Day!
All
International Carnivorous Plant Society projects are directly supported
by donations. Support us by making a financial contribution to the
ICPS. Any amount is gratefully accepted. https://carnivorousplants.org/donate
WCPD 2022 merchandise is available at on the WCPD page at Creator
Spring. Proceeds support ICPS conservation and education initiatives.
Shipping is worldwide. https://world-carnivorous-plant-day.c...
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Join ICPS today: https://icps.clubexpress.com/content....
The International Carnivorous Plant Society is registered with Amazon
Smile and PayPal Giving Fund. The ICPS does not endorse Amazon, PayPal,
or their vendors. However, if you buy from these companies or the
vendors associated with them, please choose the ICPS as your favored
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Director Contact:
Kenny Coogan, ICPS Director of Education
kenny@carnivorousplants.org |
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At
the beginning of the 2022 season, we first take a look at our pitcher plants
that have well survived the winter in our greenhouse. Especially the cross Nepenthes
veitchii x edwardsiana - unfortunately not for sale - is very popular with
our audience, but also her mummy, N. veitchii as well as N.
ventricosa
"Porcelain" do not need to hide. We will show some more species and
hybrids, and then come to an attraction that, although still
very small, joined our collection last summer: The largest carnivorous
plant in
the world Triphyophyllum peltatum. This liana can grow over 70 m long
and we show photographs of its flowers and flyable seeds in the Würzburg
Botanical Garden. For the unique photos, excerpts from our film "Triphyophyllum
peltatum", we thank Dr. Heiko Rischer, Dr. Jan Schlauer and Stewart
McPherson.
Finally,
we would like to mention the World Carnivorous Plant Day 2022 of the
International Carnivorous Society ICPS on May 4. The organizers and
contributors have put a lot of effort into presenting exciting lectures and
films on the internet during this day. We were also invited to produce a movie
for it, so we turned our living room into a "green hell". More is not
revealed, everything else on the internet on May 4 at the ICPS
(www.carnivorousplants.org).
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In
1980, we met with Siggi's parents in southwestern Sicily and spent a
few weeks in a bungalow village right on the beach near Marina di
Modica. Of course there were entertaining anecdotes, animals and
plants, which we captured with our Beaulieu 4800 (Super 8, celluloid).
Also for this remastered film, we purchased new ear-pleasing music from
SmartSound (royalty-free) to suitably accompany the respective
ambiences.
From Catania, the four Hartmeyers together climbed Europe's largest
active volcano, Mount Etna. Fortunately, according to its monitoring
station, it was peaceful enough at that time that we actually reached
the upper secondary craters on foot, at an altitude of 3,000 meters,
where an ice-cold wind blew around our ears.
That same evening we took the car ferry from Messina to the Italian
mainland and, after a short rest, drove north to Naples, where we
walked through Pompeii, which was destroyed by a major volcanic
eruption in 79. Of course, we then climbed Mount Vesuvius, which looks
very imposing from the upper rim of its crater, although it has been
steaming along only slightly since the last major eruption in 1944.
Another eruption is possible at any time. Good entertainment in this
somewhat different Hunting Veggies production. |
Some
people fear them, others are downright fascinated and sometimes they
hunt quite unnoticed in our houses and gardens. This film presents
several such, for sensitive minds sometimes creepy, predators that have
been visiting us freely for years in the southern Upper Rhine Valley.
We like and tolerate these little monsters on our property and are now
happy to show the results of some partly nocturnal chases with the
camera. A pleasant creepiness and who likes the film "Speedy our House
Centipede", is certainly well served here again.
Cast: Argiope bruennichi - Dionaea
muscipula - Euroleon nostras - Lasius neglectus - Limax maximus -
Mantis religiosa - Scutigera coleoptrata - Zoropsis spinimana.
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MAROKKO 1978
This
is the very first film Irmgard and I produced after we acquired a Super
8 Beaulieu camera in 1978. The photos in the cover photo are still from
our 1977 trip without a film camera. This 2021 revised film of our 1978
Morocco trip was originally only for family and good friends to see.
Because of the positive feedback from friends, we are now releasing it.
Good entertainment!
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This time we show a special hybrid, Nepenthes eymae x clipeata,
which we received as a small seedling from Paul Debbert in 1991. In the
meantime it became a flowering female with many active pitchers on the
long shoots. Adventurous is the story of our N. mirabilis
"Cairns", which developed splendidly since 1995. For this we make a
short excursion to its natural habitat in Queensland, Australia. Our N. ramispina forms plenty of pitchers as well as the N. rafflesiana var. alata, already presented in the 2nd part of our Nepenthes series, which developed into a real feast for the eyes with currently 22 active upper pitchers.
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Nepenthes Part 2
In
the 2nd part of our Nepenthes films from the greenhouse, we show what
happened with the pollination of our large N. bicalcarata in the 1st
part. This time the highland species N. sibuyanansis is blooming, which
we are now pollinating with pollen from our mouse catcher N. truncata.
On this occasion we also take a look at other hybrids that developed in our
greenhouse, one of them shows itself to be a successful ant catcher. As an
encore we have the magnificent Glory lilly (Gloriosa superba / Synonym G.
rothschildiana), whose bright yellow-red flowers are a special eye-catcher
here for decades in May/June.
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In
1998, 1999, 2010 and 2014 we organized four special shows on
carnivorous plants (CP) at the annual Regio-Messe Lörrach (trade
fair). Many prominent representatives of the CP-community in Germany,
France and Switzerland helped to turn these events, which also received
a lot of media attention, into real crowd pullers.
The
Regio-Messe Lörrach in the border triangle of Germany, France and Switzerland
is on the one hand regionally oriented and at the same time an important
trinational consumer fair for the economic region. Not least due to attractive
special events, it is a cross-border crowd puller with up to 65,000 visitors
per fair.
We had invited the CP societies of Germany, France and Switzerland as
well as the two botanical gardens of Basel (Switzerland) for free
presentations. Retrospectively, also at this place again a heartfelt
thank you to all volunteers, of whom many will see themselves again in
this film.
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Equipped
with our Beaulieu 4800 (Super 8) camera, we visit Thailand in 1982,
where all temples and palaces in Bangkok have just been polished for a
shine for the celebration of the 200th anniversary. A boat trip through
the last Klongs (canals) gives an idea of how Bangkok used to look like
and a visit to the open-air museum "Ancient City" shows the splendor of
the most important buildings and sanctuaries of the
country (reproduced here). Visiting the world's largest crocodile
farm we can film a really very unusual "Crocodile Show". Then we go to
Pattaya for a beach vacation, you can even try parasailing on
an offshore coral island. A highlight is certainly the visit of the US
Navy, whose warships anchor off the coast and for whose crews whole
Pattaya presents itself as a big party mile.
The music is by SmartSound and includes the track "Mission Dub" by Track Tribe
from the YouTube Audio-Mediathek.
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Cold House Carnivorous Plants
Today we visit the carnivorous plants in our cold house, where
magnificent sundews are currently blooming, which have been growing
here for 20 years. An impenetrable tangle of glue traps, glowing in the
sun, is formed by the Australian Drosera planchonii. With particularly splendid blooms inspires the South African Drosera cistiflora as well as the Tibet orchid, Pleione formosana and our Drosophyllum
developed quite worth seeing over the years. The current generation had
sown itself in spring 2019 here in the cold house without our
assistance in a pot with the American butterwort Pinguicula planifolia.
Even after two years, dewy pine and butterwort are thriving perfectly
together, and in the meantime sundew and bladderwort have joined them
on their own.
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This
amazing crocodile show near Bangkok is an excerpt from and appetizer for our
upcoming vacation movie "Thailand 1982". The pictures really speak
for themselves.
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This time we are looking in our greenhouse for pitcher
plants (Nepenthes), for which because of their attractive pitchers we
often get requests for cuttings from you. First of all, there is Nepenthes
rafflesiana var. alata, which is much sought after because of the
striking frills on its lower pitchers, and which also forms quite large upper
pitchers. Similarly often asked for is N. ventricosa
"Porcelain", which as the name suggests is popular because of its porcelain
look lower pitchers. Before we take a look at our most popular hybrid N.
veitchii x edwardsiana, we will show you the development of the seed pods
of our N. bicalcarata female, of which at least a few are starting to
swell after the pollination end of December. Unfortunately, no more cuttings
can be pre-ordered at the moment, the demand was simply too great.
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The 68ers: The success story of the school magazine INFORMA.
In 1968, school magazines were not yet a matter of
course. Who could imagine today that editors of a school newspaper would be
arbitrarily selected for an anonymous satirical article and beaten so severely
by the principal in the sports hall in front of the students lining up that
they would have earaches for days. Or that editors of a school newspaper are
pilloried and thrown out of school for pretextual and provoked "unseemly
remarks". Unthinkable!
All this happened because the editors did not want to
be censored by the school administration during the '68 revolt and therefore
made their newspaper financially independent by diligently collecting
advertisements. Most students loved their INFORMA, which not only reported on
festivals and school events, but also interviewed Jimi Hendrix, Chancellor
Kiesinger and President Heinemann. For their dedicated work, but also for the
artistic design of the magazines, the Press and Information Office of the German
Federal Government awarded INFORMA two places to visit the Federal President in
Bonn in 1970. A school newspaper can hardly achieve more. Even though it was
discontinued in 1971, the persistent struggle of these "real 68ers"
for their INFORMA should not be forgotten.
This film was made for the celebration of the
50th graduation anniversary of the Realschule Rheinfelden and is dedicated to
the teacher Rudolf Schlaf, who was one of the few who supported the editors and
their school newspaper and always backed them up.
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Both
the Australian rainbow plants (Byblis) as well as the sundews (Drosera)
catch their prey with active, that means moving sticky traps. Nevertheless,
there are serious differences between the two carnivorous genera, which we show
in this short film with exciting microscope and time-lapse shots. It is
explained in an easily understandable way why the adhesive traps of the Byblis
consist of hairs and those of the Drosera of tentacles. Good entertainment!
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The
bizarre looking house centipedes are predators that eat everything they
can overwhelm with their venomous claws. We tolerate such a specimen (Scutigera coleoptrata)
in our house and gave him the name Speedy, because he can run
incredibly fast. He only goes hunting at night and is not aggressive
towards humans at all. However, you should not take him in your
hand, because if he is stressed in such a way, he can bite violently,
which is said to be about the same as a wasp sting. We like our Speedy,
for that he keeps the house largely vermin-free.
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A couple of the large pitcher plant Nepenthes bicalcarata grows in a pot
in our greenhouse and even flowers simultaneously. This film shows how
we pollinate the dioecious plant. If you have any questions, please feel
free to ask in the comments on YouTube. Enjoy the film!
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Easily accessible from our
house in only 20 minutes, the famous plane with the zebra-tail unit of the
African Safari Club took off from Basel-Mulhouse Airport to Mombasa. In 1983 we
decided to take this flight to Kenya, mainly to participate in one of the then
well rated photo-safaris of the Swiss Club. During the first week we had to
realize that the much advertised trips to so-called attractions in the Mombasa
region were often primitive organized "tourist milking places".
However, not only some of the "events" were quite low level, but also
the behavior of some tour participants, as the film shows. Maybe because of
this, a not quite normal vacation film was created.
But with the beginning of the
fly-in safari we were reconciled again. This showed where the main competence
of the African Safari Club lay. At the foot of the Kilimanjaro we could observe
many animals from the Landrover in the Amboseli National Park. This time the
organization was right and the sympathetic and experienced safari companions
provided an unforgettable experience.
If you like such nostalgic
films, you can sit back and relax and let yourself be carried away by a
soundtrack, for which we took a lot of effort in the selection. Our Super-8
celluloid film has been remastered for family, friends and all those who have
travelled in the times of the African Safari Club and would like to refresh old
memories.
For
the soundtrack we again bought music from SmartSound and used ScoreFitter and a
wonderfully weird Reggea/Dub from the YouTube audio-mediatheque:
Mission Dub by
TrackTribe.
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MANTIS vs. SCELIPHRON
The Duel between Praying Mantis and Digger Wasp!
The digger wasp
Sceliphron caementarium captures spiders for its brood, so it is quite
fortified; however, the adult wasps feed on vegetarian food. These wasps are
quite crazy about the nectar on our N. bicalcarata couple.
A couple of
spontaneously intruded praying mantises lurks from their branches below the
roof, which inevitably leads to an encounter of the predatory insects. Who is
going to become the booty?
Here the shreds fly: Exciting pictures from our greenhouse
with extra spooky soundtrack. Enjoy!
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The Carnivorous Plant Speed Contest
Welcome to our carnivorous plant speed contest!
Four carnivorous genera qualified for our speed contest and they all give their best. Is Aldrovanda
able to keep up even against the water resistance? How well does the famous Venus flytrap? Does the sundew that is usually regarded quite sedate have a chance at all
in this competition? And what's the story with the southern bladderwort?
Examined in detail with
the help of time lapse as well as slow motion shots, all questions will
find an answer in this exciting film. Enjoy!
Special thanks go to Dr. Simon Poppinga and his team of the Plant
Biomechanics Group of the University Freiburg as well as to Dr. Jan
Schlauer for his kind support.
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With its shiningly white patterned leaves Sarracenia leucophylla is
certainly one of the most distinctive pitcher plants. We
observed the impact of this large carnivore's
attractivity to insects in the surroundings quite coincidentally in
summer 2019. Suddenly, a whole ant colony had vanished that we
observed for weeks in the frame of experiments with Venus flytraps.
Looking for the reason, we did not only find the missing ants. Thereby, we unfortunately also
found many dead honey bees. We kept an eye on this during
the season, which confirmed that the white patterned leaves of Sarracenia
leucophylla capture predominantly honey bees - at least with us.
With several plants some
hundreds of them may be captured during a season, about what no beekeepers around will be happy.
Therefore, we decided to close the pitchers with cotton-wool plugs which does
no harm except of the prey loss. Instead of bees they get now a little
fertilizer, which also works.
However, at the natural
environment also Sarracenia leucophylla has its enemies like the moth Exyra, which skillfull and savely uses the pitcher traps
for its own peculiar purposes ...
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Even in
1981, we filmed this private movie on the lively ancient culture in the
Kathmandu region with a Beaulieu 4800 on tours guided by TUI in Nepal. Many of
the shown temples, Stupas and buildings were destroyed during the devastating
earthquake in 2015; therefore, our shots are already historic. It was our great
good fortune to be on site with the camera exactly for the festival of the
living goddess (Kumari Devi) in Kathmandu. Good nerves are needed for the visit
at the sacrificial site Dakshin Kali. Further attractions are the Swajambuh, the
Bodnath as well as the largest sanctuary of the Hindu religion in Nepal, the
temple complex Pashupatinath at the holy river Bagmati.
The film
was produced in Super-8 format (celluloid). We digitized the almost 40 years
old film reels and improved them with a lot of expenditure to make them
viewable again. In addition, we faithfully recreated narration and sound for
technical reasons and did not mind spending quite a bit of money for the soundtrack
by SmartSound. Namely, the picture quality does not meet our usual standard;
however, the unique historic shots should offset that. Those interested in
exotic countries or especially in the lively culture of Nepal should get their
money’s worth.
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Muscleman Catapult Trap
The
catapults of the sundew Drosera
glanduligera fling passing prey animals in a sensational manner onto the
sticky trapping leaves. Already in 2012, we measured and published this
enormous - 75 ms - speed for a capture event, in the labs of the Plant
Biomechanics Group of the University Freiburg (Germany). In this film, we show
again by measurements with Dr. Simon Poppinga at the labs of the bionics
specialists in Freiburg, what an amazing force these catapults possess.
A single
catapult has an average weight of 0.15 mg. The rapidly flung fruit flies in our
former experiments weigh 1.74 mg in average, which is about 12 times as much as
one catapult. This result is quite amazing, but how efficient are these
hydraulic powered tentacles really?
Due to the coronavirus lockdown, the publication
with the exact individual weights needed to be shifted into a distant future.
Therefore, we show only the framework data that are nonetheless completely
sufficient to convincingly illustrate the force of the snap-tentacles.
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Never fear! You do not need a chemistry book to
understand this film.
Showing a bunch
of beautiful sundew species and hybrids, we explain really briefly and clear
why particular chemical ingredients of the sundews are not only interesting as
cough medicine for homeopathy, but also as traits for taxonomy, in a manner as
comprehensible for laypersons as possible.
The featured
chemical analysis (TLC) is helpful for the description of novel species and
gains an additional dimension by the fact that most true species produce only
one naphthoquinone or none, while hybrids show the chemistry of both parents
combined. That means, if the parents produce different quinones, the hybrid
shows both of them and both parents as well as the hybrid can be distinguished
chemically that way.
Here are the results of a
survey on YouTube prior to this upload:
Particular
chemical ingrediens of the sundews are helpful as traits for taxonomy;
thus, chemical analysis makes it possible to recognize species and
hybrids. Would such a film with clear descriptions be
of interest: ?
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Is it possible to grow your
carnivorous plants with vegetarian diet? Our first film from the new “Siggi’s
CP Info” series provides the answer. Carnivorous plants predominantly capture
and digest arthropods like insects, spiders or little crustaceans. Some of the
largest tropical pitcher plants are even known to eat real meat, mostly small
vertebrates like mice or reptiles.
But what happens if you
feed vegetarian food to the carnivores? Even Charles Darwin pointed out that in
times of high pollen abundance the sticky traps of sundews and butterworts accumulate
large amounts of pollen. Does that mean carnivorous plants are also happy with
vegetarian food?
Here are the results of a
survey on Facebook and YouTube prior to this upload: Is it possible to feed
carnivorous plants with vegetarian food?
YES: 52% - NO: 36% - ONLY TEMPORARY: 12%
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Early on
Boxing Day, we experienced the 2004 Tsunami at Mount Lavinia, Sri Lanka. The
day before, we had finished a very successful shooting for our film on Borneo
Exotics, Robert Cantley’s famous special nursery for tropical pitcher plants.
Only in the evening, we had returned from the highlands. After breakfast, it
turned out to be a big stroke of luck that our hotel, recommended by Rob, was
situated on a rock, several meters above sea level. Only for that reason nobody
became injured there. Filmed from the balcony of our hotel room, our
documentary shows with original comments how we experienced that force of
nature.
Today, 2019-12-26, exactly 15 years passed by;
therefore, Irmgard and I decided to show our shots also on our YouTube-channel.
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Dionaea Traps Selectively Allow Small Animals to Escape
Our experiments show that Venus
flytraps (Dionaea muscipula)
selectively allow small animals to escape by a system of interlocking
features that complement each other very efficiently. We documented ants of the
species Lasius neglectus (length 3.5
mm) running continuously through open traps of Dionaea, established since more than 20 years outdoors in our
garden.
During
six days sampled observations (24 times ten minutes of exact counting)
projected to four weeks resulted in about 15,000
trap visits by ants from which only six were
captured, indicating a risk of capture of merely 0.04%. This makes it
very
likely that such an effective sorting out of small animals is based not
on just
one mechanism, but on a sophisticated system of several interlocking
features, which we present with this film.
During four weeks (28 days), ten
prey other than ants were captured, which were almost all considerably larger
and thus more nutritious.
In any case, their mostly nocturnal visits occured by orders of
magnitude rarer than those by the ants. According to our examinations, Dionaea’s selective system that allows small animals to
escape includes four interlocking features:
1) Attraction
of the ants away from the trigger hairs by alluring glands.
2) Due to
their size clear visibility of the trigger hairs to a small ant.
3) The
requirement of two stimuli for trigger trap closure combined with a memory
fading after 20 seconds.
4) The escape
allowed for small animals by openings between the marginal bristles during the
slower phase of trap closure that follows the rapid snap of the trap.
This film is based on a
publication in Carnivorous Plant Newsletter (CPN, Vol. 48/4 - September 2019 in
print): Dionaea Traps Selectively
Allow Small Animals to Escape.
By Siegfried R. H. Hartmeyer, Irmgard Hartmeyer
and Emeritus Prof. Stephen E. Williams.
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When
filming sundew snap-tentacles, some simple measures can be helpful
to prepare the recording correctly and to avoid disturbing
shaking by unnecessary poking of the tentacle heads. That needs some
understanding on their different response times and motion patterns.
Since many years, we experimented with catapulting sundews and
summarized our experiences now in this brief movie description,
providing hints how to proceed with moderate and rapid
catapult-flypaper traps. The idea for this fim came up after some
requests on Facebook how to film such tentacle motions. Good luck
when filming your Drosera.
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Short trailer on our 40th wedding anniversary
A short trailer on our 40th wedding anniversary for family and friends.
Therefore, this time no carnivorous plants.
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Near Beverley Springs (Australian Kimberley), we were able to film Utricularia antennifera
in situ. The plants possess two antenna-like filaments at the otherwise
inconspicuous flowers. According to Prof. W. Barthlott (University
Bonn), that is probably a form of Mullerian mimicry: The flowers mimic
a female insect to attract the male partners for pollination. Directly
beside grows one of the smallest bladderworts. With a size of only two
millimeters, the white flowers of U. quinquedentata are quite hard to find. We fished out these 1995 shots of rare Utricularia from our archive and remastered them for bladderwort enthusiasts.
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A highlight for CP-enthusiasts! In 2018, first videos by Dr. Gregory Allan (GB) on Facebook showed an active motion of Byblis trichomes.
However, the topic literature describes the carnivorous genus as
immobile. To review that behavior, we made own time lapse shots with a
microscope that turned out to be surprisingly even for ourselves.
They
confirm clearly that the unicellular
trichome stalks show an active motion down to the leaf surface after being
touched by prey. Therefore, we looked up again the work of some CP pioneers
like Charles Darwin (1875) or C.A. Fenner (1904), and included their findings
and assumptions on Byblis complemented with
excerpts from Dr. Gregory Allan's first shots (with his kind permission).
In
addition, we examined the related Lindernia cleistandra (all Lamiales) that likewise occurs in
tropical Australia and that is like Byblis densly covered with glandular
trichomes. However, its state regarding carnivory is yet unclear. We
complemented the time lapse shots with an enzyme test,
which we used even in 2010 to detect digestive enzymes in Byblis
filifolia. Well, just view this film and you will know more about these interesting plants.
We would like to express our thanks to Dr. Gregory Allan, Dr. Jan Schlauer as well as Holger und
Anja Hennern for their kind support during the making of this
film.
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Repeatedly, large pitcher
plants (Nepenthes) capture small
rodents and digest them. Is that coincidence? How completely do plants
utilize
vertebrates? What remains? We examined that and present the answers
with this
film. Between 2007 and 2017, all five mice became captured without our
involvement. Undesirably, the house and wood mice (Mus musculus &
Apodemus sylvaticus) intruded into the greenhouse and fell into the
passive traps that
lured with nectar. To make the best of
it, we observed what happened for several months. We took every effort
to create
the film in an entertaining fashion; however, sensitive souls should
not
necessarily view the pictures of digested prey during the meals.
Online
article (2009, Hartmeyer I. & Hartmeyer S.): http://www.hartmeyer.de/ArtikelundBerichte/artTruncata_Maus2008_GB.html |
The amazing prey
capture of a catapulting sundew. Short and succinctly (75 ms) but
sensational. We provide more than 120 thrilling videos on carnivorous
plants on our YouTube channel. Simply subscribe to stay up to date.
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The
surprisingly rapid closure of the Venus flytrap is meanwhile well
known. But what prey captures this according to Darwin "most wonderful
plant in the world" in fact, comparing the cultivation in greenhouse
and garden with the natural environment in North Carolina? How does it
attract prey? Developed the snap traps really a strategy to capture
preferably larger animals?
The answers to these questions provides our movie, based on a scientific paper released in 2017 in Carnivorous Plants Newsletter (CPN)
by one of the veterans of the Droseraceae exploration, Emeritus
Professor Stephen E. Williams, together with Siggi Hartmeyer, discuss the
existing literature and conduct own experiments on the prey capture.
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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 (Drosera section Arachnopus) 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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From all carnivorous plants, the bladderworts (Utricularia)
possess the fastest capture mechanism. Their suction traps swallow prey
within up to less than the thousandth of a second (= millisecond: ms).
The lobes of the waterwheel plant (Aldrovanda) close within 10 ms, the catapult-flypaper traps of the sundews (Drosera) fling prey within 75 ms, and only at the fourth place snap-shuts the famous Venus flytrap (Dionaea) within 100 ms.
In this last part of our series Utricularia ID of Europe's bladderworts, we feature Germany's rarest species, the yellowishwhite bladderwort, U. ochroleuca. On-site
narrated by Dr. Jan Schlauer, we feature the plants in full
blossom in a successfully rewetted bog in Baden-Württemberg. At
other sites, this sterile hybrid, which is most likely a crossing of U. minor with U. intermedia, flowers rather rarely. In addition, we entcounter orchids (Dactylorhiza) as well as splendid specimens of the roundleaved (D. rotundifolia) and oblong-leaved sundew (D. intermedia).
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Drosera aurantiaca possesses no petioles like for instance D. aquatica and D. finlaysoniana;
however, it is easily to identify by its unique bright orange coloured
flowers that appear like dusted with fine gold if viewed up closely.
The micro-morphological examination showed that stem and trapping
leaves are covered with dwarf stalked glands and double tipped caps of
different size, which is typical for most spiderleg sundews. Besides,
we find numerous mushroom-emergences with red heads. Some of them show
two lateral excrescences that remind of an early developmental stage of
the bulls-head emergences. However, here we never found bulls-heads in
final shape, only this transitional form.
In
2017, we succeeded for the first time in cultivating and examining this
pretty and in cultivation very rare species in our greenhouse. The
video supplements our movie “The Realm of Emergences” with
a further species that has been labelled D. indica until 2013. A contribution on the real D. indica, which could not be found in Australia until today is already in progress and will follow after the turn of the year.
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Amazingly, Utricularia stygia, the dark yellow
bladderwort, grows not only as an aquatic, but also terrestrial. Its
earth-shoots wind in best health on the soil between other bog plants like our domestic sundews. We found it between D.
anglica, D. rotundifolia and
their natural hybrid D. anglica var.
obovata (synonym D. x obovata) at
the same site. However, we needed some time to find the infertile species in
bloom. It is most likely a cross between U.
intermedia and U. minor. U. stygia is often confused with U. intermedia, which possesses also
pronounced earth-shoots. We were able to film also this fertile flat leave
bladderwort; however, flowers occur so rarely that we needed to take the photos
in this case from Dr. Jan Schlauer’s archive. Like in our further parts of the
series “Utricularia ID”, Jan adds his comments directly at the growing site.
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Utricularia ID: U. bremii & U. minor
The second part of our series “Utricularia
ID” shows the likely rarest Bladderwort in Central Europe:
Utricularia bremii. Not far from Lake Constance, we found the plants in
gratifying conditions. However, it is an infertile hybrid, widespread
up to Japan and easily confused with larger species of our smallest
Bladderwort, U. minor. We
show how to distinguish them and what’s up with their dimorphism.
On common tours between Lake Constance, Swabian Alb and the Alps,
Irmgard and I filmed both species accompanied by Dr. Jan Schlauer, who
also annotates on-site on the film.
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Drosera nana is the smallest of the Australian Spiderleg-Sundews (Section Arachnopus). Even in 1995, when all species in this section were still designated as D. indica,
Irmgard and I were able to film the tiny plant at Howard Springs near
Darwin. Unfortunately, during recent examinations in our greenhouse
(2017) the seeds did not germinate. Therefore, we have not been able to
look for its emergences; however, a clear hairiness visible on our
shots from 1995, seems to be similar to that of D. aquatica (true hairs, no emergences with xylem).
Hopefully, we’ll be more fortunate in the following season to be
able to deliver detailed shots in addition. At the moment, D. nana looks like a dwarf form of D. aquatic to us.
Outlook: These days, we examine further Arachnopus
species in our greenhouse, which delight us with quite surprising
results. This includes also the at present as “true” D. indica
assessed species from Asia, which could not be found yet in Australia.
Our series “Sundew ID” remains interesting for Drosera friends and will be continued in a few weeks after a short break for the still pending film cut.
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Utricularia ID: U. australis & U. vulgaris
Within one
thousandth of a second, the suction traps of our domestic Bladderworts (Utricularia) swallow prey animals like
daphnia. In our film, this is featured with a high speed camera. The shots were
kindly provided by Dr. Simon Poppinga from the Plant Biomechanics Group of the
University Freiburg (Germany). Published: Poppinga et al. (2016) AoB PLANTS.
Our
YouTube-series „Utricularia ID“,
which starts with this film, will be continued with further descriptions of
domestic species, easy to understand also
for interested laymen. Today, we begin with the two large and free floating
species that – often confused - occur in Germany. The sterile hybrid U. australis and the fruit forming up to
more than two meters long Common Bladderwort, U. vulgaris, are very similar; however, those who know or have seen this film will nevertheless
be able to distinguish them easily.
The recordings for this video series took place on
several excursions in 2015/16 in the region between Lake Constance, Swabian Alb
and the Alps. There, Irmgard and I were accompanied by Dr. Jan Schlauer, who’s
local knowledge and professional expertise enabled this film and made it
interesting also for specialists.
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Sundew ID: Drosera barrettiorum
On a first glance, Drosera barrettiorum looks very much like D. hartmeyerorum.
However, the typical pale yellow emergences at the leaf base and
pedicel are very different. In their specialist lectures, Holger &
Anja Hennern called them “ice-lolly emergences” due to
their appearance. In 2008, the couple discovered the plant in Northern
Australia and was the first who reported about it. Holger & Anja
kindly provided their photo material for our project on the spider leg
sundews (section Arachnopus). At this point, once again many thanks.
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Sundew ID: Drosera hartmeyerorum
D. hartmeyerorum can easily be distinguished from other spider leg sundews (section Arachnopus)
by its bright yellow light reflecting emergences at the leaf base and
the bracts of the pedicel. Our experiments show that even a red laser
pointer lets them light up yellow. Unique in the genus, the
“lens-emergences” of this plant, discovered by us in 1995
in Australia, lead to the first splitting-off of a species from D. indica
in 2001 by Dr. Jan Schlauer. In the beginning, the relevance of the
very distinct emergences of the section was controversial; however,
meanwhile about a dozen further species became split-off from D. indica, which frequently possess also typical emergences like for example D. barrettiorum.
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Sundew ID: Drosera fragrans
Drosera fragrans smells like honey the same way as D. finlaysoniana
“Honey Scent”; however, can easily be distinguished by its
petioles. In the literature, the axillary buds that occur also in
non-scented spider leg sundews (section Arachnopus) are referred to as scent emitting organs; which seems to be inaccurate. In the D. fragrans
we examined, those axillary buds were even lacking. It is still
unclear, whether the scent is emitted by the abundant double tipped
caps (emergences) or simply by the stomata.
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The Real Plant of Prey
This footage needs no narration. Thanks to its effective and rapid catapult-flypaper traps Drosera glanduligera is quite able to keep up with animal predators.
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Sundew ID: Drosera cucullata
On a closer look, Drosera cucullata is something like the bird of paradise among the spiderleg sundews (Arachnopus
species) and therefore easy to recognize. Amazing are its red
emergences that resemble ant abdomens as well as its unusual flower.
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Drosera aquatica becomes often confused with D. finlaysoniana,
which also shows no petioles. However, it can easily be distinguished
by its typical hairiness. All plants that we found in 1995 near Darwin
were settled with mutualistic bugs (Miridae).
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Sundew ID: Drosera finlaysoniana
Drosera finlaysoniana is often confused with D. serpens, or is even labelled with its previous name D. indica. We show, how to identify and to distinguish it easily from the other sundews in section Arachnopus. A magnifier as assistive tool is sufficient.
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Sundew ID: Drosera serpens
Drosera serpens is likely the most wide spread spider leg sundew
in tropical Australia and Asia. We show, how to identify and to
distinguish it from the other species in Drosera section Arachnopus. A magnifier as assistive tool is sufficient. |
Drosera glanduligera: Catapult Ontogeny
The catapult-flypaper trap of D.
glanduligera is able to fling prey within 75 milliseconds into its
sticky leaf center. Unique is not only its raised tentacle head that
works like a foot trigger and its hinge zone that destroys itself due to
the sudden release of high internal pressure during catapult action,
but also its ontogeny with the development of the rapid catapults.
In the beginning, the seedlings develop straight glue traps without
catapult function. Only this phylogenetically comparatively "old"
species shows during the following 3-4 weeks a remarkable metamorphosis
of the successively elongating marginal tentacles. With every new leaf,
the tentacle heads change increasingly from glue producing glands
through intermediate forms into the eglandular and dry catapult heads.
Simultaneously, the typical hinge-zone for the hydraulically powered
catapult movement develops in the basal third of the tentacle stalk.
Well, no matter how complicated that may sound: It is simply fun to observe the prey capture in these catapulting sundews!
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The Realm of Emergences - Drosera section Arachnopus
This film 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 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. Those who have seen this
film should not have problems with naming the plants any more.
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Drosera rotundifolia Tentacle-dimorphism
The
Round-leafed Sundew possesses usually straight glue-traps; however, develops
temporary also mucus-free snap-tentacles. Even Charles Darwin (1875) reported
that tentacles of Drosera rotundifolia are able to bend to the leaf-center in
roughly ten seconds. If he measured glue or snap-tentacles has not been
mentioned. When and under what conditions they appear has not yet been
investigated.
There are
different functioning snap-tentacles in the genus. With only 75 milliseconds
for a 180° bending the Australian D. glanduligera is the champion. It belongs
to the catapult-flypaper traps, which were described for the first time in
2012. Its capture movement is therefore faster than that of the Venus flytrap.
These rapid catapults are not able to fix prey. The snap-tentacles of D.
burmannii that we call a moderate catapult, bend in approximately ten seconds
to the leaf-center. They are able to lift prey from the periphery of the plant
onto the sticky lamina and to fix it effectively. Almost all basal rosettes
occurring south of the distribution area of D. rotundifolia develop always
snap-tentacles. To find out when and under what conditions they occur on the
Round-leaved Sundew could certainly be a nice project even for hobby botanists.
Remark: All
seedlings of the cold hardy northern sundews possess snap-tentacles in the
beginning to capture springtails; however, they lose them during growth.
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Prey Capture in Milliseconds:
Europe's bladderworts between Lake Constance, Swabian Alb and the Alps.
Bladderworts (Utricularia)
possess the fastest capture mechanism of all carnivorous plants.
Ultrafast bladder traps suck in prey within less than a millisecond.
That is 100 times faster than Venus’s flytrap snap shuts. Seven
of the ten species that occur in Europe can be found in the region
between Lake Constance, Swabian Alb and the Alps. Thanks to the support
of the worldwide recognized CP-expert Dr. Jan Schlauer, we were able to
film all seven Utricularia at their natural habitat. The terrific speed
of prey captures show recordings with a high-speed camera, taken at the
labs of the Plant Biomechanics Group of the Botanical Garden of the
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg (Germany). Dr. Simon Poppinga
kindly provided these remarkable shots. In addition, a scanning
electron microscope image featuring the quadrifid glands inside a
bladder trap (both published in Poppinga et al. (2016). AoB PLANTS 8:
plv140). As the film shows, their shape can be helpful for the
determination of several quite similar looking species. Detailed
information on our domestic bladderworts is provided by the scientific
article “Die Gattung Utricularia
in Bayern” (2014) published by the Bavarian Botanical Society,
from which we quoted repeatedly in this film. To protect the partly
endangered plants, but also because the access to some of the swamp
areas without an experienced guide is not at all harmless, we do
explicitly not mention exact locations.
|
How to grow a catapult-flypaper trap
An easy to understand description (English subtitles) how you can grow your own prey flinging catapult-flypaper trap (D. glanduligera). An excerpt from our movie "The Diva's Catapult":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzi3XDQs-i0 |
Behaviour of T2- snap-tentacles
in moderate and rapid catapult-flypaper traps.
Demo-Trailer on catapulting tentacles in Drosera section
Bryastrum, Coelophylla and Thelocalyx.
Moderate catapult-flypaper traps like D. sessilifolia, D. burmannii or the larger pygmy Drosera possess T2-snap-tentacles that function repeatedly. In contrast to the one-shot T3-snap-tentacles of D. glanduligera
they show a much longer reaction time and the bending stops at
approximately 90-120° if no prey has been captured and actuats
further receptor potentials. This behaviour can be compared with the
"narrowing" movement of Dionaea flaps.
This trailer shows reaction
times (waiting may be boring for some people) and the different bending
behavour of T2-snap-tentacles, which act in fractions of a second in
some pygmy Drosera.
|
Schule trifft Wissenschaft (School meets Science).
Die Preisverleihung der Robert Bosch Stiftung 2009 in Berlin.
On behalf of Prof. Dr. Rainer Hedrich from the
Julius-von-Sachs-Institute of the University Würzburg, we filmed
the award ceremony of “Schule trifft Wissenschaft” (School
meets science) conducted by the German Robert Bosch Stiftung
(foundation) under the patronage of the former minister of education
and research Prof. Dr. Annette Schawan, who sent a video message.
Laudators were the co-inventor of the MP3-player Prof. Dr. Karlheinz
Brandenburg for one 2nd prize, the German astronaut Prof. Dr. Ernst
Messerschmid for the second 2nd price, and Nobel Prize winner Prof. Dr.
Erwin Neher for the main prize. One of the 2nd prizes awarded the
“Project Phytosensors”. The young researchers investigated
(beside others) the sense of taste of the Venus flytrap. Before the
event, Prof. Hedrich invited us to hold a lecture on rapid tentacle
movement (snap-tentacles) for students and teachers of the
Friedrich-König-Gymnasiums in the frame of that project. Our
lecture is online on YouTube as playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ocyt_EkR84&list=PLhZbrINQjLLNZ1xQcgcRiAj2rBSWjBoha.
Based
on our technical papers on the Sundew family and many years of
experience in filming, Prof. Hedrich asked us to document the award
ceremony in Berlin on video including the editing and we received the
copyright for this production. In the run-up, the students did only
know that they are nominated; however, not that they actually awarded
such a great prize. From ten Germany wide nominated projects received
the main prize (€ 50,000,-): The Heidelberger Life-Sciences Lab am
Deutschen Krebsforschungszentrum Heidelberg. Two 2nd prizes (each
€ 20'000) awarded: The „SaarLab und die
Sieben-Labore-Tour“ at the Universität des Saarlandes and
„Phytosensorik“ at the Friedrich-Koenig-Gymnasium Würzburg
The
„Project Phytosensors“ and the candidates of the
Friedrich-König-Gymnasium are in our focus; however, we show
also the other winners and their prominent laudators. Presenter of the
event was Germany’s famous TV-moderator Sven Voss. Please find
further information on our website: http://www.hartmeyer.de/Schule_trifft_Wissen_1.html. |
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.
|
Laser fire on Drosera hartmeyerorum
Our experiments suggest that the yellow emergences of Drosera hartmeyerorum act
like a residual light amplifier, comparable to the eyes of crocodiles
or cats when illuminated with a torch at night. The film provides our
experiments with different light sources like halogen and red laser.
CAUTION: Laser beams are dangerous. Protect your eyes when you
conduct such tests, especially when you observe the laser through a
magnifier.
REMARK: We received on YouTube,
Facebook and e-mail the same question: What benefit has the plant from
these emergences ? Well, the incident sunlight is white and the
reflected light is (flickering due to movement in the wind) bright
yellow. That is very attractive to insects, especially on a strong
contrasting dark red background, which appears black to insects. Yellow
flypapers are very effective and often used to trap flying pests in
nurseries and on fruit trees. The dark red background appears black to
insects because their visual ability is shifted to the short-waved
range of the spectrum. They don't see red, but they are able to see UV
patterns. Regarding these facts, the emergences, which developed from
simple sticky tentacles, are perfectly designed to lure prey into the
sticky plant center.
|
Introduction to the ICPS World Conference in Tokyo 2002.
Now including direct links to view the lectures.
This
new HD introduction to our documentary on the ICPS World Conference
2002 in Tokyo includes direct links to all featured lectures. Numerous
prominent researchers on the wide field of carnivorous plants met here
and fascinated the visitors with their talks. No matter if you are
interessted in exciting field trips, the phylogeny of Droseraceae or
genetic aspects, you will certainly find a fitting lecture.
|
Cephalotus follicularis in situ 1991
bilingual Englisch & Deutsch in
Cephalotus follicularis in situ
near Albany. A unique carnivorous pitcher plant, endemic to Western
Australia, filmed in January 1991. We digitally remastered the former
Super-VHS format, however, the film is almost 25 years old and
HD-quality was a dream at that time. The special ambience of the "good
old days" is featured in our video series "Hunting Veggies History -
Oldies but Goldies". Further reminiscent CP-adventures will follow.
|
Catapults in Pygmyland / Katapulte im Zwergenland
bilingual Englisch & Deutsch in
Our article in CPN 44/4 (2015):
Several
pygmy Sundew species possess catapult-flypaper traps with repetitive
function, indicating a possible evolutionary change into aquatic snap
traps similar to Aldrovanda. Siegfried R. H. Hartmeyer and Irmgard Hartmeyer (PDF) |
Amazing
results: Pygmy sundews capture minute prey like springtails with rapid
catapult action. Our experiments for this film (English subtitles) show
that Drosera glanduligera is not longer the only sundew with a catapult-flypaper trapping mechanism. Also the snap-tentacles of several pygmy Drosera
act with the speed of a closing Venus flytrap and fling walking prey
from the periphery of the plant onto its sticky leaf. Therefore they
turn out to be actually comparable with the amazing Drosera glanduligera,
however, their catapults are multifunctional and possess a mechanism to
avoid unessential movement: Like the Venus Flytrap. Under our
microscope we examined 22 Drosera and received surprising results.
Furthermore we were able to film many pygmy Drosera
in situ on field trips with Allen Lowrie, Greg Bourke and Kirstie Wulf
(1991 & 2001), providing these shots now for the first time on
YouTube.
We are happy to introduce Gideon Lim from Malaysia, who showed the first video of the rapid snap-tentacles of D. pygmaea "New Zealand, all green" on the internet even in 2014.
In addition, we recommend a visit at "Andy Landgraf Makrofotografie" on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/128222815@N03/
Andy kindly provided some of his impressive macro-shots for our film,
to feature some more minute prey and predators in "Pygmyland".
|
Fluorescent Pitcher Plants
Many
carnivorous plants with pitfall traps show a bluish fluorescence under
UV-light. In Sarracenia it is most likely the toxin of the Poison
Hemlock: coniine. The fluorescent agent in Brocchinia and Nepenthes is
unknown. Whatever relevant the effect is for successful prey capture,
it is impressive to experience it in the greenhouse. Special thanks go
to Richard Bayerl (Stuttgart, Germany), who provided his UV-lamp and
participated personally in the experiments.
In 2013, we published an article on the topic in
Das Taublatt (GFP) Heft 75: 33-44.
Leuchtende
Karnivoren: Die Lumineszenz der Schierlingsbecher.
Siegfried
R. H. Hartmeyer, Richard Bayerl und Irmgard Hartmeyer.
|
Feed me ! Füttere mich ! The catapult-flypaper trap will soon be on TV at "planet wissen".
bilingual English & German in
A
sundew is kicking a fruit fly with one of its catapulting tentacles and
makes it stumble into the catapult-trap of a neighbour plant. A mighty
fine draft for this filmlet. The scientific publication of the
catapult-flypaper trap in 2012 in PLOS
ONE (http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0045735) has been a
botanical sensation. Also the technology writer Volker Arzt became
aware of it and recommended our (until now unique) HD-shots to the
editorial staff of the scientific broadcast "planet wissen".
The
result: On September 11th our shots will be on air for the first
time worldwide on the German TV stations SWR (1:15 pm) and ARD alpha (3
pm).
|
Amorphophallus konjak flower in time-lapse
bilingual English & German in
Our
Amorphophallus konjak (two bulbs) developed recently two wonderful -
but very stinky - flowers. The second one grew to an amazing height of
1.86 m (from ground to the tip of the tongue). We documented the growth
with one photo per day and edited the result for this HD-video.
Visit
of the "Weiler Zeitung", which printed an article on the flower.
Reporter Mrs. Günzschel did bear the "fragrance" bravely ;-).
|
To experience this amazing visual illusion, pause the film and place
your favourite living plant beside your screen. Continue the film and -
sitting close to your screen - look into the center of the spinning
helix (takes 20 seconds). When the helix ends, look at your plant
beside the screen (or without any plant look at the photo following the
helix): you see everything rapidly growing! Be surprised !
WARNING: Don't view this if you tend to get dizzy or to feel sick! Also
too much repetition may cause giddiness even for healthy persons.
|
Rapid stigma movement in flowers of Proboscidea
bilingual English & German in
The stigma in flowers of Proboscidea
is touch-sensitive. Triggered by visiting insects, the stigma lobes
close within seconds. If no pollination took place they
reopen after some minutes, ready for the next visit. After
successful pollination the stigma remains closed and the typical
"Devil's claws" develop.
|
Carnivorous Beauties in HD Part 2
Another short slide-show from our CP-collection. This second part shows Catopsis, Utricularia, Proboscidea and Pinguicula, grown in our greenhouse and garden. Further photos will folow. Enjoy!
|
Carnivorous Beauties in HD
A short slide-show with photos from our CP-collection. This first part shows members of the family Droseraceae (Aldrovanda, Dionaea and Drosera), Byblis filifolia and a selection of Nepenthes, grown in our greenhouse. A second part featuring also Pinguicula and Utricularia will follow. Enjoy!
|
Fleischfresser auf dem Blocksberg
(German language)
In
Goethe's "Faust" can be read, that witches meet on top of the legendary
mountain "Brocken" (Germany, vernacular: Blocksberg) to sweep off the
last snow before May. The area is now part of the National Park (NP)
Harz, and also some species of carnivorous plants occur there. We
received a filming permit by the NP authorities and we express our
gratitude to Dr. Gunter Karste, who accompanied our film-tour into the
secret mountain bogs.
The film starts in the climatic
spa Benneckenstein, including a short retrospect on the history of the
Hartmeyer family, who lived here until their family enterprise has been
unlawfully dispossessed by the communistic authorities of the former
German Democratic Republic (GDR - Remark: After the German
reunification it became family property again.). The Hartmeyers escaped
to the western part of Germany in the 1950s, but the contact with
relatives and old friends remained constant in time.
A special thank goes to the
Benneckenstein chronicler Jürgen Kohlrausch, who supported this
film project from the beginning and who showed us some Drosera that
grow not far away from Siggi's old native city in an area which is now
called the "Green Belt". It sounds amazing, but where the former German
zonal border existed with its strips of death and mine-fields, many
endangered animal and plant species survived. Apart from urban sprawl
and roadmaking, they found interestingly here a secure refugium.
|
Die Wasserfalle Aldrovanda in der Schweiz (German language)
Also available in the English language.
Aldrovanda in
Switzerland (English version)
|
|
Die Europäische Karnivorenkonferenz (EEE) in Leiden 2007.
(German language) |
Die Europäische Karnivorenkonferenz (EEE) in Bonn 2006.
(German language) |
Enzymtest mit Fotofilm für Karnivoren.
(German language) |
Guten Appetit. Karnivoren auf Beutefang.
(German language) |
Auf Karnivorentour mit Stewart McPherson: The complete movie as Playlist in the German language
Please scroll down for the English versions |
Auf Karnivorentour mit Stewart McPherson:
Das Heliamphora Paradies
(German language) |
Auf Karnivorentour mit Stewart McPherson:
Heliamphora tatei
(German language) |
Auf Karnivorentour mit Stewart McPherson:
Heliamphora am Kliff (German language)
|
Auf Karnivorentour mit Stewart McPherson:
Wei Tepui
(German language) |
Auf Karnivorentour mit Stewart McPherson:
Gran Sabana und Ilu-Tramen Massiv (German language) |
Auf Karnivorentour mit Stewart McPherson:
Aufstieg zum Mount Roraima.
(German language) |
Auf Karnivorentour mit Stewart McPherson:
Der Auyan Tepui
(German language) |
Auf Karnivorentour mit Stewart McPherson:
Einführung in die Welt der Tepuis.
(German language) |
Welcome at our YouTube-channel
A
short "welcome-trailer" featuring different CP-topics that we provide
with our movies on YouTube and DVD/Blu-ray. We invite interested
persons to subscribe to our channel.
|
On CP-Tour with Stewart McPherson: The Aracamuni Adventure
(English language)
Wide fields of large Brocchinia hechtioides cover the slopes of Cerro Aracamuni and beautiful flowering Utricularia compete with wonderful orchids. But suddenly, on the way to the famous Heliamphora tatei
site, happened an accident with a machete. The hit leg of a crew member
must be needled immediately without any doctor because the helicopter
arrives not before two more days. Finally the guys are really tough
enough to stand also this challenge, even though they were isolated in
the wild.
With
this episode the uploads from our DVD "On CP-Tour with Stewart
McPherson" are complete. Therefore we provide - and recommend to view -
these adventures now also in a playlist, containing all trips in the
orginal order of the DVD (see below).
|
On CP-Tour with Stewart McPherson: Featuring more rare carnivores. (English language)
This time Stewart McPherson takes a helicopter to show us the unusual Drosera meristocaulis,
a sundew which grows in South America and turned out to be a close
relative of the Australian pygmy-drosera. Different from first
conclusions in the mid 2000s, meanwhile a dispersal of seeds by birds
is discussed to be most likely for that odd appearance. Stewart
McPherson also encounters a large scorpion (Brotheas species) and is able to film the beautiful Heliamphora neblinae in an amazing ambiance.
|
On CP-Tour with Stewart McPherson: Wei Tepui (English language)
Also available in the German language: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgmmo7M2aIo.
This
excerpt from our DVD "On CP-Tour with Stewart McPherson" continues our
series of Tepui adventures in the English language. A helicopter takes
Stewart from Yuruani to Wei Tepui, where he visits growing sites of Heliamphora glabra and Heliamphora nutans, showing also Utricularia quelchii and Drosera roraimae.
See also the playlist with Stewart's adventures below.
|
Catapult-Flypaper Trap: Prey Capture filmlet
This short film features the prey-catching by the catapult-flypaper-trap of Drosera glanduligera.
Simon Poppinga from the Plant Biomechanics Group of the Botanic Garden
of the University Freiburg (Head Prof. Dr. Thomas Speck) operated the
high-speed camera and the scanning electron microscope. The HD-shots
were made by Irmgard and myself on our living-room table, using our
Sony Z5 camera. This digest shows explicitly the prey-catching of the
catapult-flypaper-trap and was new edited for those, who like to see
just the basal principles, and not the complete documentation on our
examinations. Our collaboration with the Plant Biomechanics Group was
published on September 26 2012 at PLOS ONE (see right side).
|
The Catapult-Flypaper Trap
(The Diva's Catapult)
We show the first experimental evidence for the role of catapulting
tentacles in prey capture of a carnivorous plant and introduce a new
active trapping mechanism: The catapult-flypaper-trap. This video
documents our (Irmgard and Siegfried R. H. Hartmeyer) collaboration
with the Plant Biomechanics Group of the Botanic Garden of the
Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg (Germany) in 2012, providing all
necessary information to handle the sophisticated cultivation of
Drosera glanduligera and to understand how this unique sundew from
southern Australia uses its amazing combined catapult-flypaper trapping
mechanism. Prey animals walking near the edge of the sundew trigger a
touch-sensitive snap-tentacle which swiftly catapults them upside down
onto adjacent sticky glue-tentacles. By acting like a band-conveyor,
the glue-tentacles lift the prey into the concave leaf-center within
two minutes where digestion takes place, well protected from
kleptoparasites. This is the first detailed documentation and analysis
of the prey-catching, functional morphology, and kinematics of such
catapulting tentacles. The result depicts a unique and surprisingly complex
mechanical adaptation to carnivory.
This report is available on DVD and on Blu-ray (HD).
|
Carnivorous Plants near Orlando
To recover from our CP-trip to Alabama and Northern
Florida with Brian Barnes, we return to Lake Mary, at the outskirts of
Orlando. On visits at Brian's home, he shows us his wonderful
CP-collection, containing i.e. the selfmade cultivars Drosera
'Ambrosia' and Drosera 'Dreamsickle" (hybrids of different D.
filiformis forms), as well as some of the most beautiful Heliamphora
that we have ever seen in cultivation. One evening Brian proofs to be a
smokin' guitar player, performing a jam session with his friend Tony
Tresca (bass) and his wife Cherry (drums), from which we included a
short excerpt. Finally Brian guides us to the nearby Long Pine
Preserve, to film the beautiful Sarracenia minor. Due to an unusual
drought, many plants are suffering and we could not find Pinguicula
lutea and Pinguicula caerulea anymore. Only one year ago Brian
documented several of these, now simply dried up Butterworts. Such
unusual droughts are in many parts of the world on the rise and
probably caused by global warming, which therefore becomes an
additional threat for the endangered genus Sarracenia.
|
Carnivorous Plants in Northern Florida
From Splinter Hill Bog in Alabama we head on south to Carrabelle
in Florida and continue to film carnivorous plants. Our base is the
recommendable snuggish little "Old Carrabelle Hotel". From here its
just a daytrip to the famous growing-sites around Sumatra and Tate's
Hell, where we are able to film i.e. the wonderful Sarracenia flava
var. rubricorpora. This red form is seriously endangered by poaching
and, as Brian reports, the number of plants is declining from year to
year. Not far away we are able to film a site with large Pinguicula
planifolia "giant". In Tate's hell we stumble across Drosera brevifolia
and are shaken to the score to see the very sad results of heavy
poaching with our own eyes. As Brian reports from his own observations,
the beautiful pink form of Sarracenia leucophylla at Tate's Hell has
been poached since years for use in the floral industries, and today
only very small remnants survived, which will probably soon disappear
from their natural habitat if the poaching does not end. |
Splinter Hill Bog Preserve
Sarracenia in Alabama
In
May 2011 we visit the Splinter Hill Bog Preserve in Alabama (USA) and
stay for some days at the Nature Conservancy's Research house in the
midst of the strictly protected and fenced area. Guided by Brian Barnes
(ICPS Director of Conservation), we learn about the importance of
prescribed fire for the rare plants and are able to film some of the
last remaining larger remnants of Sarracenia leucophylla. Fascinated by a wonderful and rich nature we find even more species of Sarracenia,
Drosera and also some beautiful orchids. Our complete adventures in
Alabama and Florida are available on our bilingual DVD and Blu-ray (HD)
"Sarracenia: Endangered Gems".
|
Camera Test: GardenWatchCam -
Growth of Nepenthes in time lapse
The
weather resistant and simple to operate GardenWatchCam may be
interesting for persons who like to make time lapse videos of their
garden, particular growing plants or other long term events. We found
this camera to be practical for filming under wet conditions, that
we face inside our tropical greenhouse, where any operating with
expensive
equipment is simply impossible. However, the picture quality is
certainly below our HD Hunting Veggies standard, but may be sufficient
to document your long term events. This video is just a first test run
under the extreme conditions of our greenhouse, which the camera
survived without problems. It shows the growth of several Nepenthes species during six weeks. |
Triphyophyllum peltatum
(German language)
Thanks to unique video
shots from Sierra Leone by Stewart McPherson and photos from a
successful project at the University of Würzburg (Germany) by Dr. Jan Schlauer
& Dr. Heiko Rischer, we are able to edit a film on the complete life
cycle of this clandestine carnivorous plant. Please scroll up for the English version.
|
Triple E trifft Triphyophyllum (DVD 2008)
Our complete lecture for the EEE in Mira 2008
(as Playlist) in the German language.
IncludingTriphyophyllum peltatum. |
AG3 tissue culture lab and the new Byblis hybrid
On our USA trip 2011 we visit also the tissue culture (TC) lab of AG3 in Eustis, Florida. Beside VFT and Sarracenia they propagate also Byblis. A reason to take a glance at our self produced Byblis hybrid in Germany.
|
The Schizandra-Blues by Brian Barnes
During
our 2011 USA-trip our guide and good friend Brian Barnes proved to
be a real smokin' guitar player. He performs his self composed Schizandra-Blues, together with his wife Cherri (drums), and Tony Tresca (bass).
|
T he Festival of Plants at the Botanic Garden
of the University Basel (CH)
In 2004 we were invited to organize a special CP-show at
the 'Festival of Plants' in Basel (Switzerland). Of course we filmed
the event and we can recommend the arrangement for future CP-shows. |
Jubilee! Our 60th film on YouTube
A short retrospect on our CP-projects of the last decade. Thank you very much to our audience,
especially for many helpful comments and critics on our DVDs and
uploads.
|
The Seychelles pitcher plant
Nepenthes pervillei REMASTERED
We
remastered our movie from 1992 for YouTube. After an unsuccessful trial to find the pitcher plants on the top of Mont Pot à Eau on the island Silhouette, we can finally film N. pervilei, guided by Basil Beaudouin at the top of "Trois Frères" on the main island Mahé. Additional to our
video, this footage contains great and new in-situ photos by the
famous CPer Urs Zimmermann (CH).
|
 
Part 1 Part 2
Drosera tentacels
We show different Drosera tentacles, including the fastest sundew on earth: D glanduligera
in 2 parts. The results of our comparative examinations on the genus
received a great feedback from CP-enthusiasts world wide. This upload contains excerpts from
our DVD "Triple E meets Triphyophyllum" and "Drosera: Snap-Tentacles and Runway-Lights".
|
Part 1 |
 Part 2 |
Pulvinus and Movement in Byblis
In 2009, Brian Barnes published the surprising movement of leaves in Byblis.
To confirm his observation, we filmed the phenomenon in
time-lapse. The movement is caused by pulvini, cell-structures which
are also known from other plant families like Mimosa and beans. Amazingly this has never been mentioned in literature before.
|
Berlin
impressions 2009
A visit in Germany's capitol Berlin. We filmed with permission at the wonderful Zoo-Aquarium and visited Robert Gieseler
(chairman of the GFP Regional-Group Berlin) ... where his chameleon
suddenly encounters an agressive T-Rex. No German language is
necessary to understand this footage.
|
Introduction
|
Auyán Tepui
|
Ascent of Mount Roraima
|
Gran Sabana to Ilu-Tramen Massif
|
Wei Tepui
English language
and also
German language. |
More rare Tepui-CP
|
Chimanta to Los Testigos |
On CP-Tour with Stewart McPherson (English language)
We edited Stewart McPherson's
tour videos to several Tepuis and provide our result in 6
parts. Experience breathtaking helicopter flights, pictures
of unique landscapes and many endemic plants. Our movie shows all Heliamphora species described until 2010. Our thank goes to Stew, who kindly provided his videos for our DVD, which contains even more adventures.
|
The ICPS World Conference in Tokio 2002
In
2001 we received an invitation by Prof. Katsuhiko Kondo (Hiroshima) to
join the ICPS World Conferenc in Tokyo (Japan) to give a lecture on our
CP-tours in Australia, and to produce the official conference-video
with our equipment. The 16 movies above provide most of the lectures of
many prominent CP-experts, held at the event in 2002. Additional
information can be found with our article "Die 4. Internationale Karnivorenkonferenz in Tokio" for "Das Taublatt", the journal of the German CPS "GFP".
View all lectures via plalist
|
Triphyophyllum
peltatum (English language)
Thanks to unique video
shots from Sierra Leone (Africa) by Stewart McPherson and photos from a
successful examination at the university of Würzburg (Germany) by Dr. Jan Schlauer
& Dr. Heiko Rischer we were able to edit this film featuring the complete life
cycle of the clandestine growing carnivorous liana Triphyophyllum peltatum. The film is an excerpt from our DVD "Triple E meets Triphyophyllum".
|
|
Part 1
|
Part 2
|
Enjoy your meal Part 1 & 2
These uploads provides different entertaining and informative CP-topics,
like Roridula hosting Pameridea bugs, our rodent eating N. truncata, a detailled instruction for
the photo-film enzyme test, and even more. The movies are excerpts from our DVD "Triple E meets Triphyophyllum", produced for our lecture at the EEE 2008 in Mira (Italy).
|
|
The EEE in Bonn 2006
|
The EEE in Leiden 2007
|
The
European CP Exchange and Exhibition (EEE)
Impressions
from the much attended European Exchange and Exhibition (EEE)
events in Bonn (Germany, 2006) and in Leiden (The Netherlands, 2007).
|
Sophisticated
survival strategies
of the annual Drosera
The anual Drosera
species develop the most sophisticated trapping mechanisms in the genus,
to catch enough protein for a complete life-cycle within a single season.
Remark: This footage awarded a 2nd price in the ChloroFilms Plant Biology Contest in 2010. The contest is organised by the Pennsylvania State University and supported by YouTube.
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Tissue culture
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Lowland nurseries in
Colombo
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Highland nurseries
Part 1
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Highland nurseries
Part 2 |
Highland nurseries
Part 3
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Highland nurseries
Part 4
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A
visit at Borneo Exotics in Sri Lanka
In 2004 we visited Robert
Cantley's world famous Nepenthes
nursery in Sri Lanka. The film
shows the professional and environment-friendly propagation of the
endangered pitcher plants at Robert Cantley's greenhouses. No plants
are collected in nature, everything is produced with tissue culture,
which is an important contribution to keep even such species world-wide
alive in culture, which are seriously endangered in their natural
habitat. We are happy to show unique pictures of wonderful and rare
plants. On December 26 we
experience the big 2004-tsunami without damage, because our hotel at
the sea-side in Mount Lavinia was built on a 3-4 meters high rock,
fortunately just high enough ...
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The ant massacre
In the early 1990s, ants start their mating flights through the floor of our
tropical greenhouse. That becomes a big meal for our pitcher plant
hybrid Sarracenia x catesbaei.
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Aldrovanda in
Switzerland
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Sarracenia in
Switzerland
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CP in Switzerland
The well known Swiss
teacher and author Ruedi Fürst (CH) guides us through bogs in
Switzerland. We show growing sites with Aldrovanda vesiculosa and Sarracenia purpurea.
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Northern
Queensland Part 1
- Looking for a
soundtrack
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Northern
Queensland Part 2
- Drosera and Utricularia
in Cairns
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Northern
Queensland Part 3
- D. schizandra
at Mount Bartle Frere
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New South Wales
- CP of the Blue
Mountains
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New South Wales
- Utricularia gibba
in Sydney
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Queensland 1995
- Sarracenia:
tropical dormancy
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CP Adventures in Australia (1995 & 2001)
2001
we return to Australia for filming. Invited by Michael Gabour,
owner of the Court House Hotel (Port Douglas), we are even able to
record a wonderful Blues-soundtrack for our DVD. Thanks to
Kirstie Wulf, Greg Bourke and Trevor Hannam we are able to provide numerous
CP-sites and great adventures.
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Triggerplants (Stylidium)
The
rapid moving flowers of this mainly Western Australian genus are very
interesting. Stylidium is growing frequently in the same habitats
as CP.
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Sarracenia alata
Enjoy
a field with beautiful pitcher plants near DeSoto (Mississippi,
USA). We edited this movie from videos, taken by the famous author
of CP-books, Stewart McPherson. The film was produced with hiskind permission.
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Drosera
glanduligera
- Flower
opening
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Drosera
glanduligera
- Glue-tentacles time
lapse
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Drosera
glanduligera
- Snap-tentacles real
time
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Drosera
glanduligera
- Speed
contest
(really amazing)
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Lecture on
snap-tentacles
- Part 1
(German language)
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Lecture on
snap-tentacles
- Part 2
(German language)
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Lecture on
snap-tentacles
- Part 3/1
(German language)
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Lecture on
snap-tentacles - Part 3/2
(German language)
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Lecture on
snap-tentacles
- Part 3/3
(German language)
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Drosera snap-tentacles
In 2005. we published (DAS
TAUBLATT) and documented the thrilling ability of Drosera glanduligera
to retract its unique marginal tentacles in fractions of a second,
which is about as rapid as the Venus Flytrap snap-shuts. In 2007
followed our movie "Drosera: Snap-Tentacles and Runway Lights", describing in detail also other, quite different tentacles in the genus Drosera (an upgraded article has been published in 2010 in Carnivorous Plant Newsletter).
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