Distributioncheap venus flytraps
Carnivorous plants live all over the world but Venus' Fly Traps are native only to select boggy areas in North and South Carolina. They are concentrated in an area of about an 100 mile radius around the town of Wilmington marked on the map below.
Because of people's fascination with these plants, they have been collected from the wild. This and the destruction of their habitat has made them an endangered species.
Structurecheap venus flytraps
The diagram opposite shows the structure of the typical Venus Fly Trap. The leaves are arranged in a rosetted arrangement generally lying flat on the ground but often growing long and upright in the main growing season. The leaves sprout from a short usually white underground stem or rhizome. The rhizome lies roughly horizontally in the ground with the growing end angled downwards. New leaves bud off the front of the growing end while older leaved die at the back, resulting in the plant gradually progressing forward in its substrate. The roots of the Venus Fly Trap grow out from the sides and bottom of the rhizome from between the bases of the leaves at a number of regions as individual threads that branch very little if at all.
The leaves themselves can be divided into three distinct regions. The outer part of the leaf forms the trap itself. While the inner part of the leaf known as the petiole connects to the rhizome. Linking these two main parts is a short cylindrical section that is continuous with the mid rib of the trap and the petiole.
The flowers of the Venus Fly Trap are small and white and are held high above the plant on a flower stalk that is dispropotionately large in comparison to the plant and involves a large investment in energy to grow.
Trapping Mechanismcheap venus flytraps
The leaves of Venus' Fly Trap open wide and on them are short, stiff hairs called trigger or sensitive hairs. When anything touches these hairs enough to bend them, the two lobes of the leaves snap shut trapping whatever is inside.
The trap will shut in less than a second. The trap doesn't close all of the way at first. It is thought that it stays open for a few seconds in order to allow very small insects to escape because they wouldn't provide enough food. If the object isn't food, e.g., a stone, or a nut, the trap will not try and digest it and reopen in about twelve hours.
When the trap closes over live food, the cilia. finger-like projections, keep larger insects inside. After a few minutes the trap constricts tightly around the insect and secretes digestive juices, much like those in your stomach. It dissolves the soft, inner parts of the insect, but not the tough, outerpart called the exoskeleton.
At the end of the digestive process, which takes from five to twelve days, the trap reabsorbs the digestive fluid and then re-opens. The left over parts of the insect, the exoskeleton, blow away in the wind or are washed away by rain. The time it takes for the trap to re-open depends on the size of the insect, temperature, the age of the trap, and the number of times it has gone through this process.
The lobe manufactures digestive juices and an antiseptic juice. This keeps the insect from decaying over the few days it is in the trap and purifies prey that it captures. People still do not understand fully how the trap closes. The Venus' Fly Trap does not have a nervous system or any muscles or tendons. Scientists theorize that it moves from some type of fluid pressure activated by an actual electrical current that runs through each lobe.
