Since the age of 12, Drew Martinez has been passionate about carnivorous and tropical plants. After years working in the technology industry and at Google, he said he decided to make plants his permanent career in the mid-2000s.
Martinez opened nursery Carnivero in Southwest Austin, where he and a team of five employees sell the rare plant life.
“My mission was always to be able to grow these beautiful plants and to inspire this wonder in nature and our natural world, evolution, adaptation and what is possible for different organisms in the world,” he said.
Like all vegetation, Martinez said carnivorous plants require certain nutrients to grow and thrive. While most plants absorb those nutrients through their roots and the soil, he said carnivorous varieties use a mouth or pitcher to catch food above ground. Foods can include bugs, plant matter, animal droppings and even small mammals, which get trapped and are digested in liquid inside the mouth.••For beginner growers, Martinez said smaller pitcher plants and flytraps are available for less than $20 a piece and require minimal feeding.
