The humans laughed in amusement as the galactic visitors learn of carnivorous plants such as sundews, venus fly traps, and pitcher plants, and giant ones such as the Attenborough's pitcher plant, which is nearly large enough to trap a small human. -- Anon Guest
[AN: I tried to find some size comparisons, but I couldn't find any that would imperil a toddler. A guinea pig, yes. Toddler, no.]
The package was large and in stasis. There were several warnings that alarmingly included the words, obligate carnivores. Human Zeem cheered its arrival with, "Awright! My garden's here." They followed the announcement with a little dance.
Companion Bob fluffed up their feathers in sheer terror at the words of warning on the container. "A garden of carnivores? What size animals do they hunt?"
Zeem grinned. "Oh they don't hunt. They sit and wait."
Remembering the incident with Human Chilli's dog, a "heeler pup", Bob began mentally cataloguing the higher roosts in the area. "What armour is needed to deflect their teeth?"
"Oh. No teeth. You're safe," at Bob's confusion, Zeem added, "They're plants. Completely sessile. They trap and consume insects. Well. Mostly insects."
"Mostly," echoed Bob.
"Well, the Attenborough pitchers will eat a mouse every now and then, but the rest of them are insectivorous. You can even touch most of them safely. It's fine."
Given the very Human definitions of 'fine', Bob was slow to trust. They watched from a safe distance as Zeem carefully unpacked terrarium after terrarium. Each with its own plant specimen. Zeem insisted on delivering a little information about each of them as they went to their place in Zeem's garden.
"This one is a sundew," said Zeem. "Pretty to look at, but those shiny blobs are a mix of glue and digestive acids. Don't touch this one.
Bob wasn't planning on touching any of them.
"And this is my Attenborough. I call it Dave."
It looked like any other pitcher plant, but twice to four times the size of a more normal one. Bob could believe the thing about mice.
[Photo by Rapha Wilde on Unsplash]
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I know people who can't have pets due to severe allergies, so they have carnivorous plants. And, once every two weeks, they get tiny bits of really, really, lean, ground-up, meat and give it to the plants.
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