Chomp! Carnivorous Plants at the Conservatory of Flowers

So fun! We went on a cold rainy day and it was a great time!

Took some out-​of-​towners on a whirlwind tour of San Francisco and ended up at this exhibit after seeing the Chomp! signs in GGP.
I thought it was super cool to look inside the flowers and see the ants, roaches, beetles, etc being digested by the plants. The venus fly traps were cool too. Reminds me of Little Shop of Horrors!
Besides the Chomp! exhibit, we had a good time looking at all of the pretty orchids and other flowers.

While not a Botanist I do enjoy plants. Heck flowers are pretty cool too. However, a room full of carnivorous plants, when expecting butterflies, is a bit on the ho-​hum side. Before hand, the Conservatory had several species disbursed within the overall set up and quite frankly that was enough to get the idea ad to keep it semi-​cool. However, a whole room just gets super redundant.
I do applaud the effort and set up. Presentation and information was top notch and it is very kid friendly. Being a member of the San Francisco Parks Trust has its privileges as this was a free day of taking out the out of town visitors who love gardening.

Just amazing! So, I’ve been entertaining a few out-​of-​towners recently and of course, as all TOURISTS do is they ask someone from SF for recommendations. Well, folks — I like to mix things up a bit and suggest a few off the wall things like say «Well, there’s this carnivorous plants exhibit in GGPark» you know like venus fly traps and stuff. he he he. And sure enough an original feeling of «Oh man — A plant show, how lame» turns to «Carnivourous plants» Oh cool. I think there’s something in the delivery between carnivourous and plants that gets a few über dorks all hot and bothered.
Two weekends ago, I finally took my own medicine and decided to head down to the park. Oh my! It was super cool. I love how nature evolves and creatively sustains its own life by feeding from other life forms. It’s extremely interesting the way some plants lure in smaller life forms like ants from their sugary goodness only to slip them up and have them fall to their demise in their sticky digestivee juices. In one of the pitcher plants there even is a bee. eewwwwww
Apparently, if a human stuck his/​her finger in one of the plants for 2 days it would just look like a sunburn, or at least that’s what the brochure said. It was very neat. The rest of the conservatory takes up 4 rooms and each one has its own distinctive climate. My favorite is the water plants.
The show is on until November 4^th. Check it out… it’s really fun and only like 8 bucks.
Here’s an interesting story actually — so while I was in line this russain family of 2 cut in front of 4 people to get their tickets. We only had 30 minutes until the museum closed, but still — I mean it’s to see plants not Harry Potter — Don’t cut in line for a plant show. We heard them speaking russain before they walked in line. In english Arik says, «Hey the lines back there, you can’t cut» and they ignore him. Then in russain, he says the same thing. They smile and proceed to purchase their tickets. I can’t believe 1) People would cut in line for a plant show and 2) that the people in front of them would be so complacent. Jeez!

Mom was in town a couple weeks ago. With an afternoon to kill, we went to the Chomp! exhibit and were both thoroughly fascinated.
As the other reviewers have stated, the variety, size and creativity of plant adaptations for animal predation that were on display was really impressive. Lots of beautiful plants that seemed to be capable of luring and smiting bugs in a million different ways.
Only reason this gets 4 stars and not 5 is that there was no way to actually see the plants in action. Granted, a number of them had half-​dead gnats and ants down in their traps, but the six-​year old in me wanted to see a docent drop a beetle into a Venus Flytrap or something, and that wasn’t happening.
Chomp! or no Chomp!, the standard exhibits of wonderful and weird plants at the Conservatory of Flowers are worth seeing by themselves. You kinda feel like you’re wandering through the scenery of a Dr. Seuss book. Fun.

I’m with David D.. .this exhibit was amazing. I was fascinated and repulsed and fascinated all over again by the sheer numbers and varieties, not to mention the size (ahem) of the carnivorous plants! (Don’t worry, they won’t eat you.. .promise.) You also get to walk through what I call the «Take Us to Your Leader» Orchid exhibit to get to Chomp!, so you can see the orchids upon which I’m sure the bulk of the Babylon 5 spacecraft designs were based! There is a cantaloupe-​sized hibiscus, these weird alien orchids, some Beetlejuice-​ish black goth flowers with tendrils (!), insect eating plants, and so much more, all in a gorgeous historic building built from a kit! Actually, a serious observation here for a moment. Ornamental gardening was of great importance to Victorians of a certain income level, and the Conservatory has a singularly wonderful Victorian quality: that of succeeding in making the display surroundings of the prize plants as lovely and harmonious as the greenery itself. I am so glad that we have this treasure so close by.

HRH The Lady of the House requested to see the «man eating plants» at the conservatory today. I responded with my inner sixth-​grader, and we promptly headed for the white palace.
The carnivorous plant exhibit occupied the entire Special Exhibits room, at the end of the west wing. The abundance and variety of carnivorous plants was quite amazing. The interpretive signs also educated me, correcting misconceptions that I had just previously told My Lady with complete confidence that I was right. There was a humbling effect of having the botanists there to correct my stories.
Magnifying glasses and real insects added to the excitement. Imagine, we were observing plants in the act of digesting animals! (Vegetarians might wish to ignore this exhibit.)
Upon browsing the rest of the Conservatory, we discovered that there are some large and impressive carnivorous plants in the permanent exhibits, as well.
This show runs May 4 — November 4, 2007. Open 9 – 5 Tuesday through Sunday. Admission is $ 5 for adults, $ 3 for students, complimentary for San Francisco Parks Trust members with tickets. The first Tuesday of each month is free for everyone. One need not be an actual child to enjoy.