A voracious carnivore. An expert trapper. A deadly siren.
The swamps of North Carolina are home to one of the most effective predators
in the world. And it’s a plant. This is the Venus Flytrap.
Hi I'm Danielle Dufault, but you guys already knew that!
I'm here to introduce the new host for Floralogic,
Tasha the Amazon. Hey guys I'm Tasha the Amazon, artist, producer, low-key-high-key plant nerd.
I'm super excited to be the host of Floralogic and do some weird plant exploration with you guys
The Venus flytrap is possibly the most popular carnivorous plant on the planet,
even though it only grows in a small swampy area in North Carolina.
At first sight the Venus flytrap looks like a regular garden variety swamp plant,
but it does something few other plants can do: It catches insects by attracting
them with sweet goo and shiny colours. The tips of its leaves can be bright
like a flower and they emanate an irresistible, ripe fruity smell.
Attracted by the sight and smell, when a prey steps onto the open leaves of the flytrap
they touch tiny sensitive hairs on its surface. If two hairs are touched within a few seconds of
each other, it triggers a chain reaction which causes the leaf to close, trapping the prey.
It’s a bit like a bear trap, but it can swallow its prey whole.
The leaf has interlocking finger-like structures called cilia that, when closed,
transform the leaf into a hermetically sealed stomach. This prevents the prey
from escaping and keeps fungus and bacteria from getting in and potentially damaging the plant.
Then, digestive enzymes are released and the prey’s soft tissue
gets liquified and absorbed by the plant for up to two weeks.
At the same time, antiseptic juices are secreted to keep the prey from rotting.
As cool as their hunting strategy is, isn’t it a bit overkill? After all,
millions of trees do just fine without having to trap bugs. The secret is in the soil.
Venus flytraps, and most other carnivorous plants, live in areas with very nutrient-poor soil.
In this case, they’re native to boggy and swampy areas. So, instead of getting their nitrogen
from the soil through their roots, they get it from animal protein through their leaves. Yum.
Despite their name, Venus flytraps don’t specialize in flies.
They actually prefer bigger land insects such as beetles, spiders,
and even ants. They’re bigger and thus it’s more energy-efficient for
flytraps to catch one of them than to catch multiple small flying insects.
Equally as important, they don’t trap the insects that pollinate them,
like sweat bees and longhorn beetles, as they play a crucial role in their reproduction.
Let’s feed it a little worm and see it likes it. Oh yeah, it loves it.
The other part of their name comes from their supposed similarity to female genitalia.
It seems the scientist who named them was very unfamiliar with female anatomy.
Back to energy efficiency, it costs a lot of energy to close a leaf.
That’s why they have multiple trigger hairs to prevent an accidental closure
when hit by a drop of water or a falling leaf. Nobody knows exactly the mechanism they use to
close their leaves, but it’s hypothesized that it’s due to a rapid flux of ions and water
that move in and out of cells. This changes the shape of the leaf turning it into a trap.
But not all carnivorous plants close their leaves like this.
Some are happy to snare their prey in thick goop
or to trick them into falling into pitchers. In fact, despite the absence of a fossil
record there’s a widespread belief that their ancestors looked more like mouse sticky traps.
The development of a closing leaf was probably to prevent prey from escaping
or being stolen by other predators. And the development of trigger hairs
occurred as a way to prevent accidental closures.
Despite all these adaptations they’re not doing that great in the wild.
Their numbers have decreased by 95% over the past 40 years due to climate change and habitat loss.
They’ve been protected in North Carolina since the 1950s, and since 2014
poaching wild flytraps can land you in jail for up to two years.
Luckily vast numbers survive in homes and greenhouses.
Unlike our animal episodes, in Floralogic we can actually encourage you to get one.
If you bring one home make sure you plant it in peat Moss and water it with distilled water.
Some dissolved solids in tap water such as salts and minerals might damage or kill the plant.
So, take good care of it and enjoy your carnivorous plant baby!