Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (2024)

Venus Flytrapadmin2019-12-02T21:11:09-08:00

With its menacing teeth and snapping jaws, it’s no surprise that the Venus flytrap has become the poster-child of carnivorous plants. This famous plant’s animalistic appearance almost makes it feel as though it is a thinking, calculating predator. In fact, it even exhibits some fascinating “behaviors” that make it seem like a living beast. For example, when something touches the inside of the plant’s jaws, it can tell whether the object is a bug or merely a piece of debris. Like other predators, the flytrap is selective about its prey; its teeth are designed to allow tiny insects to escape so that it can save its energy for a heartier bug that will satisfy its appetite.

Flytraps are relatively easy to grow even if you’re a beginner, so use our tips below to cultivate the best Venus flytraps you possibly can!

Sample of Venus Flytraps For Sale in the Marketplace

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Dionaea muscipula ‘Marthas Lips’

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Dionaea muscipula ‘Red Line’

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Dionaea muscipula SouthWest Giant x Shark Tooth

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Dionaea muscipula BCP Red Fused Petiole

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Dionaea muscipula WIP Long Snapper – Small

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Dionaea muscipula Werewolf x Werewolf

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Dionaea muscipula Uranus – Small

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Dionaea muscipula TDK2

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Dionaea muscipula Sunrise

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Dionaea muscipula Stiletto – Small

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Dionaea muscipula Star – Small

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Dionaea muscipula Small Sawtooth

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Dionaea muscipula SL seedling

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Biologyof a Venus flytrap

Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (16)

Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (17)

Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (18)

Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (19)

Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (20)

The trap

The trap of a Venus flytrap is a highly-evolved leaf structure and one of the most fascinating mechanisms in the plant kingdom. It leverages a tripwire system, internal timer, and electrical impulses to force rapid movement. Traps are1/2 inch to 3inches long based on the flytrap variety. You’ll find themat the end of a leaf basecalled the petiole. Sometimes these petioles hug the ground – great at catching crawling insects, other times, they suspend traps in the air – great atcatching flying insects.

The trap is a complex mechanism and the lifecycle can be broken down into 4major steps:

1. Open trap

After a newly formed trap opens, it immediately begins luring insects using sweet nectar secreted within the trap and, in some varieties, bright red coloration. 6-8 small trigger hairs are dispersed withinthe “mouth,” which function as insect trip-wires.

2. Triggered trap

If one or moreof the hairs are touched twice within a 20 second time frame, an electrical impulse shoots along the outer cellular wall of the trap, rapidly expanding these cells, lengthening the lobes, and forcing the trap to snap shutin as fast as one-tenth of a second. With the teeth of the trap now intermeshed, the insect is imprisoned in a digestive cage.

3. Digesting trap

If the insect is small, it will escape between the intermeshedteeth and the flytrap won’t waste energy digesting a tiny insect that won’t provide ample nutrients. Similarly, if a stray leaf were to trigger the trap, the lack of continued movement would allow it to reset without wasting more energy (there are no vegetarian Venus flytraps). However, if the insect is too large to escape, it will continue to struggle inside of the closed trap, further stimulating the trigger hairs. The plant’sresponse is to sealthe trap, secret digestive enzymes via glands on the inner surface of the trap, and digest soft tissues of the insect over the course of four to ten days.

4. Reset trap

Once the insect soup is absorbed by the trap, it will reopen to reveal the dried, shriveled exoskeleton of the insect. This husk may attract additional scavenging insects which then become a second meal for the plant, and the cycle continues. A trap can catch one to three meals before it will turn black and die. This is normal, and the plant will use the energy gained from that trap’s meals to grow new ones.

Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (21)

Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (22)

Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (23)

Sub-soil biology and requirements

Perennials, flytraps die back during the winter months, enter dormancy,and rely onthe few thick, black roots branching from the rhizome to survive cold climate. They return from the rhizome during spring, starting the season’s growth witha rosette of ground-hugging leaves andsmaller traps.

Dionaeawill clump, splitting growth points and sending upoffshoots. You can separate individual plants as long as each one has a few roots to support the new plant. Use the water tray method to keep soil constantly moist (but not waterlogged) during growing months, and reduce watering during dormancy.

They take approximately four to five years to reach maturity, at which point they’ll be their maximum size, and send up flowering stalks in the spring.

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Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (25)

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Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (30)

Flowers

Flytrap flowers will shoot up on stem about one foot tallin early spring as the plant awakens from dormancy. Eachflowersimmediately releasing pollen from the anthersupon opening, and stays open for a few days. The stigma only becomes receptive after two or three days when it starts to look fuzzy. At this point, you can gently collect the yellow pollen using a toothpick and apply it to the stigma. If multiple flowers are open at the same time andstigmas are receptive, rubbing them together is an easy pollination trick. Pedals will close and wither after pollination occurs.

After six weeks, you’ll notice clusters of small, black shiny seeds that can be collected and refrigerated for future sowing, or sowed immediately. Check out more info, below, for tips on germinating your Venus flytrap seed.

History of the Venus flytrap

Arthur Dobbs, the governor of North Carolina first drew public attention to the Venus flytrap in 1763 by calling it the “Fly Trap Sensitive.” A few years later, samples were sent to England where they were studied, and became the first ever plant suspected to be carnivorous. The Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus was not convinced of the flytrap’s insectivorous nature and named it after the Greek goddess of love and beauty, Diana. While it is a beautiful plant, we think Thanatos, the Greek god of death, would have suited it better.

Where to findVenus flytraps in the wild

Venus flytraps arenative to subtropical wetlands on the East Coast of the United States in North Carolina and South Carolina. Unfortunately, due to their fascinating nature, they have been illegally poached fromnative habitatswhere their conservation status is now“vulnerable.” As a conservation effort, Dionaea muscipula has been naturalized in the Florida panhandle, New Jersey and California. Do your part to preserve these wonderful plants in the wild by purchasing from reputable retailers who cultivate in greenhouses.

Cultivation, growing techniques & propagation

Soil

In nature, flytraps grow in nutrient-poor bogs. To mimic these conditionsat home, use one part peat mossVenus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (31) to one part washed horticultural sandVenus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (32). Follow the links to purchase online, or both can be easily found at garden supply stores and The Home Depot. Avoid regular potting soil as it will burn the root system and kill the plant.

Containers

Four or five inch, drained plastic potsVenus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (33) or glazed ceramicsVenus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (34) are ideal for a single mature plant. You’ll want to set these pots in water saucersVenus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (35) to maintain soil moisture. Clusters of plants will do well in 6-to-8 inch pots and can grow into a gnarled sea of bug-eating traps!

Watering

Use distilled or reverse osmosis water. This can be inexpensively purchased in most grocery stores, or I recommend that you invest in a reverse osmosis (RO) filtration systemVenus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (36) that hooks up to asink (bonus – this also provides great drinking water for humans and pets).Keep the plant in a water tray and fill this tray to maintain damp-to-wet soil year round. Avoid overhead watering as you may accidentally trigger traps, and will compact the soil around the root system. Maintain a lower water table by using a shallow water tray (1.5″-3″)as flytraps don’t appreciate persistent waterlogged conditions.

Lighting

Flytraps enjoy full-to-part sun. Brighter conditions will promote red coloration in the traps, genotype-permitting. I’ve grow them with great success in direct, sunny Southern California light.

Feeding

Probably the best part about owning a Venus flytrap! They’ll frequently catch their own food if grown outdoors. For indoor plants, and as a great party trickfor friends, they’ll happily eat anybug that reasonably fits in a trap – from meal wormsVenus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (37), to flies, and even spiders. If feeding live insects isn’tyour thing, you can use moistened, dried insects that can befound hereVenus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (38) or at pet food stores (lizard food). Do note that you will have to manually trigger the trap if feeding with deceased or immobile prey.

Fertilizers

Avoid fertilizing. Remember, these plants grow naturally in nutrient poorsoils – a major reason why they evolvedtraps to catch insects as their source ofnutrients. Fertilizing canburn flytraproots and easilykill the plant. Some advanced growersuse an extremely diluted fertilizerVenus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (39) to foliar-feed plants (applying it only to the leaves of the plant), but this is risky for a beginner and not recommended.

Transplanting

Transplant in later winter, during but towards the end of dormancy. A transplanting into fresh soil every one or two years will promote healthy growth.

Divisions

Flytraps will frequently produce offshoots and develop into a clumping plant. This sea of flytraps looks great, but you’ll promote even morenew growth by dividing these clumps and repotting them in late winter towards the tail-end of their dormancy period. Do make sure that each crown of leaveshas its own root system before dividing.

Cuttings

Like a handful of carnivorous plants, Venus flytraps can be grown larger, faster from cuttings. Using this method, expect mature plants in two years:

Healthy leaves can be peeled off the main rhizome in late spring or early summer and used to grownew flytraps. Simply use a downward tug to remove a leaf that includes a smallish portion of the white rhizome. Lay this leaf flat on the usual soil mix, or on sphagnum moss and cover the white base with a small amount of soil. Maintain bright light, high humidity (using a humidity dome or plastic bag), and moist soil. A few weeks later, plantlets will sprout from the base and after a few months, you’ll have rooted, growing flytraps.

Seed

Seed can be sown within thesame season it is collected, or can be refrigerated in a small jewelersbag or envelope for future germination. To sow the seed, mix a flytrap’s preferred soil of sand and peat and pre-moisten with purified water. Sparsely spread the seed across this medium, and keep in a bright, humid place. It’s easiest to use a simple seed tray with a humidity dome. Germination will take a few weeks, and seedlings can be transplanted into a more permanent home after a year.

Tissue Culture

Flytraps take well to tissue culture propagation using leaf cuttings, seed, orflower buds.

Black spot fungus can appear on plants if they’re consistently humid and wet. Common fungicides like PhysanVenus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (40) will help, but avoid those that are copper-based as they can kill carnivorous plants.

Darn aphids… you’ll know they’re attacking your plants whennew leaves appear gnarled and malformed. Diazinon, Orthene, and MalathionVenus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (41) are effective and flytrap-safe pesticides to rid your plants of the little devils.

In hot climates, you can also encounter spider mites – use Orthene.

It’s enough to make you think that we need carnivorous plants to protect our carnivorous plants.

Climate

They are warm-temperate plants enjoying warm-to-hot summers and cold winters. Mostly tolerant of light frost and brief freezes.

Outdoors

Flytraps will thrive in temperate, warm-temperate, and Mediterranean-like climates.

Greenhouses

They do well in cold houses, cool houses, and warm houses, and in cold frames in warm-temperate climates.

Terrariums

Can be seasonally grown in a greenhouse-style terrarium tank, but are best removed in winter during their dormancy period.

Windowsills

Will thrive in sunny windowsills. Added bonus – flytrapseat those pesky house flies that hover near windows when trapped indoors. Keep the plants cooler during winter dormancy.

Bog gardens

Great candidates for bog gardens, flytraps do well in temperate, warm-temperate, and Mediterranean-like climates. They’ll grow great alongside many sundews (Drosera) and North American pitcher plants (Sarracenia). Mulch in colder areas to prevent long freezes.

Venus flytrap varieties, subspecies & hybrids

David Fefferman2019-12-15T17:15:35-08:00

Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (42)

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Sometimes a name says it all. This Venus flytrap produces large, red-mouthed traps that cluster at ground level like a bouquet of death.

admin2017-03-23T03:06:11-07:00

Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (43)

Add A Missing Plant

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Are we missing a species, hybrid, subspecies, or plant variety? Help us improve our carnivorous plant database by submitting your own!

David Fefferman2019-12-15T16:59:45-08:00

Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (44)

Dionaea muscipula ‘King Henry’

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Dionaea muscipula 'King Henry' A monster of a Venus flytrap, Dionaea muscipula 'King Henry' is a cultivar first bred by Don Elkins of Mesa [...]

David Fefferman2019-12-15T17:14:20-08:00

Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (45)

Dionaea B-52

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Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (46)

Dionaea Dentate

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Dionaea muscipula var. Dentate Dentate Venus flytrap cultivars areknown for fuzed teeth which appear shorter and more triangular than normal flytrap teeth. The word [...]

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Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - Carnivorous Plant Resource (2024)

FAQs

Is the Venus flytrap Dionaea muscipula a carnivorous plant? ›

The Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) is a feisty carnivorous plant with jaw-like leaves that snap shut to trap and gobble-up insects and spiders. Typically found growing in nutrient-poor soils, Venus flytraps rely on their elaborate snares for food.

What is the lifespan of a Venus flytrap? ›

Venus flytraps are perennial, carnivorous plants that can live up to 20 years in the wild. While most of their energy is obtained through photosynthesis, insects provide nutrients that aren't readily available in the soil.

Are Venus flytraps poisonous to humans? ›

The Venus Flytrap isn't a toxic terror; at worst, it might lead to a mild stomach upset. It's a poor choice for a snack, not because of poison, but due to its indigestibility. Human food can even cause the plant distress, leading to bacterial rot.

How hard is it to keep a Venus flytrap alive? ›

Although they look exotic and tropical, they're actually very weather hardy. Charles Darwin described the Venus fly trap as “one of the most wonderful plants in the world.” Venus fly traps are perennial and will look good from March to November and die down the rest of the year.

Can Venus flytraps eat fruit? ›

This carnivorous plant can survive several months without the necessary nutrients provided by digesting prey. However, deprived of all prey, the Venus Fly Trap will eventually die back. Can Venus flytraps eat fruit instead of bugs? Sugars contained in fruit will likely cause your Venus flytrap to rot.

How many times can a Venus flytrap eat before it dies? ›

The traps of a Venus Flytrap are designed to open and close a limited number of times (approximately 7-10 in optimal conditions). After this, the trap usually dies off. So you can see that triggering the traps all the time will eventually cause all the leaves to die; and then you have a dead plant.

Is it bad to trigger a Venus flytrap? ›

You can hurt the Venus flytrap by triggering it to close, though. Closing takes a lot of energy that the plant needs to put toward growing. The traps can only close a few times before the leaf dies, so false alarms can kill that leaf.

Should I cut off dying Venus flytrap? ›

You can can either keep the dead leaf on the plant or trim it off. It is more of a matter of personal aesthetics than anything else. Left alone, dead leaves slowly decompose naturally.

What killed my Venus flytrap? ›

Closing a trap and digesting an insect requires energy. If you feed every single trap on your plant - or worse, trigger the traps for fun without giving them a meal - it's likely that some of the leaves will turn black and die.

Will my Venus flytrap survive without bugs? ›

Although flytraps are carnivorous, they can go for long periods (a month or two) without eating insects. If you grow them outdoors, they'll get enough to eat naturally. If you're growing Venus flytraps indoors, you'll have to feed them small bugs such as flies and beetles periodically.

What do Venus flytraps hate? ›

Most composts contain lime, which flytraps hate, and/or fertiliser. As their roots are designed to take in fertiliser, the nitrogen can burn the roots.

Can Venus flytrap eat mosquitoes? ›

Yes, Venus fly traps are effective for controlling certain pests, including mosquitoes. Is there a carnivorous plant that eats mosquitoes? Yes, Venus fly traps are a carnivorous plant species known for eating mosquitoes and other small insects.

Can a Venus flytrap eat a spider? ›

Ants, beetles, grasshoppers, flying insects, and spiders are all victims of the flytrap. It can take a Venus flytrap three to five days to digest an organism, and it may go months between meals. Venus flytraps are perennial plants, which means they bloom year after year.

Is the Venus flytrap a carnivore? ›

The Venus flytrap is a flowering plant best known for its carnivorous eating habits. The “trap” is made of two hinged lobes at the end of each leaf. On the inner surfaces of the lobes are hair-like projections called trichomes that cause the lobes to snap shut when prey comes in contact with them.

What is a Venus flytrap classified as? ›

The Venus flytrap is an example of an insectivorous plant. These plants feed on insects to supplement some nutrients, such as nitrogen, that are lacking in the soil the plant grows in, such as subtropical wetlands.

Is a Venus flytrap a predator or prey? ›

Carnivorous plants that use active “snap” traps to capture their prey include Venus fly traps (Dionaea muscipula) and waterwheel (Aldrovanda vesiculosa). Venus flytraps are the most easily recognizable predatory plants.

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