I am a former physicist (ABD--didn't finish dissertation, so no Ph.D.) working now in the energy industry as a quantitative analyst.
I began reading about carnivorous plants as far back as I can remember, perhaps 5 or so. I bought my first venus flytrap in 1980, when i was 10, from a comic book. I had read a lot about them, so it survived with me for quite some time.
In 1981, I was with a nature center daycamp, when we took a hike to a local bog (Connecticut). Reaching the peat bog and walking out on the boardwalk, I was astounded to discover the place was full of Sarracenia purpurea and Drosera rotundifolia -- I knew them by common and latin names, and totally astounded (and perhaps annoyed) the camp leader by correcting him on some details he gave about the plants; the other kids began asking me (instead of him) questions about them, and it ended up becoming an impromptu lecture on CPs. He tried to stump me, but couldn't.
Not knowing any better, I field-collected one each of S. purpurea ssp. purpurea and D. rotundifolia. These three (including the VFT) CPs survived in my care until one horrible summer day in 1986, when my parents put them outside to get sun, and failed to remove the cover from the terraria, cooking the plants.
My interest in CPs lay dormant until 2003, when HoustonHerp gave a talk on Father's Day about CPs and gave out CPs after the talk (I got a D. capensis all-white). I bought a few more plants from him, picked up a number at Lowe's and Kroger, and during a trip to California, managed a side trip to California Carnivores.
My collection really took off after finding this forum. There's an awful lot of generous traders here.
When I'm not CPing, I am also into brewing beer and mead, astronomy and photography.
I began reading about carnivorous plants as far back as I can remember, perhaps 5 or so. I bought my first venus flytrap in 1980, when i was 10, from a comic book. I had read a lot about them, so it survived with me for quite some time.
In 1981, I was with a nature center daycamp, when we took a hike to a local bog (Connecticut). Reaching the peat bog and walking out on the boardwalk, I was astounded to discover the place was full of Sarracenia purpurea and Drosera rotundifolia -- I knew them by common and latin names, and totally astounded (and perhaps annoyed) the camp leader by correcting him on some details he gave about the plants; the other kids began asking me (instead of him) questions about them, and it ended up becoming an impromptu lecture on CPs. He tried to stump me, but couldn't.
Not knowing any better, I field-collected one each of S. purpurea ssp. purpurea and D. rotundifolia. These three (including the VFT) CPs survived in my care until one horrible summer day in 1986, when my parents put them outside to get sun, and failed to remove the cover from the terraria, cooking the plants.
My interest in CPs lay dormant until 2003, when HoustonHerp gave a talk on Father's Day about CPs and gave out CPs after the talk (I got a D. capensis all-white). I bought a few more plants from him, picked up a number at Lowe's and Kroger, and during a trip to California, managed a side trip to California Carnivores.
My collection really took off after finding this forum. There's an awful lot of generous traders here.
When I'm not CPing, I am also into brewing beer and mead, astronomy and photography.