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Post by villestat on Sept 12, 2014 1:26:00 GMT
Hi, today while I was hiking with my girlfriend we found a plant that looked like a carnivorous plant, but we couldn't identify it. I took some pictures and a few branches to try to reproduce it. Some of the "traps" had flies and other insect dead inside, and we even found one with a living fly inside trying to get out, but failing to do so. The white "hairs" are pointing inwards and was what prevented the fly from escaping. We looked inside some traps to see if they had some kind of liquid that could help it digest the insects, but none of them had, at least the ones we looked. As for the plants, every one of them had a few branches, separating at floor level. Every branch had a few traps and leaves, with every trap being surrounded by one leave (but not every leave having a trap). The branches were spreading almost at floor level. The few plants that are seen in the pictures were the only ones we could find in a wide area. If it helps, I live in Chile, and the plants were found in Reñaca, which is near Valparaíso.
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Bio
Full Member
The Plant Whisperer
Posts: 12
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Post by Bio on Sept 12, 2014 2:13:43 GMT
It is certainly non-carnivorous. This looks to be Aristolochia chilensis - a species of plant from a genus very commonly mistaken for CPs. The "trap" is actually a flower that works in a way similar to a Nepenthes (Tropical Pitcher Plant), or Sarracenia (American Pitcher Plant) leaf, only instead of killing and digesting the insect, the plant traps and uses it as a pollinator. Again, not carnivorous, but still a very interesting plant.
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Post by villestat on Sept 13, 2014 0:01:43 GMT
Thanks for the quick reply, indeed, by the look of the pictures in google images it is an Aristolochia chilensis.
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