Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1998 13:40:59 +0100 From: Elliot Smith <e.smith@cs.bham.ac.uk> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2723$foo@default> Subject: CPs at Montreal Botanical Gardens
I've just come back from a conference in Montreal. Whilst there, I
eagerly visited the botanical gardens, hoping to see lots of CPs. My
anticipation grew when I saw they had a bog garden and lots of
greenhouses.
However, the bog garden was rather unimaginatively laid out, and
consisted of lots of concrete planters, each containing at most two
species. There was a planter marked 'Sarracenia purpurea', but no
corresponding plant; instead, some boring-looking reeds, as far as I
bothered to remember.
Their only CPs were restricted to a fairly gloomy tank inside the
'introductory' greenhouse. There was a slide show of various trapping
mechanisms and a plaque, neither of which I could get to because of
building work. They had lots of fairly common Drosera species, some nice
Pinguicula moranensis, a few Sarracenia, VFTs, and two smallish
Nepenthes (in my distress, I didn't notice which species). Everything
apart from the Pings looked quite sad and very green (poor light levels,
I imagine). Also, the plants were in pots, barely concealed, and
standing quite amateurishly around the tank. Maybe I missed the 'proper'
display?
So, don't get too excited about CPs in Montreal's gardens. However, they
do have a really nice cacti and succulents greenhouse, and an impressive
display of bromeliads (I didn't notice any of the carnivorous species).
I also saw some assassin bugs in the Insectarium, which are implicated
in Roridula gorgonias' quasi-carnivory (if I remember Peter D'amato's
book properly). Nasty looking things, viciously laying into lots of
squirming grasshoppers!
-- Elliot Smith School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham email: e.smith@cs.bham.ac.uk homepage: http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~ezs/
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