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Red dew

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maneatingmoo

maneatingmoo

Dog!
Today I was looking at my D. Capensis, and I noticed a glob of red dew on it. I touched it with a toothpick and some of the dew got on the toothpick, and that dew was red too. I touched it with my finger and it feels kindof tingley. Has this ever happened to anyone before?
 
i saw the other thread, but this seems interesting. i'm wondering if it's a chemical thing...like if its grown in the most ideal conditions possible, a certain chemical, only produced in those conditions forms in the dew. If you can get an effect on human skin, I'd imagine that your average fly would be history, since normal dew does the job well on its own.
...just my speculation
 
SirKristoff said:
hmm. if it starts stinging let me know lol. we could have something strange with our plants, who knows?
Click to expand...

That would be pretty cool if that happens. I thought the red dew was just the dew on the red tentacles but it was still reddish on the toothpick. I really hope that all the dew turns red.
 
A D. capensis that produces a skin irritant is dubious to me.... I'll believe it when I feel it.
 
i wonder if the regular dew have the stinging effect on the fly just that now its a higher concentrate and would sting alot more than normal dew. anyone get what i'm saying?
 
currently mine is not stinging.
i moved it outside and thats around the time it stopped completely.
maybe it will start up again though
who knows.
 
SirKristoff said:
currently mine is not stinging.
i moved it outside and thats around the time it stopped completely.
Click to expand...


I think this strengthens my point ( ;


upper, I think your theory is a better explanation than mine.
its just that the normal dew w/ a lower concentration of the "stinging" chemical doesn't have a noticeable affect on human skin.
 
For the sake of argument, let's say they do. Why would they need a irritant in their mucilage? There's no reason for it to be there even if it was there (which I don't believe it is). The mucilage it's self does the job just fine, and D. capensis exhibits rather fast thigmotropism in relation to many other species which further aids the trapping process. If there was an irritant in the mucilage, that would be counterproductive to the trapping process because it would make the prey struggle more. Prey won't move LESS vigorously if it's being "stung", it will more MOVE to try and get away from the irritation.

Even if D. capensis DID produce a mild irritant to facilitate capture not normally noticeable to us, but this clone produces more, then D. capensis would catch more prey that other Drosera, and while does catch more prey than smaller species (larger surface area means it'll capture more. There's a larger landing strip :P ) with fewer stalked glands, it's in proportion.

If you sprayed any chemicals, that's a much more likely explanation. Pyrethrins/Pyrethroids make my skin itchy and irritated, so maybe if that or some other chemical was applied then that's probably what you experienced. Or maybe you came in contact with some other household chemical (there are ungodly amounts of chemicals all around us 24 hours a day, and many can irritate your skin) in an area in which you just happened to have touched the D. capensis. That's also a very likely explanation.
 
clint,
i figured if it could produce a response on human skin, it would produce more of a paralyzing effect on insects or a very quick death, but once again, read my sig :)

i guess the only way to find out is to experiment.


maneatingmoo,
u think you can try catching a fly and putting it on the stinging tentacles and see how long it struggles for/ what its reaction is?

sirkristoff, did your cape catch more or less insects on average when the tentacles had the "stinging" effect?
 
Well... they don't stop moving or die faster than with any other plant.

And even if his plant catches more bugs, that's most likely a coincidence and there may have just been more bugs to catch if it did. One plant doesn't mean anything.
 
Well the other day I found an ant and put it on the capensis, but not on the leaf with the red dew, just an ordinary leaf. The ant was alive and wiggling in my hand, but when I put it on the capensis it quickly stopped struggling. A few minutes later I looked at the ant and it wasn't moving, so I poked it and it just barely moved it's legs.
 
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