This week’s Photohunt theme is free. You could interpret this week’s theme as a photo that shows ‘Free’. Or use it as a free week to post anything you want. I’ve chosen to do a free – post anything you want – interpretation.

One of our hobbies is searching for wildflowers. Another hobby of my husband is carnivorous plants. We blend the two together and occasionally search for carnivorous plants in the wild. We have gone to Borneo to find Nepenthes in the wild and we found cephalotus in Australia. But I realized I have not posted about some of the carnivorous plants that can be found here in Western United States.

The most unusual local carnivorous plant is Darlingtonia californica – or California Cobra Lily. It grows in a small region from around Florence Oregon down to Mt. Shasta region in California. There is an excellent wayside just outside of Florence Oregon where you can walk on a boardwalk above the swamp and view these strange but wonderful plants. They are carnivorous and get their nutrition (nitrogen) from the insects that happen to fall into their pitcher and can not escape. The windows you see on their hood trick the insects into thinking there are openings where there are none. Amazing adaptation.