Tropical Venus Fly Trap? All Answers

Most carnivorous plants grow in boggy soil with acidic or “Ericaceous” compost. Most bog compost contains peat, but several peat-free bog mixes have come onto the market in recent years. Keep this well watered and make sure it never dries out. When growing your carnivorous plants, choose a bright, sunny spot in summer and move to a cool, frost-free spot in winter. Remove wilted flowers and leaves as needed.

Carnivorous plants, including pitcher plants ( Sarracenia ) and Venus flytraps ( Dioneaea muscipula ), are unusual and fascinating plants and are particularly popular with children. They are an excellent choice for a conservatory or a sunny windowsill.

There are three important things to remember when caring for temperate carnivorous plants, including sundews and pitcher plants. In this Golden Rules video, Hewitt-Cooper Carnivorous Plants’ Nigel Hewitt-Cooper shares his top three tips on the temperature, water, and light that carnivorous plants need to thrive.

More on growing carnivorous plants:

Hardy carnivorous plants are easy to grow as long as you follow a few simple rules. Here are our 10 tips for growing carnivorous plants.

Grow 1 carnivorous plants in the sun

Hardy carnivorous plants thrive in warm conditions with plenty of bright light during spring and summer, so plant them on a sunny windowsill, in a conservatory, or on a sunny patio.

2 Keep carnivorous plants cool in winter

Unlike tropical plants, most carnivorous plants are temperate and therefore need a cool place to rest during the winter – otherwise they will become exhausted and die. When they go dormant, some plants may die (and a Venus flytrap’s traps may turn black and die). Place in a cool, unheated room or greenhouse – around 7°C is ideal – and keep the compost just moist.

Grow 3 carnivorous plants in moist compost

In the wild, hardy carnivorous plants grow in swampy soil, so their compost needs to be moist at all times during the warmer months. Place the pot in a saucer of water and keep it topped up. Alternatively, block drain holes to prevent water from draining. During the hibernation period, keep the compost just moist.

Water 4 carnivorous plants with rainwater

Tap water can harm carnivorous plants. Use distilled or filtered water, water from a boiled kettle or preferably rainwater – you can leave a bucket outside to catch it or use water from a barrel.

Grow 5 carnivorous plants in heather compost

Carnivorous plants grow best in a nutrient-poor medium like peat or a special compost known as heather compost. If you prefer not to use peat for environmental reasons, you can try Moorland Gold, which is mined without damaging peat bogs, or a peat-free moorland soil-soil mix.

6 Do not feed insects to carnivorous plants

Don’t feel like you have to “feed” your carnivorous plant insects – when it’s outside it catches itself and even inside there should be insects to feed on.

7 Do not fertilize carnivorous plants

Carnivorous plants don’t need fertilizing – they get all the nutrients they need from the insects they catch. In fact, fertilizer can kill the plants that normally grow in nutrient-poor soil.

8 Don’t tease carnivorous plants

If your Venus flytrap’s traps aren’t closing, it may be because curious fingers are poking at your plant too often. Each trap will only close about five times in its lifetime, so resist provoking your plant.

9 dead carnivorous plants

Cut off dead blooms with scissors – and for Venus flytraps and pitcher plants, cut off the dead traps when they turn black – this often happens in the fall and winter.

10 Control of pests on carnivorous plants

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Carnivorous plants are surprisingly incapable of dealing with aphids, so use traps or biological controls to control them. Carnivorous plants can also be susceptible to the red spider mite, which thrives in hot, dry conditions. Improve air circulation in the greenhouse and increase humidity by placing water trays on the benches between the plants. If you grow a lot of plants, you can try releasing the predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis on your plants.

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Home > How-To > The Venus Flytrap: A Complete Guide

The Venus Flytrap

A complete guide

The Venus flytrap’s reputation as a difficult plant to grow is unjustified – follow the instructions in this guide and you shouldn’t have any problems. To successfully grow the plant—and understand the issues surrounding its conservation—the best place to start is with the species’ natural habitat.

The only species – Dionaea muscipula – has a very limited native range, growing only in the coastal bogs of North and South Carolina. Habitat destruction has threatened its survival, and it is believed to be extinct in several of its home ranges. Well-intentioned gardeners have introduced the plant to new areas (so-called “exotic” populations), but these efforts are unwise and likely to do more harm than good.

Venus flytraps lure their prey with sweet nectar. Touch a trigger hair twice or two hairs in quick succession and an electric charge closes the trap and its interlocking teeth form a cage. The insect’s continued struggles will result in the trap becoming sealed, at which point digestive enzymes will break down the victim’s soft tissues. The trap picks up this nutritious soup again and reopens after about a week, using the carcass to attract new visitors.

Without a doubt, the Venus Flytrap, the most famous carnivorous plant, is a gateway drug for many growers! Charles Darwin famously described the plant as “one of the most wondrous in the world,” and few who have witnessed a sane trap snapping toward an insect would disagree.

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Where can I buy a Venus flytrap?

You can buy healthy Venus fly traps here on Amazon. Many matching accessories are also available including carnivorous potting soil as well as ideal companion plants such as Sarracenia.

A healthy Venus Flytrap photographed by Petr Novák. View on Amazon.

However, plants purchased from specialist carnivorous plant nurseries tend to be stronger and sturdier than those from garden centers or department stores. You will also get much better advice for a successful grow. I suggest taking a look at my directory of recommended nurseries.

Venus Flytrap Varieties

There is only one species of Venus Flytrap – Dionaea muscipula – but dozens of weird and wonderful varieties are available. Most forms consist of a small rosette of leaves (called petioles), each ending in a trap. The traps of adult plants are typically around 2.5cm long but can reach up to 5cm in some of the giant varieties.

Varieties are generally selected based on color, size, or mutation. The first group, specifically the all-green and all-red forms, are among the most popular. These include Dionaea ‘Justina Davis’, which remains fully green even in full sun, and Dionaea ‘Akai Ryu’ (aka ‘Red Dragon’), which develops a striking maroon or burgundy coloring throughout the plant. Particularly large varieties include ‘Slack’s Giant’ and ‘South West Giant’, the latter of which originated right here in the UK.

Finally, there are the mutants. These are typically the result of tissue culture mishaps, and some are so deformed that they are unable to capture prey. They are seemingly loved and hated in equal measure; while some growers like the novelty, others find it grotesque!

Dionaea cultivars, above: the all-green ‘Justina Davis’, the fine-toothed ‘Sawtooth’, the popular mutant ‘Fused Tooth’, and the giant ‘Slack’s Giant’. Below: the all-red ‘Akai Ryu’ and the bizarrely deformed ‘Alien’.

Growing locations

Venus flytraps need direct sunlight for healthy growth. If you’re growing your plant indoors, choose a bright, sunny windowsill (preferably south-facing if you’re in the UK). Insufficient sunlight will cause your flytrap’s leaves to become weak and limp, and the insides of their traps to lack red tint.

They don’t need a terrarium to grow, although they often appreciate the higher humidity of the enclosed environment. They can be happy in terrariums if you respect their hibernation requirements (see below) and provide adequate light. Artificial lighting can work well, especially high powered fluorescent lights like T5 grow lights.

They grow excellently in conservatories and unheated greenhouses. Temperatures in the Carolinas often reach 30 °C (86 °F) in summer and fall below 0 °C (32 °F) in winter. As such, Venus flytraps are perfectly happy in the UK climate provided they are sheltered from the elements.

Note that most Venus flytraps produce different types of leaves during the growing season. Those produced in the beginning and end of the growing season (spring and fall) tend to grow lower with heart-shaped petioles, while those produced in summer are kept taller on narrow, elongated petioles.

water & soil

Like many other carnivorous plants, Venus flytraps require pure water. They evolved to grow in moist, nutrient-poor soil, and giving them bottled, filtered, or tap water can lead to a buildup of minerals that will eventually kill your Venus flytrap. You should avoid fertilizers for similar reasons. Your best options are rainwater, distilled or deionized water, or water made by a reverse osmosis system. Here I have described your options in more detail.

During the growing season, you should place your pots in about 1 cm of water (about ⅓ of an inch) and avoid watering from above. They prefer to grow in moist but not completely waterlogged soil. In winter they need less water and the soil should only be kept moist.

The traditional compost mix for Venus flytraps is sphagnum peat moss mixed with either lime-free horticultural sand or perlite in a ratio of about 2:1. You can buy bags of suitable peat-based mixes at specialist nurseries and on Amazon. The environmental impact of peat extraction – both in terms of habitat destruction and global warming – is leading some growers to switch to peat-free blends. A good, sustainable, peat-free mix consists of finely ground bark (e.g. Melcourt’s Growbark Pine), lime-free garden grit and perlite in a 2:1:1 ratio.

Venus flytraps also grow very well in pure peat moss (live or dried) available from The Sphagnum Shop – don’t forget to use code TOMS10% to get 10% off your order.

hibernation

Venus flytraps require a cold hibernation between November and February. They must mimic the conditions of their natural habitat, which means they have a cold rest period. Just as you need to sleep every night, Venus flytraps need to rest over the winter!

If you’re growing your plants on a windowsill or in a terrarium during the growing season, you’ll need to move them to a colder location — put them next to a window in your garage or shed, for example. Plants growing in unheated greenhouses can overwinter there.

As the days get shorter and the temperature drops, your plant’s leaves will turn black and your plant will die down to the rhizome. This is normal and you can safely trim off dead growth. The end of the hibernation period is a good opportunity to repot – and even divide – your plants if necessary, before growth begins in March. A 10 cm pot is sufficient for mature plants.

Flowers & Seeds

Adult Venus flytraps flower in spring, but unless you are an experienced grower and intend to harvest seed, you should cut off the flower stalk when it is about 5cm high. Flowering can be taxing for Venus flytraps, and most plants will grow more vigorously in the summer if prevented from flowering.

Flower of Dionaea muscipula, Wikimedia Commons.

If you are looking to buy, sell or trade seeds I recommend you find out about the seed bank scheme run by the UK Carnivorous Plant Society. If you want to sexually reproduce your Venus flytrap by collecting and sowing seeds, I recommend reading this article from Flytrapcare.com.

feeding

When grown outside, Venus flytraps will catch more than enough food for themselves. If you keep your plants indoors, you can feed them dead or live insects, but you should only do this once you’ve taken care of all other growing needs. In order for Venus flytraps to properly digest prey, the trigger hairs need to be stimulated after the trap has closed – this is to prevent the plant from wasting energy trying to digest inedible material that may have fallen into the trap.

Growers wishing to feed their plants should check out my Venus Flytrap Feeding Guide, where I recommend a variety of suitable and readily available foods.

Your browser is outdated and cannot play this video. Please update your browser A fully grown Venus Flytrap catches two flies at the same time! Source.

If you’re interested in learning more, I’ve listed some recommended resources and blogs below.

The Wild Garden, by Peter D’Amato. In my opinion, this is the best carnivorous plant book you can buy today. The chapters on Dionaea are brilliantly detailed and ideal for beginners. Available at Amazon.

, by Peter D’Amato. In my opinion, this is the best carnivorous plant book you can buy today. The chapters on Dionaea are brilliantly detailed and ideal for beginners. Available at Amazon. FlytrapCare.com, based in Oregon and operated by Matt Miller, is a carnivorous plant nursery specializing in Venus fly traps. The site has fantastic guides on all aspects of cultivation including advanced topics. Shortcut.

, based in Oregon and operated by Matt Miller, is a carnivorous plant nursery specializing in Venus flytraps. The site has fantastic guides on all aspects of cultivation including advanced topics. Shortcut. The CP photo finder. This website is maintained by Bob Ziemer and sponsored by ICPS. If you’re having trouble finding a photo of a specific Dionaea variety or cultivar, make this your first port of call. Shortcut.

If you’re looking to buy a Venus flytrap I suggest you check out my directory of recommended nurseries.

The Venus flytrap, a well-known carnivorous plant, grows to 5-6 inches in diameter, with traps typically up to 1.5 inches tall. Therefore, one of the key requirements for Venus fly traps is proper lighting.

It is famous as a pot plant in many parts of the world, but unfortunately most of the Venus Flytraps sold have been bred or harvested from declining wild populations. Like all plants, the Venus flytrap gets its energy from the sun through photosynthesis.

Venus Flytraps are expected to grow under direct sunlight for at least 6 hours a day to remain healthy and optimally receive over 10 hours of direct sunlight. Venus flytraps can also develop with artificial light, but the light specifications must be suitable for carnivorous plants.

Proper lighting is important to keep a Venus Flytrap healthy. During the active growing season, Venus flytraps should receive at least 12 hours of light. At least 4 hours of sunlight is recommended. The more direct sunlight the plant gets, the healthier it is.

Sunlight requirements for the Venus Flytrap

During outdoor growth, grow your flytrap in full sun. Allow 6 hours or more of direct sun for solid growth. If full sun exposure is not possible, plan for at least 4 hours of direct sun exposure with indirect light for the remainder of the day. Your plant won’t be as vibrant or robust as one grown in full sun, but you’ll be able to maintain its overall health.

Proper lighting is important to keep a Venus Flytrap healthy. I

Direct sunlight versus indirect sunlight

Venus flytraps can grow in a location where they receive direct sunlight for a few hours, followed by indirect sunlight for the rest of the day.

Six hours of direct sunlight is the recommended minimum for Venus flytraps. However, Venus flytraps can survive under indirect sunlight as long as they receive a combination of direct and indirect sunlight with at least 4-6 hours of direct sunlight.

Venus flytraps grow faster and appear much healthier when grown with more sun. Ideally, Venus flight traps receive more than 10 to 12 hours of sunshine.

Venus Flytrap Sunlight Tolerance

Venus flytraps cannot take too much sun. Therefore, prolonged exposure to light will only encourage growth and improve the plant – 12 hours of sunshine, especially during the growing season.

The only scenario where Venus flytraps might suffer from exposure to a large amount of sunlight is when temperatures are aggressively increased.

Prolonged exposure to light will only encourage growth and improve the plant

Venus flytraps can withstand high summer temperatures above 90F. However, once temperatures rise above 100 F, Venus flytraps can dry out. Therefore, place the Venus flytrap in a bowl of water on warm summer days or partially cover it when the temperature spikes.

Artificial lights and Venus flytraps

Venus flytraps require plenty of light to remain healthy, but such lighting does not require sunlight.

As a rule of thumb, Venus flight traps will remain healthy if exposed to sunlight or artificial light for more than 6 hours. When using artificial light, ensure long hours of light (10 hours) with LEDs or fluorescent lamps with over 1500 lumens.

Venus flytraps can be grown indoors, but it is difficult to provide adequate lighting with fluorescent lighting or LEDs. If you choose to use fluorescent lighting, keep the venus flytrap less than 8 inches from the light to ensure the venus flytrap receives enough light to stay healthy. The closer the plant gets to the light, the better.

A compact fluorescent lamp is a cost-effective choice when choosing a lighting system for your Venus Flytrap. Use bulbs marked “cool white” or “cool blue” in color temperature, which have a color temperature range of 6500 Kelvin, perfect for growing.

Because artificial light can be less effective than sunlight, you should strive to provide light for longer periods of time. Venus flytraps can also grow with sunlight and artificial light, e.g. B. in window sills or on a porch.

Best location for indoor Venus fly traps

Venus flytraps require constant and prolonged exposure to light throughout the year. Therefore, they should be strategically placed. For example, if you grow your plant on a windowsill, I recommend using artificial lights to complement its growth.

Venus Flytraps can grow on a windowsill as long as the windowsill receives over 6 hours of direct light. If the window sill does not meet this requirement, use artificial light as well.

Venus Flytraps can grow on a windowsill as long as the windowsill receives over 6 hours of direct light

A south-facing sunlight window is the best option. As long as the Venus Flytrap gets 4 hours of direct window sunlight, it should thrive. An east- or west-facing window sill can also work.

If you live in a basement or apartment with only north-facing windows, you may need artificial lighting for your plant to grow properly. Venus dies if grown under fluorescent lights with the same light every day all year round.

Best outdoor location for Venus Flytraps

The best part about growing your Venus flytraps is that you don’t have to worry about getting the right light. Instead, they receive all the light they need to be healthy.

You can put the plant in full sun right in front of your house.

It is best to provide protection from the midday sun in a dry and oppressive climate to avoid burning or drying Venus flytraps. Shading fabric will work well here too. Similarly, a dim light through the leaves of a shady tree offers some respite from the intense sun while providing adequate light for optimal health.

Acclimate your Venus Flytrap

Venus flytraps growing under sheltered or highly controlled conditions, such as B. indoors under artificial lighting or in a greenhouse, need some time to adapt to outdoor growing conditions.

Bring the plant into sunlight slowly to avoid burning and dying its leaves. Venus flytraps from sheltered environments need gradual exposure to sunlight to avoid sunburn.

Start by giving it an hour or two of direct sunlight for a few days. Then increase the sun exposure to a few hours for a few days and continue until you can leave it in the sun all day.

Alternatively, you can place the plant in full sun directly in front of your house. All leaves burn, turn yellow or brown, and eventually darken. However, the new leaves and traps are fully cured by sunlight.

How to strengthen your Venus Flytrap

There are a few ways to harden Venus flytraps. These include:

1) Place the plant in a spot that is protected from full sun but receives bright indirect sunlight. These locations include under a large tree that shades the area throughout the day, under a shade cloth, or under a deck where a certain dappled light still gets through.

2) Place the plant outside for a set period each morning early in the morning and then bring the plant back inside or to a more sheltered area. Start with an exposure time of 30 minutes and gradually increase the exposure time over a month until the plant is outside in full sun all day.

3) Place the plant outdoors in full sun provided it is early enough in the growing season and the sun is not too intense. Again, people in northern latitudes can cope with it much more easily than people in the south.

Can the Venus flytrap survive in low light conditions?

Under proper artificial lighting, Venus flytraps can live free from sunlight. Direct sunlight is ideal for Venus Flytraps, but fluorescent and LED lighting can meet the needs of these plants. It is recommended to provide artificial lighting indoors for 10 hours.

Direct sunlight is ideal for Venus flytraps.

Regardless of the climate and your living situation, you can grow Venus flytraps to be healthy. Artificial light allows anyone to grow a Venus Flytrap. If you can display your plants, do so. Venus flytraps grow outdoors with ample access to water, light, and insects. However, growing outdoors is not always an option.

Signs that your Venus Flytrap isn’t getting enough sunlight

Venus flytraps don’t last long unless they’re well lit. So these are some key signs to tell if your venus flytrap is suffering from light deficiency.

Large petioles: Venus flytraps occasionally produce large petioles to aid in photosynthesis. Wide petioles are a common sign of poor light exposure. However, it would be preferable to consider many different types of Venus Flytrap and some have thinner/wider blades.

Discoloration: Venus’ healthy flying traps display vibrant colors. Venus flytraps don’t have bright red traps unless they have access to a large amount of lighting. If Venus flytraps suddenly lose their color, it can indicate terrible growing conditions (too little light).

Droopy: Venus flytraps can sometimes look limp if they don’t have access to enough water or light.

Missing Traps: In extreme cases, with insufficient lighting, Venus flytraps stop growing in their leaves. The plant does not produce traps since its main purpose is photosynthesis. However, if the exposure to light is corrected, the plant will regrow leaves with traps.

bottom line

Proper lighting is essential to maintaining a healthy Venus flytrap. The more direct light the plant receives, the healthier it is.

Although they appear self-sufficient, Venus flytraps are notoriously difficult to maintain. This has little to do with the environment and everything to do with how woefully unprepared most people are to get their needs met. As a result, plants that normally live in their natural habitat for years only last a few months. The following guide is intended to illustrate how to care for Venus flytraps indoors and point out some of the most common care mistakes.

FAQ: Why is my Venus flytrap turning black?

If you’ve fed your Venus flytrap a tasty meal only for the trap to turn black and die in the days that follow, don’t panic!

Traps can turn black for many different reasons, and most are not fatal to the plant. I’ve listed 5 of the most common causes below.

1. Inappropriate food

Don’t feed your plant sausage, chocolate, or anything else it wouldn’t catch in the wild. This is a guaranteed way to make the trap rot. Cut off the dead leaf and feed your plant properly!

A good Venus flytrap menu: mealworms, bloodworms and crickets. View on Amazon.

When feeding your plant bugs, don’t give them anything larger than about 1/3 the size of the trap. If the insect is too large, or if there is a stray leg or antennae sticking out, it is likely that the trap will not be able to seal completely, which in turn will result in leaf death. Just cut it out and wait for new growth to replace the old trap.

2. Stress from poor growing conditions

If your growing conditions aren’t ideal, your plant’s traps can turn black every time they’re fed, or even if they haven’t been fed at all.

Traps that turn yellow before turning black – particularly those that have not been fed – are a common symptom of poor growing conditions.

Are you giving your plants appropriate water? Tap water and bottled water often contain high levels of dissolved minerals that can burn your plant’s roots. Purchase a TDS reader to test your water.

Is your plant getting enough light? Venus flytraps like full sun; If you grow them in a gloomy position, traps will turn black more often.

; If you grow them in a gloomy position, traps will turn black more often. Are you using suitable soil? Like most carnivorous plants, Venus flytraps require poor soil. Regular potting soil or something with fertilizer will damage your plant! Use peat moss mixed with non-lime horticultural sand and/or perlite (the classic carnivorous potting soil available at specialist nurseries and on Amazon) or pure peat moss – live or dried – which you can buy from The Sphagnum Shop. Use code TOMS10% to get 10% off your order.

You can read my complete guide to growing Venus flytraps here, or grab a copy of Peter D’Amato’s “bible” to carnivorous plants, The Savage Garden.

3. Overfeeding

Closing a trap and digesting an insect requires energy. If you feed every single trap on your plant — or worse, set off the traps for fun without giving them a meal — chances are some of the leaves will turn black and die.

This is unlikely to be fatal, so don’t panic. Your plant simply focuses its energy on producing new leaves. Endure feeding for a month or two, and in the future try to feed no more than 1 trap per week (especially for small plants). You can also try putting your plant outside on a sunny day so it can try to catch some food naturally.

Some growing advice I always give to new growers: Fertilizing your plants should be the very last thing on your list! There are more important things to tackle first if you want to be successful in growing carnivorous plants.

4. Hibernation

Like many other plants from temperate climates, Venus flytraps require a cold winter dormancy to survive long term. As daylight hours shorten and temperatures drop, it’s normal for some traps to blacken and die as your plant enters its hibernation phase. In the northern hemisphere, this period typically lasts between November and February.

By late fall, when your flytrap’s leaves have started to die back (and when you’ve taken care of all of its other growing needs!), chances are your plant is simply entering its dormant phase. This is perfectly normal and you can safely trim off dead leaves and reduce watering slightly until spring. Your plant will then start producing new traps as the days lengthen and temperatures rise. You can read more about the dormancy of the Venus Flytrap here.

5. Natural Life Cycle

If it is the oldest traps in the rosette that are turning black, or if the blackening trap has already caught and digested several insects, then this is probably a normal part of the trap’s life cycle. If your plant keeps putting out new growth to replace the old traps, don’t worry.

A healthy plant (Dionaea muscipula) that produces many new traps.

I hope this was useful – if you have any questions let me know in the comments. Happy growing!

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments provided by Disqus.

Disqus

Don’t worry. Just try to pull the traps apart. The worst case scenario is that a trap will die but the plant will be fine. If you separate them, then I would cut off the eaten trap. Anyway, the plant is fine.

expect. I thought the plant I got wasn’t good, but this article explained why it looks the way it does. I bought it at Lowe’s. I hope that with this help everything goes well. Thank you for all this great information. ”

…”

“I covered everything I wanted to know. This is my first time getting the plant and I had no idea what to do

Dionaea muscipula; Photo courtesy of Flickr cc/Marco Uliana

You can grow carnivorous plants in a variety of conditions, from natural bogs in your garden to a dish on a windowsill. The trick is to find out which carnivorous plants grow well in the conditions you have inside and outside your home. Carnivorous plants should never be collected in the field as most of them are relatively rare and threatened due to human population, agricultural land use and over-collection. If you are interested in growing carnivorous plants in your home, purchase the plants from a reputable breeder who will use tissue culture or vegetative means to grow the plant, or start from seed.

You can learn more about growing these common carnivorous plants

venus flytrap

American pitcher plant

sundew

Butterwort

When I was a kid, I thought Venus flytraps really came from the planet Venus. Their small two-part jaws with spiky fringed “teeth” seemed alien enough, but when an insect landed on that enticing pink center and the trap closed around the victim, well, that was totally out of this world! These carnivorous plants are quite fascinating and can be fun to grow indoors. Luckily, that’s not too difficult as long as you don’t mind catching some insect snacks for them every now and then. The unusual plants require slightly different care than other houseplants you’re probably used to, but if you create the right conditions, your Venus flytrap will soon become your new favorite plant.

KariHoglund/Getty Images

Where Venus flytraps grow

Rather than originating a planet from Earth, Venus flytraps (Dionaea muscipula) are perennials native to swampy coastal areas of North and South Carolina. They grow in moist, acidic soil in full sun but only survive winter outdoors in zones 8-10. Gardeners in colder winter climates should grow Venus flytraps in a moist environment, such as a B. in a terrarium that can be placed indoors in winter.

Venus flytrap care tips

The Venus flytrap thrives in poor, acidic soil that stays moist but still has good drainage. Avoid planting it in regular potting soil: a mixture of one-third sand and two-thirds sphagnum peat moss provides the best drainage and moisture retention. Do not add lime and never fertilizer to the soil.

Venus flytraps thrive best in bright but indirect light. It’s especially important not to put them in direct sunlight in the summer, as this can get too hot and the leaves can become crispy. If grown indoors under artificial lights, keep flytraps 4 to 7 inches away from fluorescent lights. If your plant’s traps don’t show a pink interior or if the leaves look long and scrawny, provide more light.

For the best Venus Flytrap care, keep the area moist and the soil moist, but don’t leave the plants in water all the time. Never give your plants what comes out of your faucet; it is usually too alkaline or too rich in minerals. Instead, rely on rain or use distilled water. Good air circulation is also important when growing Venus flytrap plants, so turn on a fan in the room you’re keeping them.

gin hamlet

What to feed a Venus Flytrap

What Do Venus Flytrap Plants Eat? The name says it all: their main food is flies or other small insects. The trick is that the prey has to be alive when it’s caught. Dead flies don’t work in Venus flytrap feeding; The insect has to move in the trap for it to close and start digesting the food. It also needs to be small enough for the trap to close tightly around it to keep bacteria out.

If you are growing the plants in an enclosed terrarium, the easiest feeding method for the Venus flytrap is to release small flies around the room. Eventually, the bugs will be attracted to the traps and consumed. Although flytraps are carnivores, they can go long periods (a month or two) without eating insects. If you grow them outdoors, they will naturally get enough to eat. If you grow the Venus Flytrap indoors, you will need to feed it bugs regularly. When feeding your flytrap, don’t feed it insects larger than one-third the size of the trap; Live flies might be difficult to feed, but small spiders, beetles, and caterpillars work, too.

Hibernation for Venus Flytraps

Like many other plants, Venus flytraps need a period of hibernation when they appear dead (the leaves may die back), but only dormancy. Keep the plant at 35 to 50°F. Don’t let terrariums freeze; The plants can die and the glass can break. Around the vernal equinox, as the days lengthen, warmth and light begin to increase.

Venus Flytrap Varieties

Plant breeders have worked with Venus flytraps and released a few strains, such as “Akai Ryu” ($15, Etsy), which has large burgundy red traps. These unusual strains are available at specialty garden centers or online retailers, like this Red Dragon Fly Trap ($23, Plant Delights Nursery).

A few things about Venus flytraps are obvious when you look at Little Shop of Horrors. You shouldn’t talk. They shouldn’t reach gigantic size. They certainly shouldn’t be growing teeth… and they certainly shouldn’t be able to remember things.

Audrey II remembered Seymour’s name – and the sweet taste of human flesh – which is why this vile plant was always ready to devour someone. Real Venus flytraps won’t sing to you to feed them or snap their jaws around your head, but they can remember. At least, biologists Hiraku Suda and Mitsuyasu Hasebe of the National Institute for Basic Biology in Okazaki, Japan, have been able to show how these hideous things remember to catch flies and other prey by genetically engineering them. The mutated flytraps then told them what they needed to know by simply glowing in the dark.

“The Venus flytrap was designed to be optimized to catch small animals without missing and not close unless it catches prey – not with other stimuli like rain, falling leaves or windblown sand ” said Hasebe, the co-leader of a study in Nature Plants with colleague Hiraku Suda, told SYFY WIRE.

What appear to be the jaws of Dionaea muscipula are actually leaves that quickly snare insects that are eventually dissected by the plant’s digestive fluids. This requires two stimuli within 20 seconds on the deceptively frightening-looking sensory hairs on the biting leaf. Then a second stimulus must be delivered to the same or a different hair for the leaves to close around an unsuspecting meal. Until now, the biological method that allowed Venus flytraps to remember the first stimulus from one of these hairs and relay it to the leaf (transforming the signal into another type of signal) was unknown.

Keep in mind that this monster has no brain or semblance of a nervous system.

At least Venus flytraps can’t transform into it. Photo credit: Warner Bros.

To see what happens when a stimulus is received, the scientists introduced a calcium sensor protein gene, GCaMP6. They would then administer a stimulus, followed by a second stimulus that would test whether calcium levels in the plant cells had increased. Previous studies had led to suspicion of the calcium ion Ca2+, which is not unexpected since calcium ions are required in many cellular processes. The first stimulus was delivered with a needle to a sensory hair. Immediately, the Ca2+ concentration in the leaf visibly increased within 0.02 seconds, and although it decreased in the few seconds thereafter, the leaf really began to glow as this concentration skyrocketed after the second stimulus.

“Before stimulation there are abundant Ca2+ ions outside the cells, while quite small amounts inside the cells. When cells recognize stimuli, Ca2+ enters cells outside of cells. When GCaMP6 binds to Ca2+, GCaMP6f generates fluorescence itself in the cells,” Hasebe said.

The trap only closed if the time between the stimuli remained below 30 seconds and a sufficiently high Ca2+ concentration was present. While the Venus flytrap doesn’t have a brain, if there are enough calcium ions, it will stick to short-term memory. Fluorescence spread from one leaf “jaw” to the other. It increased especially at the hairline, where there are sensory cells that tell the Venus flytrap when to grab a bug. While this carnivorous plant shows spikes in calcium with stimuli that prompt it to close its trap over prey, Hasebe says it may not have always been hungry for flies.

“Calcium waves are observed in non-carnivorous plants when plants are eaten by insects,” he said. “The ancestor of Dionaea may have recruited such pre-existing mechanisms to be used for functions other than carnivores.”

It took Suda several years of experimentation to figure out how the Venus flytrap could remember. When he noticed that a transgenic plant given the GCaMP6 gene glowed in the dark, he realized what might finally shed light on the plant’s mysterious memory. This discovery could be the basis for future research that could determine how plants evolved into carnivores.

So when will Little Shop of Horrors crawl out in anime form?

What about Phoenix, Arizona? I’m planning to go back there in a few years and was worried about continuing to grow flytraps. I’m sure it’s doable, but the question is, is it doable with a limited amount of time to devote to them? Summer days are regularly 105-115 and triple digit temperatures can easily last for 4 months. The sun is very, very, very direct with a daily UV index of 10 and higher. Humidity is zero most of the year until mid-late summer. It’s rarely very windy there during the day so that shouldn’t pose too much of a hazard, but even in full shade the air is usually around 100 degrees on hot summer days. Do you think a tray watering and maybe some sort of privacy screen would be enough to keep them from wilting or burning and keep them growing happily? A window sill might do the trick if it faces the right way. I wouldn’t be home to move or care for them during the day, so they would have to have some way of surviving on their own.

Insomnia could be the other problem. The shortest days in winter are just under 10 hours, but the temperature is very variable. Around Christmas there were lows in the high 30’s, low 40’s and highs in the high 50’s, low 60’s. But this week the lows are around 40 and the highs are around 80. Also, it typically dips below freezing several nights a year. Getting them to hibernate and stay there might be the hardest part.

My grow list

Searched:

S.leuco “HC White”

D. muscipula: “microdent”, “teeth”

C. follicularis: Lobster’s giant

When I was a kid, I thought Venus flytraps really came from the planet Venus. Their small two-part jaws with spiky fringed “teeth” seemed alien enough, but when an insect landed on that enticing pink center and the trap closed around the victim, well, that was totally out of this world! These carnivorous plants are quite fascinating and can be fun to grow indoors. Luckily, that’s not too difficult as long as you don’t mind catching some insect snacks for them every now and then. The unusual plants require slightly different care than other houseplants you’re probably used to, but if you create the right conditions, your Venus flytrap will soon become your new favorite plant.

KariHoglund/Getty Images

Where Venus flytraps grow

Rather than originating a planet from Earth, Venus flytraps (Dionaea muscipula) are perennials native to swampy coastal areas of North and South Carolina. They grow in moist, acidic soil in full sun but only survive winter outdoors in zones 8-10. Gardeners in colder winter climates should grow Venus flytraps in a moist environment, such as a B. in a terrarium that can be placed indoors in winter.

Venus flytrap care tips

The Venus flytrap thrives in poor, acidic soil that stays moist but still has good drainage. Avoid planting it in regular potting soil: a mixture of one-third sand and two-thirds sphagnum peat moss provides the best drainage and moisture retention. Do not add lime and never fertilizer to the soil.

Venus flytraps thrive best in bright but indirect light. It’s especially important not to put them in direct sunlight in the summer, as this can get too hot and the leaves can become crispy. If grown indoors under artificial lights, keep flytraps 4 to 7 inches away from fluorescent lights. If your plant’s traps don’t show a pink interior or if the leaves look long and scrawny, provide more light.

For the best Venus Flytrap care, keep the area moist and the soil moist, but don’t leave the plants in water all the time. Never give your plants what comes out of your faucet; it is usually too alkaline or too rich in minerals. Instead, rely on rain or use distilled water. Good air circulation is also important when growing Venus flytrap plants, so turn on a fan in the room you’re keeping them.

gin hamlet

What to feed a Venus Flytrap

What Do Venus Flytrap Plants Eat? The name says it all: their main food is flies or other small insects. The trick is that the prey has to be alive when it’s caught. Dead flies don’t work in Venus flytrap feeding; The insect has to move in the trap for it to close and start digesting the food. It also needs to be small enough for the trap to close tightly around it to keep bacteria out.

If you are growing the plants in an enclosed terrarium, the easiest feeding method for the Venus flytrap is to release small flies around the room. Eventually, the bugs will be attracted to the traps and consumed. Although flytraps are carnivores, they can go long periods (a month or two) without eating insects. If you grow them outdoors, they will naturally get enough to eat. If you grow the Venus Flytrap indoors, you will need to feed it bugs regularly. When feeding your flytrap, don’t feed it insects larger than one-third the size of the trap; Live flies might be difficult to feed, but small spiders, beetles, and caterpillars work, too.

Hibernation for Venus Flytraps

Like many other plants, Venus flytraps need a period of hibernation when they appear dead (the leaves may die back), but only dormancy. Keep the plant at 35 to 50°F. Don’t let terrariums freeze; The plants can die and the glass can break. Around the vernal equinox, as the days lengthen, warmth and light begin to increase.

Venus Flytrap Varieties

Plant breeders have worked with Venus flytraps and released a few strains, such as “Akai Ryu” ($15, Etsy), which has large burgundy red traps. These unusual strains are available at specialty garden centers or online retailers, like this Red Dragon Fly Trap ($23, Plant Delights Nursery).

The world is full of interesting things, not the least of which are plants, they have evolved many different species to grow, cope, survive and thrive in almost every environment on earth. From water retention to parasite growth, symbiosis to carnivorous behavior, plants are the best adaptators. This report compares two very interesting and almost opposite plants, the Venus Flytrap and the Saguaro Cactus.

habitat

The biggest difference between these two plants is their respective environments. The Venus Flytrap grows in warm, humid, swampy areas with more acidic soil, while the Saguaro grows best in dry, desert environments with much less water in comparison. However, the respective ranges of these particular plants are quite small, with the Venus Flytrap being restricted to the Carolinas and the Saguaro being concentrated in southern Arizona and part of Mexico. Both plants are sensitive to their surroundings, with the saguaro being the more hardy of the two. It can survive frost and drought, but nothing extreme. Conversely, the flytrap does not survive frost and withers without water. An interesting fact about the flytrap is that it does not survive well with the addition of fertilizer to its soil; it tends to wither and die.

size and structure

Another big difference between these two is the sizes. The Venus flytrap is very small, about the size of an overgrown weed (5 inches in diameter), while the saguaro cactus can grow to a staggering 50 feet tall and weigh up to seven tons, and in particularly wet seasons up to 90% of its weight is water . This amazing ability to retain water is due to its unique design, which allows the folded skin to expand to accommodate large volumes of water. The waxy cuticle prevents the loss of excess moisture and allows this plant to survive periods of drought. The cactus has between 13 and 20 ribs, similar to the ribs on a wooden boat, which give it its size and shape. The flytrap has many specialized leaves on its body called “traps”. These traps are used to catch insects and other prey, which will be discussed later. The fact that the flytrap has leaves is another key difference between the two as the cactus has no leaves.

method of feeding

Contrary to popular belief, the Venus flytrap actually engages in photosynthesis. Most people are under the impression that a flytrap gets all of its nutrients from the things it eats and if you left a flytrap in a dark room full of bugs, for example, it would survive, that’s wrong, Paul Mahoney, PhD ). The flytrap uses the creatures it eats as a source of nitrogen since the soil it lives in is very acidic. In addition, swampy areas are rich in insect life, which has resulted in a carnivorous trait through selective pressure to obtain missing nutrients. The saguaro cactus has developed a very different method of obtaining nutrients. It is a CAM plant, which means that it does not absorb CO 2 and photosynthesize during the day, but absorbs it at night to store water and turn it into malate, an acid. Then the malate is converted back into CO2 during the day and photosynthesis takes place. The cactus can also do something called “CAM idle,” which is an extraordinary way to survive a drought. The cactus simply constantly closes its stomata and survives through cellular respiration and photosynthesis, but recycles any gases it consumes, thereby storing vast amounts of water.

method of reproduction

The reproductive methods of these two plants are quite similar, if not identical. Both flower when they reach maturity, both can be either self-pollinated or pollinated by an outside force (insects, birds). Both grow some kind of fruit. However, there are differences. Not only can the flytrap reproduce sexually, but it also produces stolons, much like strawberry plants. These stolons can be cut off and give rise to new plants with identical genes. The saguaro survives best when growing near the base of another saguaro, as the adult cactus offers richer soil than the arid desert. Both plant seedlings are slow growers, with the cactus being comparatively slower, it can take up to 30 years to grow two feet tall. Depending on the conditions, the flytrap takes about six years to reach its full size.

Conclusion

Although these plants grow in vastly different environments, have different methods of nutrient acquisition, and are generally different, they are prime examples of evolutionary adaptation. The unique adaptations these plants have evolved are truly amazing and unique, from absorbing nutrients from bugs that consume them to self-preservation under extreme droughts, these two plants are truly amazing.

Fun Facts

“Carnivora”, an extract from the Venus Flytrap, can be used as an immune system booster

The Venus flytrap is a protected plant due to its small growing area and rapidly declining habitat

The saguaro cactus has a shallow root system, it spreads radially to maximize its water intake

Venus flytraps, like most other deciduous plants, go through a dormant period during which they shed their leaves and grow new ones in spring

If part of the insect remains outside the Venus flytrap, it will begin to mold and the trap will rot and thereby fall off

The saguaro cactus can develop a growth known as “monstrous” caused by damage to the cactus

Scientists are unsure how the Venus Flytrap closes, they know it is caused by the stimulation of “trigger hairs” in the trap itself (www.botany.org/bsa/misc/carn.html)

bibliography

wc.pima.edu/~bfiero/tucsonecology/plants/plants_photosynthesis.htm

www.storytrail.com/SabinoCanyon/sag.html

www.biology.ed.ac.uk/research/groups/jdeacon/desbiome/saguaro.htm

www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq2000.html

www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen06/gen06217.htm

www.carnivora.com

www.naturephoto-cz.com/photos/sevcik/peat-bog-pele–pele

www.arizonaplants.com/images/arizona_saguaro_cactus_c

The research examines the cellular process behind the plant’s quick bite.

Thomas Sumner, contributor

(ISNS) – Plants aren’t usually known for their speed, but the carnivorous Venus flytrap can close its pine-like leaves in a jiffy. Charles Darwin once described the Venus flytrap as “one of the most wonderful plants in the world”. But despite the plant’s notoriety, its locking mechanism remains a mystery 250 years after its discovery.

Biophysicists at the Ecole Polytechnique Universitaire de Marseille in France are studying the cellular process behind the Venus flytrap’s rapid response to prey. Researchers have already thrown out a popular explanation for the Venus flytrap’s rapid movement, which is that water movement within the plant causes its jaws to snap. They announced this finding in San Diego at a meeting of the American Physical Society’s Department of Fluid Dynamics.

“This is the first time anyone has studied how Venus flytraps move at the cellular level,” said biophysicist and lead researcher Mathieu Colombani. “We are looking for an explanation that is both biologically and physically possible.”

Venus flytraps are native to the coastal bogs of North and South Carolina. Peat soil lacks the right nutrients – especially nitrogen and phosphorus – for plant growth. The plant manages to survive in this harsh environment by trapping and digesting insects to meet its nutritional needs.

“You see a lot of carnivorous plants in these bogs that rely on animals and insects for nutrients,” said biophysicist Jacques Dumais of Universidad Adolfo Ibanez in Chile.

When an insect is drawn into one of the plant’s traps, it tickles a small, hair-like outgrowth on the inside of the leaf. When two different outgrowths are triggered in quick succession, a rapid process triggers the leaves to close, trapping the insect in just a tenth of a second.

As the insect tries to escape, it triggers more growths, causing the Venus flytrap to tighten its grip and release enzymes to digest its snack. Each “mouth” can only snap four or five times before dying, whether catching something or not.

In 2005, scientists discovered the large-scale principle behind the plant’s bite. Each leaf bounces from convex to concave as it closes, like a bouncing popper toy or an inverted contact lens.

“A Venus flytrap is like two popper toys put together,” Colombani said. “Once the process has started, the two sheets snap together very quickly.”

When the leaves of the plant are separated, the trap is in a stable equilibrium and stays open. Once the plant’s prey jumps the trap, an internal process in the plant disrupts the system, causing the two leaves to snap together quickly. Identifying this internal process is the focus of Colombani’s research.

“The movements of the Venus flytrap are both a biological and a physical process,” Dumais said. “Colombani’s work is a truly wonderful attempt at understanding everything from start to finish.”

There are currently several theories as to how the leaves of the Venus flytrap become unstable.

The researchers were able to rule out a popular theory that suggests that cells on the inside of the plant’s leaves transfer water to cells on the outside of the leaves. The resulting change in cell size would change the shape of the leaves, possibly causing them to quickly destabilize and collapse. Colombani’s team studied the change in pressure in a single cell when the leaves snapped shut.

“It’s difficult because you have to focus on a single cell and the leaves of the plant are moving very quickly,” Colombani said.

To solve this problem, the researchers used creative blue toothpaste to glue one of the Venus flytrap leaves to an anchored plastic fork. This arrangement prevented the sheet from moving and allowed focusing on a single cell. They found that the movement of water between the inner and outer cells was far too slow to account for the plant’s rapid movements.

“It takes a few seconds for each cell to relax, which means it would take about two minutes for the facility to shut down,” Colombani said. “That doesn’t seem like a good candidate for a mechanism that takes less than a second.”

Researchers are currently testing another popular explanation, which says the elasticity of the plant’s cell walls changes, causing the leaves to destabilize and snap together. Colombani says the mechanisms behind the remarkable plant’s bite could have potential applications in medicine or other fields.

Thomas Sumner is a science writer based in Santa Cruz, California.