Book Description

Triggerplants are not only found in Australia, but they reach their greatest diversity there. A few species have ranges which extend to India, China, or Japan, with several more in Papua New Guinea, but of the nearly two hundred identified species, the great majority are found in Australia. Triggerplants may be carnivorous after all, but that has to do with the glistening hairs below the flowers. Triggerplants grow in the same poor soils favoured by carnivorous plants, poor soils in which carnivorous plants have an advantage in that they can obtain nitrogen from their prey. In fact, when you find a triggerplant, there is usually a known carnivorous plant nearby. And, interestingly enough, triggerplants have similar glandular hairs, stalked and secreting a glue-like mucilage, which trap insects just like the hairs of sundews and rainbow plants. It might be argued: what is the point for the triggerplant to trap insects which are catching its pollen, but triggerplants cleverly trap insects much too small to help them with pollination. This is the first comprehensive book on triggerplants. There is a chapter on triggerplants in the garden and landscape which includes how to grow them and how to obtain them (eg: seed sources).