I just finished watching an interesting live talk by Dr. Gregory Allan, a Byblis expert. The talk was arranged by the Bay Area Carnivorous Plant Society (BACPS), which I joined in early 2019. Dr. Allan talked about both perennial and annual Byblis species.
Byblis is also known as the "Rainbow Plant" because of the way it looks when light shines on it. I only grow one kind, Byblis liniflora, one of the annual species. It's a really beautiful plant and mine has purple flowers, although Dr. Allan mentioned today that they can have orange or even white (rare) flowers. He mentioned several really interesting facts about Byblis. One is that digestion occurs primarily at night. Another is that, in nature, Byblis are inhabited by insects called Setocoris. They are able to walk freely and feed on other bugs trapped by the Byblis. The plants probably benefit from Setocoris droppings. And one more fun fact I'll mention - Byblis are thought to have active (vs. passive) carnivory, as they move in response to prey (but not other things, like perlite). Fascinating!
Byblis are endemic to Australia. So many cool plants grow in Australia - hopefully I'll be able to visit one day.
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