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Episode details

Radio 4,05 Sep 2010,22 mins

Peat Bog Gremlins

Living World

Available for over a year

Lionel Kelleway heads up to Scotlands RSPB Forsinard Reserve to explore the extraordinary and fascinating world of carnivorous plants. Norrie Russell, RSPB Forsinard's Head Warden, joins him to reveal the bizarre strategies which carnivorous plants deploy to secure a meal. The Sundews - of which there are hundreds of thousands scattered amongst the bracken and gorse, use glistening sticky globules of moisture to attrack insects; The Butterworts exude a buttery slime on their slidey leaves from which there is no escape and the aquatic bladderworts suck their prey into a vacuum trap triggered by the slightest touch. Once in contact with a Peat Bog Gremlin, there is no escape.

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