Oh. My. Goodness.

"Mom, come quick! I found a sundew in our backyard!" called Libby. I grabbed John and headed outside to see Libby's "sundew". I was fairly sure she didn't find one in our back yard because I don't think our backyard is the proper habitat for a sundew, but I wanted to support my daughter's enthusiasm by checking it out with her. Sure enough, Libby's stickly "sundew" was really a burr, which are suited perfectly for our backyard.

What is a sundew? A sundew is a carniverous plant that DOES have points on it, but the end of the points have dew (or as Libby likes to call it, goo) on them. It is a sweet smelling dew that attracts insects, but it is a super sticky dew that traps insects. Once an insect has landed on the sticky dew the plant tells it to produce extra dew that engulfs the insect as the plants tentacles wrap around it to digest it.

Why the excitement over a carniverous plant that most people have never heard of before? Well, Libby studied this along with three other carniverous plants (venus fly trap, bladderwort and pitcher plant) just last week. They sounded pretty cool, but for the information Libby gained...well, she thought a burr was a sundew. I showed her some pictures on the internet and life went on. Next science lesson!

Today, though, it all became real for her (ok, maybe I was just a tad bit more excited than her about this). We went BACK to the museum we went to yesterday (you can only buy a two-day pass...might as well get our money's worth). I knew we had missed a few exhibits, and I knew one was entitled "The Animals of Halloween". No big deal...until I saw inside one of the exhibit boxes about six each of sundews, pitcher plants and venus fly traps! So cool!

Now Libby knows exactly what a sundew looks like and how different they are from burrs. I love the timing on when she had the opportunity to see the plants! Seriously, I didn't know there were carniverous plants besides the venus fly trap until last week either. What was the likelihood of us having the chance to see them right now? God is so amazing...not only in the He designed this earth and its plants, but in His timing, as well!