Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula)
| Unique and unmistakable, the Venus Flytrap is one of the most bizarre and distinctive plants in the world. Native only to a very small range centered on Wilmington, NC (from Beaufort Co., North Carolina to Charleston Co., South Carolina), this local and uncommon species is declining in the wild, more because of habitat destruction than poaching. Federally protected, Venus Flytrap is fortunately easy to propogate by tissue culture, so there is no longer a reason to dig them up from the wild. Wild plant, Pender Co., NC 4/23/06. |
| Venus Flytraps supplement their need for nitrogen by catching small arthropods (usually not flies) in their jaw-like leaves. When two or more of the trigger hairs inside the "mouth" of the leaf are touched, the "jaws" quickly close, trapping the bug inside. The leaf will open up again in about ten days, after digesting the arthropod. The "jaws" will also grab onto fingers, but humans generally have no trouble escaping the grasp. Pender Co., NC 4/23/06. |
| A group of Venus Flytraps just about to bloom. Formerly placed in its own family, the Dionaeaceae, Venus Flytrap is currently considered to be a member of the Droseraceae (Sundew Family). Pender Co., NC 4/23/06. |
| Venus Flytrap habitat (with abundant Yellow Pitcher-Plants). Pender Co., NC 4/23/06. |
| Small plant growing on a mossy roadside bank. Brunswick Co., NC 8/28/10. |
| If you look closely, you can see the right leaf has trapped something! Brunswick Co., NC 8/28/10. |
| A grasshopper! Looks like the grasshopper jumped as the leaf was closing and almost escaped. I think this is the first I've ever seen a leaf in the wild that had caught something. Unfortunately for the plant, the grasshopper can't be digested in this position, so it'll just continue to rot in the air. Brunswick Co., NC 8/28/10. |
| Pender Co., NC 4/19/08. |
| Pender Co., NC 4/19/08. |
| Propagated plant purchased from the NC Botanical Garden, Chapel Hill, NC 5/9/09. |
| Flower with leaf in background. Chapel Hill, NC 5/9/09. |
| Close-up of flower. Chapel Hill, NC 5/9/09. |
| Side view of the cymose inflorescence. Chapel Hill, NC 5/9/09. |
| Pender Co., NC 4/19/08. |