Carnivorous plants return to English wetlands

After a century-long absence, carnivorous plants have returned to a peat bog in Lancashire, in northwest England:

The insect-eating great sundew and oblong-leaved sundew are among 17,500 plants being reintroduced to Winmarleigh Moss as part of its restoration by the Lancashire Wildlife Trust.

The plants had been absent from the lowland raised peat bog for a century after it was drained to be managed for game bird shooting….

Over the last decade, however, Winmarleigh has been restored by the trust to support rare wildlife and sequester carbon. Peat banks hold water on the site, allowing bog cranberry and spongy sphagnum moss to regrow and fauna including the common lizard and the large heath butterfly to flourish….the trust has brought back missing plant species, including the sundews, alongside bog asphodel and white beak-sedge…..

The trust’s Helen Earnshaw said: “It is exciting to see great sundew and oblong-leaved sundew back on Winmarleigh Moss, as they have been absent for 100 years. These plants are only found on peatlands, and it is important that we do all we can to ensure that they establish and thrive here to add to the biodiversity of the site.”

Conservation scientists hope the reintroduced plants will naturally spread and colonise the surrounding wetlands too.

America has carnivorous plants not found in England. The classic example is the Venus flytrap, a carnivorous plant native to wetlands in North Carolina and South Carolina. It catches its prey—primarily insects and spiders —with a trap formed by the terminal portion of each of the plant’s leaves, which is triggered by tiny hairs on their inner surfaces.