Page 32 - 2021 AMA Summer

MISCARTICLE
FEED ME SEYMOUR...!
Duncan Francis
So, there are carnivorous plants alive and well in the UK....who knew? Well to be fair, they aren’t exactly
Triffids (which were just deadly and not carnivorous anyway, but you know what I mean), and nor are they Audrey from the Little Shop of Horrors. And, to be completely exact, they aren’t actually carnivorous as such; more insectivorous (although if you were an insect, you might argue that the difference is irrelevant...). So, you don’t need to worry about being out on the bog. Alone. At night. In thick mist. Or do you?
There are carnivorous plants all over the world. You may have come across the Venus Fly Trap, or a Pitcher Plant, or something similar, either in your travels or at a higher-end garden centre. But there are carnivorous plants out there amongst us here in the wild UK, waiting for the midges and the other wee beasties to be attracted in to their doom...
They used to be quite widespread but the loss of peatlands and bog has reduced them mostly to areas of Scotland and Wales, and occasionally in the Lake District and elsewhere. They grow on acidic, wet, boggy ground which is very poor in nutrients, and boost their calorie intake by enticing insects into their snares where they get trapped, die and are gradually absorbed by the plant. Where such plants do grow, they can be prolific; I have walked across carpets of Sundews North of Foinaven and elsewhere in NW Scotland. It can sometimes seem as though there are none at all, and then when you get your eye in, they are everywhere...
For the sake of simplicity, there are essentially three sorts in the UK, the Butterworts (Pinguicula), the Sundews (Drosera) and the Bladderworts (Utricularia). The Bladderworts are the least common in the mountains but they are found in ditches and ponds up to about 600-650m (I have some near me in
Common Butterwort
Balquhidder!), so I will cover them here as well. But you might want to focus on the ground-based ones; the ones that we, as mountaineers, might find in the hills. The ones that might get you in the misty dark, out alone on the moor.
BUTTERWORTS
Most people have probably seen Butterworts without necessarily realising what they are, as they seem quite innocuous. The one normally found in the UK is the Common Butterwort, Pinguicula Vulgaris, although you might be lucky enough to stumble across a Pale Butterwort, Pinguicula Lusitanica, somewhat smaller, paler [doh....] and with pale pink flowers with a yellow centre. To be honest, it’s hard to tell the difference, except that only the Pale Butterwort overwinters as a rosette of leaves. So, if you see one in the Winter snows, that’s what it is! The star-shaped rosettes of pale
Round-leaved Sundew in flower
32 / ARMY MOUNTAINEER