CHOMP! Carnivorous plants!

November 4, 2007

It was a beautiful day in San Francisco, a comfortable 77 degrees outside and no wind. We had no traffic going into the city and were eager to see the final showing of CHOMP! an exhibit on carnivorous plants at the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park.

We came upon lawn bowlers and watched awhile.

The Conservatory displays over 1,750 species of plants. This Victorian-style building has the oldest wood and glass of 16,800 window panes. Its upper dome weighs 14.5 tons when placed on top of the lower dome in 2003. And it is whitewashed to reduce the light intensity and heat load as well as to maintain its historical appearance.

Kai stands in the Lowland Tropics, under the main dome. The plant in the middle up high above is a Philodendron speciosum, the imperial philodendron is over 100 years old. We have one in front of our house that is at maybe 20 years old and not nearly as tall.

In the Special Exhibit room where CHOMP! was held. All those plants before me are all carnivorous.

This pitcher plant attracts its prey by its aromatic nectar. The lid closes on it and the prey drowns in the body of water or sticky substance inside, as seen from above.

The Butterwort releases its sticky substance when its prey lands on its leaves. You can see insects dead on it already.

The Venus Fly Trap can live up to 20-30 years. (under a magnifying glass).

Kai- acting like a carnivorous plant!

This is the biggest one I've seen yet! Wouldn't want to get my hand stuck in that one, right Kai?

In the Potted Plants section, Kai takes a liking to this cherub. The cherub is part of a historic urn from San Francisco's 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition.

I am just amazed by this stripped insect!

A double-coconut (looks like booty to me). Like flowers but has a texture like chili peppers.

In the aquatic plants room, there features an infinity-style pond.

A reflection of Greg, with a water lily protruding from his nose. Water lilies can grow up to 6-feet in diameter. We've seem them in the Amazon on our canoe trip through the Amazon river.

Nepenthes, the pitcher plants, are the only carnivorous plants with a vining growth habit.

I have never seen a dahlia garden by itself. From a distance I thought it was a rose garden.

Kai runs around the perimeter of this garden clock in front of the Conservatory.

Afterwards we sorta stumbled upon the carousel in the park on the way back to the car. Video: Kai and Greg on the Carousel.

We never got to rollerblade as planned (they close the park to cars on Sundays) and ended up at this children's park...

Kai goes body-surfing.

We watch kids go down this cement slide on pieces of cardboard (probably taken from the homeless people, haha).

Having watched intently, Kai then grabs a piece of cardboard and attempts to climb the slide on his own, so I have no choice but to do this stunt with him also. (See video)

It sorta hurt when the cardboard slid out from under me and I went the rest of the way down on my booty feeling all the bumps and scrapes. That didn't stop us from trying another 4-5 times, as Kai was persistent on the slide. But my incident was minor- as we witnessed a few incidents to cause us to say "oooh!, owww!, aaahh!" or "Watch out!" as we watched people slide down uncontrolably.

Kai climbed the rope all by himself. Sorta got me nervous he'd fall.

Riding a cat-tail.

On the way home, Xmas signage is already up in San Francisco. "Peace. Love, and Coverage".
~

Today, we fell back on time. It gets dark at around 5 pm now. I know we will sleep well today!