Venus Flytrap

Back in August, I had mentioned that I had taken an interest in and started growing some ‘carnivorous plants’. There are actually several different species of plants that look at insects as if they were small fertilizer pellets, but probably the most known to everyone is the Venus Flytrap or Dionaea muscipula. Indeed, Dionaea are quite exotic looking, but you don’t have to go to anywhere exotic to find them, as they are actually native to North America and particularly North Carolina, though they grow elsewhere as well.

© Howard Grill

Why doesn’t the rain or the wind cause the traps to close with no prey? What can the flytrap eat? How many times can it open and close? What makes it open and close? How does it close so quickly that a fly is trapped when I can’ even hit a fly with a fly swatter?

It’s an interesting plant, isn’t it?

Here are some answers that you might find interesting.

Answers by the Botanical Society of America.

Even better, see it in action in this BBC video:

I suspect you will see more photos of the Venus Flytrap as well as of various other species of carnivorous plants scattered across the coming months!

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