Depending upon where you live, your garden may have a problem with gnats, mosquitoes, aphids and other small bugs. While there are many ways to deal with these insect pests, it is always nice to learn about a natural way fight them. That is why I am recommending you take a look at this orchid. Is there a spot in your garden for this plant:
The Amazing Pinguicula — Mosquito, Gnat, Aphid and Small Bug Killing Plant (gigantea x moranensis hybrid)
Indoors our outdoors, the Amazing Pinguicula is a FUN plant to grow and watch! It looks perfectly innocent, with its small size and cute round leaves, but therein lies its deadly secret. The plant seduces its prey with its innocuous appearance, inviting the bug to come take a rest from bugging humans. The plant’s leaves express a sticky substance (called a “mucilage”) so that when small, light insects land on the leaf surface, their skinny legs and wings get coated with the sticky stuff, leading them to struggle more and more until they are covered with mucilage and meet a sticky doom. The plant then digests the insect, leaving only a husk to be washed away at the next watering.
The Amazing Pinguicula is a carnivorous plant that catches and devours mosquitoes, fungus gnats, aphids, tiny ants, and other small bugs. It is very easy to grow, and can handle bright light or shade, making it perfect for the windowsill. Keep the plant and its growing media moist by frequent watering or leave it in a shallow saucer of water.
The Pinguicula also flowers multiple times per year on a larger plant, producing a white/violet or purple flower (depending on variety) reminiscent of many rare orchid types.
Kids love The Amazing Pinguicula! Watching bugs land and die on the plant is a very entertaining — and educational! You can also easily propagate this plant by simply pulling out a whole leaf, being careful to keep intact the inner edge of the leaf that meets the core of the plant. This inner edge has cells capable of regenerating a whole plant (see picture), and can do so in just a few months.
This Pinguicula can handle warm and cold temperatures and will do well indoors, outdoors (protect from freezing) or in a greenhouse (many orchid growers use Pinguiculas to get rid of bugs). To protect the plant from being crushed during shipping, only the plant will be shipped (with moist material around the roots). Grow your plant in New Zealand Sphagnum moss, or a 50/50 mixture of sand and potting soil.
Kills mosquitoes, fungus gnats, aphids, small ants, and other bugs that get stuck on its leaves
Beautiful orchid-like flower, can bloom multiple times per year
Very easy to grow, can grow in bright light or shade, perfect for the windowsill
Easy to propagate from a pulled leaf! kids LOVE this plant!
NOTE: WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY: PLEASE HOLD OFF ON ORDERING IF YOU EXPECT TEMPERATURES BELOW 40 F FOR EXTENDED PERIODS. THIS PLANT WILL NOT SURVIVE FREEZING IN TRANSIT.The Amazing Pinguicula — Mosquito, Gnat, Aphid and Small Bug Killing Plant (gigantea x moranensis hybrid)
A Few More Thoughts on Pinguicula
Did you know that the generic name Pinguicula is derived from the Latin pinguis (meaning “fat” or “oily”) due to the buttery texture of the surface of its carnivorous leaves? To me, Pinguicula is a genus of most uncarnivorous-looking plants, yet they certainly do trap a variety of insects. By the way, Pinguicula is one of the three genera of the carnivorous Lentibulariaceae, comprising approximately 80 species.
Completely unrelated to these plants, but I thought you might like to know: Curveulima pinguicula is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Eulimidae. And Megachile pinguicula is a species of bee in the family Megachilidae (hooray for bees ).
Pinguicula has a wide range and can be found in North, Central and South America, in Greenland, in most parts of Europe, at the very north-western tip of Africa and in some scattered areas of Asia. These insect preying plants have many subgroups (such as tropical, temperate and other scientific names) that vary depending on dormancy and growth habits as well as natural habitats.
Repotting can be done in early spring once every year to two years, depending on what you use to grow your plants in; it’s been recorded that Mexican Pinguicula can go without being repotted for up to five years, so it’s up to you really. In the wild, Most Pinguicula will be found growing in calcareous and rocky soils.
When they do not have enough light, Pinguicula will turn a very dark green and may shrink back to a very small and pitiful looking plant, but they will definitely color up in bright light. When adding the pinguicula to a new pot simply fill the pot with as much soil as you desire (remember pinguicula have shallow root systems and do not need deep pots), create a small “dip” in the center and gently place the pinguicula in this dip.
Book About Carnivorous Plants
See this TITLE: Carnivorous Plants Jane Gate
Explores a variety of carnivorous plants, discussing how they entice, catch, and digest their prey and provides instructions on how to cultivate them.
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