The Carnivorous Plant FAQ Field Trip Report -

A Shadow over North Carolina

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Banded traps:
This is a particularly pretty plant we found. A few years back (during the 'Royal Red' controversy), I read a few grey literature publications by Australians which made me realize that the Australians had a well developed terminology for Dionaea pigmentation forms. They referred to traps like this, where there is a stripe of pigmentation on the outer trap surface, as being "banded." This is a pretty banded trap, with a green margin but red spines. Apparently, as you can see in this photograph, the banding is only on some of the traps (and then, sometimes incompletely). I wonder why? Illumination intensity? Seasonality? Trap maturity?

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Revised: October 2007
©Barry Rice, 2005