Comments posted to the CP e-mail list from conference attendees:

Unfortunately, even in this age of electronic everything, you had to be there to experience it. I don't know about everyone at the conference but everyone sitting near me had to pick up their jaws off their laps after Jan Schlauer's talk on Triphyophyllum. Laurent Legendre's talk about trap closure in Dionaea muscipula was totally amazing. And after Barry's banquet talk, every time I see a Venus fly trap I'll think of dirty old men and tipwitchets.

John Brittnacher <john@carnivorousplants.org>
Davis, California USA

We saw a lot of incredible photographs of various expeditions to see Nepenthes and Heliamphora, we learned about the trapping mechanism of Venus flytraps, how to teach young children about carnivorous plants, tissue culture experiments, exotic invasive weeds that threaten carnivorous plants and carnivorous plants as exotic invasive weeds, how to put together a fancy terrarium, how to make an outdoor bog, how to do tissue culture at home, and more, I know, but I don't have my notes with me at the moment... Peter D'Amato didn't do his scheduled x-rated talk at the banquet, so Barry Rice did it for him, to the great amusement of most of us! (If anyone was offended, they didn't tell me... seriously, it wasn't all that racy, but it WAS funny. Barry denies any memory of the event.) The auction went very well, with everything selling at a good price... hopefully it pulled the conference out of the hole! I'm not sure how many people went on the informal field trip... I headed up there a bit earlier than most and saw some beautiful Darlingtonia and Pinguicula sites. The area around Gasquet is awesome, and we took some time to see the ocean and the redwoods, too. I highly recommend a visit to the area to anyone, whether they're interested in carnivorous plants or not!

Susan Farrington <susan.farrington@mobot.org>
St. Louis, Missouri USA

I attended the conference and have now returned to my home world and have resumed my regular routine of running naked here on the endless warm beautiful beach of Hermosa. Susan Farrington told about the conference proceedings and of her field trip to Del Norte County, so I'll tell about what I did. I heard that some went north and others went northeast. Sorry I could not meet up with everyone else. Sorry I missed the rendezvous with Rondeau at Butterfly Valley and the Darlingtonia 'Othello' site studies with Barry Rice. I hope their trips went well.

I traveled to the conference with my other celebrity friends Ed Read and Robert Gibson. At the conference I met many new people and was greeted by many people I had corresponded with over the years. Sorry I was not able to get to know more of you better, I am usually more animated, but there I was brain dead from lack of sleep and sensory overload. It was good to match up the names with faces. I was surprised that Jan Schlauer for instance was not the big jerk I imagined he would be. On the last night after the conference we left Robert with Barry's group and Ed and I went to visit Bill Baumgartle's home and collection across the bay. Bill has these overwhelmingly large greenhouses packed full of carnivorous plants and orchids and also has a manmade creek flowing through his yard to a pool filled with carnivorous plants. The next day we drove to Mendocino County for camping and hiking.

The Mendocino coast is a marvelous place to visit. Redwood and pine forest run from the mountains to the rocky picturesque shore. Most interesting about the area for the carnivorous plant nuts are the unique carnivorous plant environments of pygmy forest bogs scattered about hidden in the woods. I find these sights especially interesting, and the mix of pine, Sphagnum and lichen scent is very pleasing. Here there are natural dwarf species of pine and cypress on ashen colored sand. Ed and I were shown two new sites led by Craig Gardner of Ukiah. We had not seen the sites along Summer Lane and Mitchell Creek. I discovered another new isolated site myself having Drosera rotundifolia while trail blazing through the woods. Many of you will know of the Albion Bog with all its introduced non-native carnivorous plants. I feel this area would have been a great place for the other conference attendees to visit if it were more open to the public with more parking and easy access. We need to get rid of the non-natives and leave only D. rotundifolia and Darlingtonia, maybe add some D. anglica. There are boardwalks through pygmy forest at other locations; it would be nice to have one at the Albion site.

Other activities we had in Mendocino included boating on Lake Cleone with its abundant Utricularia gibba and hiking along a forest trail in Van Damme State Park. We feasted on a multitude of wild berries while hiking. A new berry new to me was a species of blackberry with ripe fruit ranging in color from yellow to orange to red. The plants were free-standing bushes, some with no thorns. I always find something new of interest to study on my nature walks. I expect Ed will have some nice photos to show from this trip. Heading south towards home again we stopped by to visit Peter's greenhouse at California Carnivores, an outstanding sight as always.

Ivan Snyder <bioexp@juno.com>
Hermosa Beach, California, USA

Well, what a conference it was, eh?!

Here are a few of my impressions.

**It was amazing to meet all the friends we've known only as sources of emails over the years. For example, in the "Nepenthes group" alone there were people like Andreas Wistuba, Chien Lee, Bob Cantley, Charles Clarke, and Chris Frazier present, showing amazing photographs and relating fascinating tales. Looking over the list of attendees, it was definitely a "Who's who in the carnivorous plant world." I really enjoyed meeting everyone.

**The talks and presentations were marvelous. They included nonscientific presentations about engaging students, conservation projects, detailed reports on plant chemistry, etc. A few of my favorites were:

---Laurent Legendre's lovely French accent, as he demonstrated how "the little Venus Flytrap Plant" has a memory.
---Jan Schlauer's amazing photographic essay on Triphyophyllum fruit development: the capsule opens long before the fruit is mature. It is too weird.
---Robert Gibson showed so many marvelous sundew photographs from around the world that the effect became hypnotic!
---Chien Lee showed Nepenthes photos that were studio quality, yet taken in the field. How does he do it??
---Mad Groves showed how much fun she has setting Sarracenia sites on fire.
---Bob Cantley, Andreas Wistuba, and Charles Clarke took us on photographic field trips to Nepenthes land.
---The other talks were very interesting, I just don't have time to describe them all.

**A working group to try to save Nepenthes clipeata from extinction gelled almost spontaneously. You'll be hearing more about this in the next few months.

**As for the banquet night, that was also a lot of fun. It has been reported that I gave a strange talk that night. Perhaps this is true. But no, I won't make my powerpoint presentation for it available! (I am a little concerned that Siggi Hartmeyer had his videocamera pointed at me for the entire thing. I *really* hope he has technical difficulties with it.)

**The auction after the banquet was hugely fun. I usually don't go for auctions, but the atmosphere was so happy that it was really great. Peter D'Amato often supplied insightful comments on the items up for auction (Example, for a specimen of P. gigantea, Peter noted: "It's Gigantic!"). Art, books, plants were all sold. In a particularly tear-filled moment, Bob Cantley's bid won out and he was reunited with a specimen of Nepenthes ampullaria 'Cantley's Red'. The sales night helped the conference very much because there were a number of people who did not show up for the conference and pay their balances---this really messed up the budget. :(

**The sales area was humming all the time, and everyone bought very neat T-Shirts and hats advertising the conference.

**I could not go on any of the post-conference trips because of a business conflict, but I understand that everyone had a great time seeing redwoods, carnivorous plants, and Californian natural areas. San Francisco was a great place for the conference.

I was intrigued and amused that from time to time, people came up to me and complimented me on how well the conference was going. I even got a few thanks from speakers. This was great, because I did almost nothing for the conference! David Gray and Cynthia Slezak put the whole thing together from start to finish. David has been particularly heroic about the event. The ICPS elections are coming up soon and I'm very excited that David and Cynthia are going to be running for board positions. Whoever else you select for the board, make sure you put a tick by their names first!

Barry A. Rice <barry@carnivorousplants.org>
Davis, California USA