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Night-blooming flowers face less competitors for pollinating animals than day blooming flowers do for one simple purpose: There are fewer of them. Moths, who do their pollinating work at night, hunt down gentle-colored, extremely scented flowers. Lip-like flowers with a spur finish (that most likely impressed "Little Shop of Horrors" screenplay writer Charles B. Griffith) rise on easy stems a number of inches into the air. These little creatures must be positioned within inches of a fluorescent bulb to achieve their maximum potential. Little floating stomachs can be an apt description of bladderworts, the most important and most widespread genus of carnivorous plants. Pinguicula means "little greasy one" in Latin, and the leaves do have a greasy feel. The actual danger lies in the slick, tongue-formed leaves that nestle close to the ground. Sometime between late February and should, depending on the species, lovely 5-petalled flowers emerge from the ground. Lurking beneath the lovely blossoms, scattered amongst hairlike stems, are lots of of pinhead-sized carnivorous bladders trailing trigger hairs into the water. Most hairs are purple, however on some sundews they are transparent with a shiny crimson gland at the tip. Red veins distinction with the lush, green foliage, making enticing and fascinating patterns. |
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