Carnivorous Plants and More

This weekend we went to the annual plant sale at the Huntington Gardens, and brought home a couple exotic new family members.



Hikaru wanted a carnivorous plant, so we got one. It's a Sundew. The nice thing about this plant is that we don't need to fertilize it; we only need to water it (with distilled water only). It feeds itself by the insects it catches.



Daddy got a herb called Stevia Rebaudiana (originally from Paraguay). It can be used as a sweetener.



However, stevia has had some controversy because it was banned in some countries. Why? It's been used in South America for centuries, but one might guess there is some special interest involved with non-sugar sweeteners. Stevia was only recently approved by the FDA in 2008. As far as we know, it's safe.