This Week in History: Parasitic plants in the Royal BC Museum’s botany collection

The Royal BC Museum and BC Archives safely store thousands of collections, relating to human history, zoology, archaeology, and botany, among others.

And in the botany collection are plants that survive by stealing nutrients from other plants, or even eating animals!

Most of us have heard of the Venus Fly Trap, but have you ever heard of Dodder? Or Bladderwort? Both are parasitic plants, as are Paintbrush and Mistletoe.

Veronica Cooper spoke with Ken Marr, curator of botany at the museum, to learn more about the plants in the museum’s collection that get their nutrients, not through photosynthesis, but from other plants or animals.

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