The Orto Botanico di Padova is considered to be the oldest academic botanical garden still its original location. It had a systematic way of keeping the plants it has amassed from all over that it earned it a spot in the UNESCO World Heritage sites. This botanical garden is almost five hundred years old and certainly has a lot of history in it. In general, the garden is circular in layout and everything is out in the open. Well, not everything. There were plants which are stored in covered areas, some of which are open to visitors. I’d imagine that these would be plants which would not be able to tolerate the local climate.

I ended up visiting an exhibit of the carnivorous plants collection of the botanical garden. Even when I was a kid I was fascinated by the fact that there are plants which can eat animals. It is probably not surprising to see these as part of the collection since these are really fascinating plants. One exhibit are the typical carnivorous plants that you might know. The most famous one would probably be the Venus fly trap, which they actually have but unfortunately, the venus fly trap wasn’t in great condition to be photographed.

The pitcher plants are in better condition though I thought they would have been larger. But you can see the pitcher shaped form which the plant it named for. This would trap insect inside the pitcher and they would get digested by liquids produced by the plant. Another one of note is the sundew which have tasty looking dew drops which are actually traps which ensnare unsuspecting insects. They are likewise digested by the plants. The plants are kept in a temperature controlled environment and it was open to visitors. I don’t know how old these specimens are since I think it would be hard to have proper temperature control back then.

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