Night-blooming flowers face less competition for pollinating animals than day blooming flowers do for one easy purpose: There are fewer of them. Moths, who do their pollinating work at night time, hunt down gentle-colored, extremely scented flowers. Lip-like flowers with a spur end (that most likely impressed "Little Shop of Horrors" screenplay writer Charles B. Griffith) rise on easy stems a number of inches into the air. These little creatures should be positioned within inches of a fluorescent bulb to attain their maximum potential. Little floating stomachs would be an apt description of bladderworts, the biggest and most widespread genus of carnivorous plants. Pinguicula means "little greasy one" in Latin, and the leaves do have a greasy really feel. The actual danger lies in the slick, tongue-formed leaves that nestle close to the bottom. Sometime between late February and will, depending on the species, lovely five-petalled flowers emerge from the ground. Lurking beneath the lovely blossoms, scattered among hairlike stems, are a whole bunch of pinhead-sized carnivorous bladders trailing set off hairs into the water. Most hairs are crimson, but on some sundews they're clear with a bright purple gland at the tip. Red veins contrast with the lush, green foliage, making attractive and attention-grabbing patterns.
