‘Feed me, Seymour’
If the rest of your life makes you whiteknuckled, try relaxing with predatory plants. For University of Pittsburgh junior Alvin Liu, carnivorous plants — those that capture and digest insects and/or other animals — provide balance to the pressures of a pre-med track double major in molecular biology and history.
Watching documentaries and interests in “weird things” as a kid are what drew him to the niche topic. The plants challenged his understanding of the circle of life. “There were plants out there that would eat insects rather than the other way around,” and it fascinated him. He started at age 6 with a Home Depot Venus flytrap that lived for only a month. But it wasn’t long until he was putting exotic plants on his holiday wish lists, and he became a fullblown collector.
The Monmouth County, N.J., native spreads out his 200 species of carnivorous plants while away at school — some in a friend’s greenhouse, some at home and “a couple dozen” at his Oakland apartment, where they’re bathed in artificial lightfor 16 hours per day.
Weekends are plant time for Mr. Liu, who likes “ignoring them during the week” to really appreciate any new growth. Because the plants use photosynthesis, most of their nutritional needs are met by light and water alone. “Meat” is a mere nutritional supplement for many carnivorous species, but some require it. For those feasts, Mr. Liu will either catch insects outdoors or use fish
pellets.
Searching for carnivorous species in the wild is a part of his hobby that recently turned into a bit more. After years of documenting these plants in the New Jersey Pinelands, Mr. Liu co-authored a book last year that focuses on sundews (genus Drosera) titled, “Drosera of the New Jersey Pinelands, U.S.A.” The plants’ leaves sprout pink-red tendrils, tipped with a glistening globule, but it isn’t water: It’s a sticky gland that turns insects into lunch.
“It’s relaxing to mindlessly do plant stuff,” he said. “Every time I look at them, I still get that same sense of amazement I did all those years ago.”