Where Do Carnivorous Plants Come From?

Poor Soil, Lots of Light, Plenty of Water

Almost every carnivorous plant evolved in places where the soil has almost no nutrients: acidic bogs, wet sand, soaked moss, rock seeps. They catch insects to make up for what the ground can't give them. That's why they hate fertilized potting soil and mineral heavy tap water. It's the opposite of home.

• Bogs and wet savannas: flytraps, Sarracenia, and many sundews.
• Tropical forests and mountains: Nepenthes.
• Tabletop mountains: Heliamphora.
• Rocky slopes and cliffs: many Mexican butterworts.
• Ponds and wet ground: bladderworts.

Flytraps and Pitcher Plants

The Venus flytrap grows wild in only one place on Earth, a small area of coastal North and South Carolina. Sarracenia are spread across the southeastern US in wet pine savannas and bogs, with purpurea reaching all the way up into Canada. Out west, the cobra lily, Darlingtonia, grows in cold mountain streams in California and Oregon. Where to see them in the wild.

Flytrap FTS Red Jaws, Carolina native, from $22

Sarracenia leucophylla x flava, southeastern bogs, from $90

Mexican Butterworts

Mexico is the center of the butterwort world. Many species grow on limestone cliffs and rocky slopes, with a wet summer and a dry winter. That's why most Mexican Pinguicula make tight, succulent looking rosettes in winter, and why they do so well on a windowsill. Shop Pinguicula.

Sun Pitchers on the Tepuis

Heliamphora grow on the tepuis, the flat topped mountains of Venezuela, Guyana, and Brazil. Up there it's bright, cool, wet, and misty almost every day. That's why they want strong light but cool nights, and why a grow chamber is the easiest way to keep them happy. Shop Heliamphora.

Tropical Pitcher Plants

Nepenthes are centered in Southeast Asia, especially Borneo, Sumatra, and the Philippines, with outliers reaching Madagascar, Sri Lanka, India, and northern Australia. Some grow in hot lowland forest, others on cool, cloudy mountaintops. Knowing whether a plant is a lowlander or a highlander tells you most of what you need to know about its temperatures. Shop Nepenthes.

Sundew Country

Australia has more sundew species than anywhere else, plus the Albany pitcher plant, Cephalotus, found only in the far southwest. South Africa is home to Drosera capensis, the Cape sundew, which is one of the easiest carnivorous plants you can grow. Shop Drosera capensis.

Small Plants, Tough Places

Europe's carnivorous plants are mostly small and tough: sundews, bladderworts, and butterworts in cold bogs and wet mountain meadows. I've gone looking for them myself. On a family hike near Tromsø, Norway, I found Pinguicula vulgaris growing wild, and I went even further north hunting one of the world's smallest butterworts.

A Plant From Each Region

All in stock now.

Flytrap Big Mouth, CarolinasFrom $11 Pinguicula emarginata, MexicoFrom $18 Heliamphora exappendiculata, VenezuelaFrom $55 Nepenthes jamban, SumatraFrom $75 Drosera capensis Big Red, South AfricaFrom $25 Utricularia sandersonii, South AfricaFrom $15

Grow Them Like Home

Whenever a plant is struggling, ask what its home looks like. A Carolina bog is sunny and wet. A tepui is bright and cool. A Mexican cliff is dry in winter. Get close to that and most of the guesswork goes away. How many carnivorous plants there are.