2006 November 17 – Day #1

Posted 2006 November 17 @ 16:42 - filed under Hank.

Last night, I got a new house-mate, Hank. His previous owner, Gawie W., is off to Taiwan for a year or so, so Hank will be staying with me. As far as I can tell, Hank is a Drosera capensis, an indigenous sundew species. His leaves, coated with sticky tentacles, was littered with tiny corpses when I got him. This afternoon, I took Hank out for his first photo-shoot – and a fly obligingly landed on one of his leaves and became prey, as the image below shows.

The image above shows three interesting features: left-centre is a recurved stalk ending with a bunch of spherical bits. I'm guessing these are flower-buds. According to the "Cape sundew" Wikipedia entry, D. capensis produces flowers in early summer, so let's see what happens.

In the centre of the image are two leaves, sharply bending to the right. Notice at the bend, the first sign of the reddish mucous-tipped tentacles are showing. Last night, the bend was featureless with no sign of what was to come. Lower down, two more buds can be seen (see also next image).

2006 November 18 – Day #2

Yesterday, I was wondering how long it would be before the two new leaves would be ready to catch a meal. As this afternoon's photo shows (below), a midge has already been served.

Still no flowers yet, as the closeup of the bud-bearing stalk (below) confirms.

2006 November 23 – Day #7

After two days of rain, Hank is looking decidedly sickly. There's less sparkle to his leaves, and I'm wondering if the rain could have washed off the dew-drops? Yesterday morning I noticed a Caterpillar on one of Hank's leaves. How cool is that – a plant eating a caterpillar for a change. But later in the day I noticed the caterpillar was (entirely) gone, and I don't think Hank was that ravenous. This morning, the caterpillar was back (image below, left). Who's eating whom? The right-hand image shows one of Hank's leaves, curled up and around an earlier meal. The leaf responds to touch, and the curling ensures that more of the flesh-devouring tentacles comes into contact with din-dins.

Still no flowers yet, but today's closeup of the bud-bearing stalk (below, left) shows a change of colour and some unfurling action taking place on the uppermost buds. The right-hand image, of the centre of the plant, shows the development of the two leaves first noticed on Day #1 (second picture on November 17). Another leaf is shaping up, and several buds are nestled in the crown of the plant. Despite Hank's bedraggled demeanour, he may just make it after all. That Caterpillar, though, still has me worried...

2006 November 26 – Day #10

The caterpillar was back the next day. I couldn't stand the tension – it is no more. After one rainy day and two of sunshine, Hank is blossoming (bottom, left) and a new leaf is beginning to unfold in the crown (bottom, right). Ah, life's good. Unless you're a caterpillar.

2006 November 27 – Day #11

Bloomin' hell! If I blinked, I would have missed it. By mid-morning, Hank's two blossoms had opened up, and by this afternoon, when I took the photos below, were closing again. Judging by the colour of the petals, Hank is either gay or a girl.

2006 November 28 – Day #12

The two flowers shown on yesterday's images were shrivelled this morning (mind you, they were pretty shrivelled yesterday, too) while a new one had opened, revealing five delicately coloured petals and pollen-bearing stamens. I was hoping to see a garland of flowers, but thus far it seems individual flowers bloom for only a day. If so, there's at least a week's worth left.

2006 December 11 – Day #25

Hank delivered a beauty this morning, a pretty skyward-looking flower, set at the highest point on the curling stalk. The image below shows (left) Hank preparing for his close-up, and (right) a side-long view showing the spent and yet-to-be flowers. The lower image is a close-up of today's flower. I'm concerned, however, with his overall appearance, as the lower left image (and also this close-up) shows. Initially, his leaves were a rich green colour, but now they have turned brownish and don't seem to sport any sparkling dew-drops. Also visible on the image are strands of spider-silk, and cat hairs...

Keywords: Cape sundew, Drosera capensis

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