What to look out for

Ireland has several native species of carnivorous plants, growing in bog habitats

Ireland has several native species of carnivorous plants, growing in bog habitats. (Please don't collect them and bring them home: it's unlikely they'll survive such an upheaval.)

These include three sundews (Drosera sp.), which lure insects by hairs beaded with "nectar" - in fact a sticky enzymatic secretion that traps and digests the insects. The three butterworts (Pinguicula sp.) have pale-green, waxy-looking leaves, covered in glands that exude mucilaginous enzymes, which, again, break down and digest their prey.

Bladderworts (Utricularia sp.), of which we have four species, are free-floating aquatic plants with tiny bladder-like traps on their stems. The traps operate by a vacuum action that is triggered by hairs: water fleas and other aquatic creatures are sucked in at great speed.

The Canadian pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea), introduced to Irish bogs about a century ago, has naturalised in various places. The Irish Peatland Conservation Council believes this vigorous alien is a threat to native flora, as it presents unfair competition to indigenous plants such as cranberry, ling and bog asphodel.