Venus flytraps: Makes a meal of insects
Dionaea muscipula
Family: Droseraceae
Conservation status: Vulnerable
Perhaps the best-known carnivorous plant, Venus flytraps are native to nutrient-poor subtropical wetlands of the eastern U.S. and supplement their diet by capturing and digesting insects (and occasionally small amphibians) with their modified leaves.
The plant’s botanical name derives from the Latin “muscipula,” which means mousetrap or flytrap. Sensitive hairs on the inner surface of the leaves require multiple contacts before triggering the trapping mechanism. This assures that the plant doesn’t waste energy on prey that provides little reward. Digestion takes about 10 days, leaving just a husk of the insect’s chitin skeleton.
Dionaea muscipula is significant in popular culture and has appeared in works including Little Shop of Horrors and The Addams Family. Carowinds amusement park in North Carolina even has a Venus fly trap-inspired waterslide.