NATURALIST'S 



NOTEBOOK 



Venus' Flytrap: 



North Carolina's Own Predatory Plant 



By Odile Fredericks 



Every now and then you come 

 across an oddball. An individualist who 

 forces you to rethink how the world 

 works and fires your imagination. 



For at least the past 200 years, such 

 a creature has lived quietly in the 

 swamps of coastal North Carolina. 

 Naturally occurring nowhere else on the 

 planet, it lives within a 

 50- to 75-mile radius of 

 Wilmington. The Venus' 

 flytrap is the stuff that 

 horror stories are made of 

 — a plant that bites back. 



The inspiration of B- 

 movies such as Little Shop 

 of Horrors, Venus' 

 flytraps have long been 

 thought to inhabit tropical 

 jungles, a misconception 

 fed by rumors centuries 

 old. 



"For a long time, 

 early explorers came back with fantastic 

 stories of man-/woman-eating plants," 

 says Robert Gardner, a curator with the 

 N.C. Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill. 

 "They probably sowed the seeds, so to 

 speak, of carnivorous plants being from 

 exotic places. Some people even think 

 it's from Venus — that is a far-off 

 place!" 



The age-old fascination revolves 

 around a plant that refuses to act like 



one. The Venus' flytrap does not need to 

 capture insects because it photosynthe- 

 sizes, but it snaps them anyway. 

 In the nutrient-poor soils of its home 

 in the bogs and savannas, bugs provide 

 that little something extra. 



"Anything it catches is used as a 

 vitamin supplement," Gardner says. 

 "It won't die without insects, it just 

 prospers a little better." 



DID YOU KNOW? 



The flytrap is activated only after 

 the second stroke to its trigger hairs, 

 preventing raindrops or debris 

 from springing it shut. 

 Some say that the flytrap not only 

 has a memory but knows how to count 



Although other flesh-eating plants 

 such as pitcher plants and butterworts 

 have more passive or gradual methods 

 of ensnaring their prey, Venus' flytraps 

 act instantaneously, says Marj Boyer, a 

 botanist with the N.C. Department of 

 Agriculture, which monitors the plant. 



"This is the most active of carnivo- 

 rous plants," she says. "The Venus' 

 flytrap is the only one you can really see 

 in action." 



Charles Darwin himself thought 

 them irresistible for their movement — 

 a plant that seemed to bridge the 

 evolutionary gap. He performed 

 experiments on them, declaring them 

 one of the world's most wonderful 

 plants, says Mike Dunn, coordinator of 

 teacher education for the N.C. State 

 Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh. 

 Discovered in North Carolina in 

 1760 by Gov. Arthur 

 Dobbs, the Venus' flytrap 

 has been researched more 

 recently in Germany for 

 possible cancer-fighting 

 properties thought to lie 

 in its digestive enzymes. 



The plant captures its 

 prey in a manner that 

 recalls a medieval torture 

 chamber. The traps are 

 leaves that look like 

 partially opened clam 

 shells fringed by trigger 

 hairs. Unsuspecting 

 insects that wander inside — perhaps 

 enticed by nectar or the red color that 

 some traps sport — may stroke a hair 

 and take no notice. Their second touch, 

 however, spells doom. The trap clamps 

 down, hairs overlapping like the steel 

 teeth on an animal trap. The spines hold 

 larger insects in, allowing smaller ones 

 to escape. 



If suitable prey remains, the plant 

 gradually closes, crushing the insect and 



The N.C. Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill has Venus' flytraps on display, and they will be featured 

 in the expanded Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, scheduled to open in June 1999. 



18 AUTUMN 1997 



