Part of our explore with Stephen and Karen was a careful frolic in a FEN.

Fens are rare, unique, and fantastically beautiful ecosystems that take thousands of years to form. They have unique flora such as carnivorous plants. They form in rare conditions where the subsoil causes the water table to be near the surface, and where there is a constant flow so most trees and shrubs cannot grow. Wow.
What we came to see was the fabulous Sundew. Drosera are probably the most diverse genus of carnivorous plants in the world. There are somewhere around 130 species found on almost every continent of earth.
Sundews can be as small as a penny or as large as a small bush. Their tentacle covered leaves come in a wide and imaginative variety of design: circular leaves, wedge-shaped leaves, leaves that are peltate or linear or as filiform as a thin blade of grass. Their leaves may be strapped-shaped, oval or forked and branching like a fern or lethal spider web. The ones found here are the most common, the roundleaf sundew. Wow, right?



Sundews are “flypaper” plants that trap prey in sticky hairs on their leaves. Tentacles protrude from their leaves, each with a sticky gland at the tip. These droplets look like dew glistening in the sun, thus their name. The glands produce nectar to attract prey, powerful adhesive to trap it, and enzymes to digest it. Once an insect becomes stuck, nearby tentacles coil around the insect and smother it.

These plants feed on insects. Mosquitoes are abundant in the sundews’ preferred habitat and can make up a significant portion of their diet in these locations. Sundews can kill a trapped insect in about 15 minutes, but may digest it over a few weeks.
As long as we can continue to discover, life will be satisfying. It is the search for, and discovery of, new and unique experiences that truly makes us content.