The Atlas›Venus Flytrap

Venus Flytrap

Dionaea muscipula · Venus' Flytrap

It grows wild on roughly 70 miles of sunny, waterlogged Carolina bog and nowhere else on Earth. To survive that starved soil it traps insects for nitrogen, counting touches on the trigger hairs inside each two-lobed trap before it snaps shut.

Tricky to keep Pet-safe Full sun

Family

Droseraceae

Origin

The Carolinas, USA

In the wild

Sunny acidic bog

Indoors

10–15 cm across

Growth

Slow

With pets

Non-toxic

Where it's from

From sun-blasted, waterlogged bog that burns every few years. A windowsill is the wrong place for it in almost every way.

The coastal Carolinas, USA

Venus Flytrap in the wild — Growing wild in an open, sunny bog, rosettes of red-throated traps low against the wet ground.iNaturalist · CC0

A 70-mile home

It is native only to the coastal plain around Wilmington, in a handful of counties and nowhere else in the world.

It needs fire

Its bogs burned every three to five years, clearing the shade. Stop the fires and taller plants crowd it out.

Outdoors: zones 7–10

Hardy in its mild native range, but it needs a cool winter rest, not a deep freeze.

It counts before it bites

The trap does not snap at the first touch. It is keeping score.

Each trap is lined with tiny trigger hairs. One touch does nothing. A second touch within about twenty seconds fires the trap shut, and further touches from the struggling insect tell the plant to seal and digest. The delay stops it wasting a closure on a raindrop or a speck of grit.

Two touches to close

It waits for a second trigger so it only shuts on something alive and moving.

Traps wear out

Each trap opens and closes only a limited number of times before it dies, so poking one for fun shortens its life.

It eats for nitrogen, not energy

It is a normal sun-powered plant; the insects only supply the nutrients its poor bog cannot.

How to keep it

It breaks every houseplant habit. Tap water, fertiliser and a warm winter will all quietly kill it.

LightFull, direct sun

At least six hours of direct sun. Too little light gives floppy, weak, all-green traps.

WaterMineral-free, kept wet

Distilled, rainwater or reverse-osmosis only. Stand it in a tray of water; tap and bottled water kill it.

HumidityModerate to highIt does not need misting or a terrarium as long as the soil stays wet.

Temperature21–35°C in summerIt needs a cold winter dormancy at roughly 0–10°C for several months. Skipping it is a slow death.

SoilPeat and sand, no nutrientsA lean acidic mix, classically half sphagnum peat and half silica sand. Never use potting soil or compost.

FeedingNever feed the soilNo fertiliser, ever. It feeds itself by catching insects, and even that is not required to keep it alive.

DifficultyTrickyEasy to kill with normal houseplant habits, easy to keep once you copy its bog.

With petsNon-toxicListed non-toxic by the ASPCA. The trap is far too weak to harm a pet; the bigger risk is to the plant.

PropagationDivision or seedSplit the rhizome in spring, or grow from seed over four to five years. Most shop plants are cloned in a flask.

RepottingEvery 1–2 yearsInto fresh mineral-free mix, best as it wakes from dormancy in late winter.

What the data says

The numbers behind a $5 plant that is Vulnerable in the wild.

What it costs

A supermarket impulse buy, kept cheap because it can be cloned by the thousand in tissue culture.

$5–10

Named, giant or red cultivars run roughly $25 to $75 and up. No collector bubble, just novelty.

IUCN · Vulnerable

In the wild

Common in pots, Vulnerable in the wild. The split is the whole story of this plant.

Habitat drainage, fire suppression and poaching have hit the wild population hard. North Carolina made digging one from the wild a felony in 2014. Buying a nursery plant grown from a flask does no harm; stealing one from its Carolina bog is a crime.

Wild plants left since 1979

NaN+wild plants by 2019, down from an estimated 4.5 million in 1979, a fall of more than 93 percent.

When it sulks

What the symptom is telling you.

Black, mushy trapsUsually mineral burn from tap water or fertiliser, or simple die-off of old traps.

Floppy, all-green trapsNot enough light. It wants full, direct sun.

Traps will not closeAn old trap, too cold, or one triggered too many times. Each trap is good for only so many closures.

Whole plant collapses in winterThat is dormancy, not death. It dies back to the rhizome; keep it cool and barely moist.

Slow decline over a year or twoDormancy was skipped by keeping it warm all year round.

Varieties & company

The varieties

TypicalAkai Ryu (Red Dragon)South West GiantB52Dente

Pairs with · keep apart from

SarraceniaSundewsBog carnivoresPothosMonsteraSucculents