Seeing Carnivorous Plants in the Wild

Hinzugefügt: 2026-06-07

[00:00:00]Today is one of those absolute specialist of days where I get to see carnivorous plants in the wild.

[00:00:07]>> [music] >> And our friend Tyler Gramley, who does a bunch of amazing conservation work down here on these on our carnivorous plants, which we all love so much, was kind enough to take us to this super super special spot that he actually found on his birthday. We were just all just um talking about how fantastic it would be to be tramping around out in the wilds of North Carolina and stumble across such a special magical place. When we got to the edge of this bog, um we were really quickly said, "Oh, I think we're going to have to take off our shoes."

[00:00:44]And so I've taken off my shoes and now barefoot in a bog, which is another um super bucket list item. Calvin over there is is uh also barefoot. It was his idea.

[00:00:57]But what's special I mean, there's so many things special about this space, obviously. If you just look around and there's just these yellow swarms of beautiful flavus, but they're also probably the tallest flavus I think that anyone has ever seen in cultivation or in the wild.

[00:01:13]I mean, we don't harm plants at all.

[00:01:16]We're not digging up any plants at all, but I thought it was okay to let Tyler gently retrieve this really super tall one from a spot where my uh shorts would fail me.

[00:01:27]>> [laughter] >> Um but look at how crazy tall this is. I mean, if I put this down to where my feet are, you can see that's how tall it is on me. I think it's got to be every bit every bit of 4 ft tall cuz I'm 6 ft tall. Well, 5 ft 10. Um but yeah, if you pan around and just look, we're just in these tussocks, beautiful tall flavus, lots of ornata types growing here.

[00:01:54]Um and truly uh these are the happiest, like most fun times and my special times of my entire life I get to spend going to super special places like this. Um, and seeing these plants in the wild as part of all the natural cycles that support them. There's tiny little frogs jumping all around us and I think it's important to remember that even though the carnivorous plants are the main show around here, they could not exist without the network of all the other um, plants and animals and fungi that make up this ecosystem. And as some of you may or may not understand, but all these plants are very, very endangered.

[00:02:32]Obviously, they grow in these very specific little niches.

[00:02:36]Um, and these are so easy to destroy a place like this.

[00:02:40]Um So, so much of what we do here is to show you these plants so you can appreciate them.

[00:02:48]And hopefully, maybe everyone wants to destroy them just a little bit less.